NCAA Basketball: Duke, Gonzaga, and WVU rise in latest WTE ’23-24 power rankings

19. West Virginia Mountaineers

When the offseason started, the Mountaineers would’ve been a projected bottom-half team in the Big 12. They were losing several senior pieces, including leading scorer Erik Stevenson and starting wing Emmitt Matthews. They do bring back Tre Mitchell (11.7 ppg and 5.5 rpg) for a 5th year and Coach Bob Huggins seems to have found his youth, being one of the most aggressive folks out there in the transfer portal.

They already had Manhattan transfer and former MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Jose Perez, joined by Omar Silerio, who averaged 10.9 ppg at Hofstra in the year prior. The next guard they added was Kerr Kriisa, who was the starter on an Arizona program that won 59 games in the past two years. He’s averaged over five assists this year and has two career triple-doubles but shot just 36% from the field.

West Virginia’s next move was its best, landing Syracuse transfer, Jesse Edwards. The 6’11 center averaged 14.5 ppg and 10.3 rpg, along with 2.7 blocks per game. He was both on the All-ACC and All-ACC Defensive team and gives the team a massive upgrade on the offensive end next to Mitchell.

Most recently, the Mountaineers added RaeQuan Battle, who averaged 17.7 ppg at Montana State. He’s another 5th-year senior guard that’s a great athlete and adds to the rotation of guards that may or may not work at the Big 12 level. But the odds are good that at least one of them breaks out.