West Virginia Basketball: Pros and cons of reported head coaching candidates

Options connected to AD Baker – Ron Everhart and Ben McCollum

It’s a tough decision for the AD to make, with the ability to make either a safe or risky pick. There’s also a real possibility that none of the current D-I head coaches are willing to leave their current jobs. The one available for the Mountaineers is assistant Everhart, who was a head coach at McNeese State, Northeastern, and Duquesne, before spending the past decade with West Virginia Basketball.

Everhart is capable and can stabilize the roster for the time being. Plus, he can be the interim option and allow the program to not only wait a year until the normal coaching carousel timetable but also get first dibs. There’s also the chance that his presence could keep the roster together but Everhart doesn’t have the kind of resume that would keep the newcomers around and not in the portal.

The biggest risk would be McCollum, the head coach of D-II program, at Northwest Missouri State. Baker was the AD there so that’s the connection. It’s not unheard of for a D-II coach to take a job but it’s almost always at a lower-level mid-major program. Going from Northwest Missouri State to West Virginia would be one of the biggest coaching leaps ever and it would effectively tie the two together. If one doesn’t work out, the other would follow in a new regime.

Seeing the success of the likes of Tobin Anderson of Fairleigh Dickinson and Bart Lundy of Milwaukee makes the inherent risk of a D-II guy feel less risky. Still, McCollum would get the job because of the AD and not his natural resume. But if the current D-I guys all turn it down, then he’d be a suitable option.