West Virginia Basketball: Transfer domino effect ends with landing Quinn Slazinski

How did West Virginia Basketball end up landing former St. John’s commit Quinn Slazinski? Well, a decision by a Tennessee player played a role in this one?

West Virginia Basketball has gotten a lot of bad luck this offseason, mainly thanks to the Bob Huggins situation that caused a roster exodus. Kentucky proved to be the big beneficiary of that, landing former Mountaineer starting forward, Tre Mitchell. That left the Big 12 program without a starting-caliber four-man until they landed Quinn Slazinski from St. John’s.

It became the shortest time a player entered the portal, as Slazinski was in there for fewer than 24 hours. However, it made sense for him to pick West Virginia since the available minutes are clearly there. He’s a 6’8 forward that started his career at Louisville before going to Iona and Coach Rick Pitino. He averaged 11.3 ppg and 5.7 rpg in seven games with an injury cutting his season short.

Slazinski had committed to St. John’s this offseason as one of the earlier commits. However, other forwards had since followed, including Chris Ledlum. He was a star at Harvard and transferred over to Tennessee this offseason. However, his potential for minutes was cut when Josiah-Jordan James opted to return for a 5th season to the Vols.

Once that happened, Ledlum became expendable, going to the Red Storm and putting Slazinski in the same situation. But the Mountaineers ended up benefitting the most from what James did, eventually landing a power forward of their own to take into the next season.

After this move, West Virginia Basketball has 10 scholarship players and three roster spots to fill. The biggest priorities are a wing (maybe Jose Perez returns from the portal?) and at least another big man to back up center Jesse Edwards. If they can find a way to manage that, the roster will be in solid shape to enter the 2023-24 season.