Big 12 Basketball: Ranking all 16 programs after adding Arizona, ASU, Colorado and Utah
By Joey Loose
9. West Virginia
Currently led by interim head coach Josh Eilert, West Virginia is certainly in a period of flux at the moment. The resignation of longtime head coach Bob Huggins was a recent black eye for a program that’s had ups and downs in recent seasons but has largely been a successful team since joining the Big 12 just eleven years ago.
West Virginia had some fantastic years in the Big East, including the Final Four in 2010, and appeared in three Sweet Sixteens in their first six years as members of the Big 12. The last half decade has been less kind to this program and has included a pair of finishes under .500 and a pair of trips to the NCAA Tournament. West Virginia danced this past year despite finishing just 7-11 in conference play, though of course things will look very different in the years ahead.
We don’t know the direction this program will go, whether they give Eilert the full-time job or high a more prominent coach in the months ahead. We do know that West Virginia has leaned heavily on the Transfer Portal and even after Huggins’ dismissal remains an attractive place for recruits and transfers to land, even if the results haven’t always been there in recent years.
The very fabric of the Big 12 has been changing and it’s clear that the same holds true in West Virginia. This is a program with seven trips to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in the last two decades, and one that didn’t back down from a strong Big 12 in their early years in the league. There will certainly be some growing pains in the years ahead, but we can expect West Virginia as near-regular contenders again.