West Virginia Basketball: 2023-24 season preview for the Mountaineers
By Joey Loose
There has been no shortage of attention on Morgantown throughout a tumultuous offseason. It wasn’t enough that most of the roster was replaced with new faces, mostly through the Transfer Portal, but Bob Huggins made national headlines on several occasions, including when he was replaced as head coach after 16 years at West Virginia Basketball.
In steps Josh Eilert as interim head coach, leading what will certainly be a season in flux for the Mountaineers. It’s not yet known what direction this program will head after this upcoming season, with the potential of a nationwide coaching search. For now, the program is in the hands of Eilert, who has never been a head coach at any level but has been with the Mountaineers under Huggins for the last sixteen seasons, albeit mostly as a staffer, not a full-time assistant coach.
As previously mentioned, this roster will look very different this upcoming season and that’s nothing new for this program. The Mountaineers introduced plenty of new faces and made a return trip to the NCAA Tournament back in March. Despite finishing just 7-11 in a Big 12 jam packed with talent, West Virginia secured a 9-seed in the Big Dance and bounced back nicely after finishing below .500 in 2022.
With all five starters and their Hall of Fame head coach all gone, West Virginia is left picking up the pieces and reloading for this upcoming year. With four new schools in the Big 12, things will be even more interesting for the Mountaineers this year. We’ll look closely at all of their offseason additions, but can a roster with so many moving parts really gel in a league as tough as the Big 12?
What will it take for Eilert to earn the full-time job at West Virginia? Is that even possible in a tough league with a roster built through the Transfer Portal yet again? We’ll be answering all of these questions and more today as we take a deep dive into the Mountaineers program. Ahead we’ll look closely at the roster, the schedule, and what exactly we can foresee West Virginia accomplishing this year after a bizarre offseason.