WVU finding its rhythm as of late

“It was a great program win on Saturday,” said WVU head coach Josh Eilert of his club’s triumph over the then 14-2 Jayhawks. “It was something we needed in order for us to get our confidence rolling and move forward, especially going into a two-game road swing (Jan. 23 at UCF and Jan. 27 at Oklahoma State).”

Now sitting with a 7-11 overall record and a 2-3 Big 12 mark, the Mountaineers are playing with a new-found confidence, even if it was late in arriving.

“Almost any opponent we play has played at least 15 or more games together. With all the changes to our roster, we didn’t have time to develop (that chemistry),” noted Eilert in a video press conference Monday morning.

“Winning two of the last three against top 25 opponents can go a long ways for us in terms of our confidence and building our chemistry. Everyone is starting to learn their roles and what it’s going to take for us to be successful as a team.”

Developing that team chemistry has been a challenge for Eilert since the day he took over as WVU’s head coach in June following the sudden departure of veteran Bob Huggins after his DUI arrest. Four Mountaineer players who were expected to return quickly hit the transfer portal, and Eilert had to fill those holes with late additions.

That revolving roster was bad enough but then added in were the extended early-season absences of Akok Akok (medical condition), Kerr Kriisa (NCAA suspension), and both RaeQuan Battle and Noah Farrakhan (awaiting a Federal court order to allow the two multi-time transfers eligibility this season), and things got off to a difficult start. When all those pieces were becoming available, West Virginia suffered another blow, as senior center Jesse Edwards broke his wrist in mid-December and was forced out of the lineup.

Edwards has now been cleared to return, and in fact, he may see action at UCF (11-6/2-3) Tuesday (7 p.m., ESPN+).

Certainly Edwards' return is a huge positive for the Mountaineers, as Eilert has not had his entire roster available this season … until now.

“Hopefully this is a smooth transition,” stated WVU’s head coach. “Certainly, Pat Suemnick (who has taken over a lot of minutes in the post with Edwards out the last four weeks) has done an absolutely phenomenal job, especially these last three or four games (topped by a career-high 20 points in the win over Kansas) in filling that void.

“It’s a fluid situation, and we’re not sure if he’ll go tomorrow or not,” added Eilert of Edwards’ status on Tuesday in Orlando. “As well as Pat is playing, we don’t feel we have to force the issue.”

Edwards, Battle, Kriisa, Farrakhan and Akok have not yet all played in a game together, though that will almost certainly change in the very near future.

“I saw them together in preseason practices, and I was very, very excited about them all playing,” explained Eilert of the group of incoming transfers. “I thought we had some real good depth. I’ve seen them together, and if you go back to my early interviews, I probably had a big smile on my face thinking those guys were going to be with us from day one, but that just wasn’t the case.

“It’s a special unit when you get all those guys together.”

With Edwards expected back soon, the Mountaineers will finally have all their weapons available for a club that is starting to find its rhythm.

“I think we’re trending in the right direction, and we’re getting closer to having our whole roster,” stated Eilert. “We have to keep our momentum going.”