Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Eilert Bringing A Different Offensive Approach To Mountaineers This Season
September 28, 2023 11:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Blog
| 2023-24 Mountaineer Roster | ||
|---|---|---|
| No., Player, Class | Pos. | HT |
| 13, Akok Akok, Sr. | F | 6-10 |
| 21, RaeQuan Battle, Sr. | G | 6-5 |
| 5, Jeremiah Bembry, RFr. | G | 6-5 |
| 7, Jesse Edwards, Sr. | F | 6-11 |
| 1, Noah Farrakhan, Sr. | G | 6-1 |
| 22, Josiah Harris, So. | F | 6-7 |
| 2, Kobe Johnson, Jr. | G | 6-3 |
| 3, Kerr Kriisa, Sr. | G | 6-3 |
| 9, Ofri Naveh, Fr. | F | 6-6 |
| 0, Jose Perez, Sr. | G | 6-5 |
| 43, Ali Ragab, Jr. | C | 7-0 |
| 11, Quinn Slazinski, Sr. | F | 6-9 |
| 24, Patrick Suemnick, Jr. | F | 6-8 |
| 14, Seth Wilson, Jr. | G | 6-2 |
He wants his guys to push the ball, play faster and score more points.
"Offensively, we kind of just scrapped everything and started over," Eilert admitted earlier this week. "Everybody has zero foundation in what we're doing, so nobody is ahead of the ballgame. We have four returners (five counting Jose Perez), and if I kept everything, they would have a little more to go off, but I told them we're starting fresh. Everybody is at the same starting line."
Eilert said some detailed discussions with assistant coach De'Sean Butler led him to change things up.
"Da'Sean spent a lot of time in the NBA, and we've done a lot of things with our spacing, keeping our corners filled and keeping the ball in the right hands," Eilert said. "We put in a lot of sets so far, and now we're looking to put in some continuity so they can flow out of the sets. It's not the prettiest thing right now, but hopefully, in a month's time it will be a well-oiled machine."
It makes sense Eilert is hitting the offensive reset button with a roster that has almost completely been overhauled since the end of last season.
When the coaching transition took place in June, West Virginia saw seven players from last year's roster enter the transfer portal. Only returners Seth Wilson and Pat Suemnick played in last March's 67-65 NCAA Tournament loss to Maryland in Birmingham, Alabama.
The new guys on the team, beginning with Syracuse transfer Jesse Edwards, are longer and leaner than the players the Mountaineers have had in recent years.
The 6-foot-11, 240-pound Edwards is a major talent who will attract the interest of NBA scouts this winter. He averaged 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game last year for the Orange and was ranked No. 3 among available transfer portal players by ESPN.com. Edwards headlines a transfer portal class that is ranked No. 1 in the country by On3 and No. 2 by 24/7 Sports.
"Jesse is as long a rim-runner out of the pick and roll as we've ever had," Eilert said. "Those guys who can handle the ball and throw it up to him are going to rack up some assists with him putting pressure on the rim."
Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa will be the guy most likely passing it to Edwards. Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists last year with an average of 5.1 per game and he also averaged 9.9 points, scoring a career-high 24 points against Utah Tech. Kriisa was rated 17th by On3 and 43rd by ESPN.com among transfers.
"We are going to have to beg Kerr to be a little more aggressive in terms of looking to take his shot because he's really a pass-first guy," Eilert said.
Having those two players stick with West Virginia when the entire team was basically free agents in July really stabilized the Mountaineer program.
"Any time you look at championship teams, they have a really good point guard and a really good big, and then a lot of good pieces around them. That was my main concern keeping Jesse and Kerr and having those guys to build around," Eilert explained.
Montana State transfer RaeQuan Battle is another critical piece to the puzzle. If his transfer waiver is approved, Eilert believes Battle can be a potential difference maker.
Battle, who began his collegiate career at Washington, averaged 17.7 points per game last season at Montana State and scored a season-high 32 points against Sacramento State. He shot 35.3% from 3-point range and his 6-foot-5 frame can give WVU some versatility in the backcourt.
Eilert believes Battle would have fit in perfectly with West Virginia's "Press Virginia" teams a few years ago.
"RaeQuan is special," he said. "He's probably our most natural athlete. He really scores the ball well, and he can get his own shot."
That also applies to the 6-foot-5, 212-pound Perez. The senior guard sat out last season after transferring from Manhattan where he averaged 18.9 points per game. The All-MAAC performer had 14 games of 20 points or more during his junior season.
That's four very capable offensive players, if Battle can become eligible.
West Virginia added a fifth significant piece in August when Georgetown's Akok Akok became available. Mountaineer fans might recall Akok from his days at Connecticut when he grabbed 10 rebounds in UConn's 56-53 loss to the Mountaineers in the Coliseum.
The 6-foot-10, 225-pounder averaged 6.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game last year for the Hoyas.
"I've been very, very pleasantly surprised with Akok," Eilert said. "He's shot the ball in practice really well so far. His numbers in the past haven't really proved it, but I think he's going to make shots consistently and I'm going to try and instill that confidence in him."
Forward Quinn Slazinski was a late July addition after averaging 11.3 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last year at Iona. His college career began at Louisville.
Those are all legitimate high-major players, as are holdovers Wilson, Suemnick, guard Kobe Johnson and sophomore forward Josiah Harris, whom Eilert labels the team's "best offensive rebounder" so far in practice.
"I keep telling the guys, 'If you want to rebound and crash the glass, you are going to stay on the floor,'" Eilert said.
Florida State transfer Jeremiah Bembry, Gannon transfer Ali Ragab and Israel native Ofri Naveh round out the roster of available players this year.
Guard Noah Farrakhan must sit out after transferring from Eastern Michigan.
Eilert admits he has been playing catch-up since he was appointed interim coach by athletics director Wren Baker on June 24, some 95 days ago.
"We didn't have 13 guys when school started," Eilert explained. "We were still waiting on Jesse, and Akok came in late. If we had one guy banged up, we barely had 10 to go. As soon as we got 10 on campus and could operate a good five-on-five workout, that's what we did.
"A lot of teams during the preseason will do a lot of individual work and focus on that with their coaching staff. I said, 'Let's go team from the jump.' We started official practice (Monday), but it just felt like we turned it up a notch."
One area Eilert is not messing with is defense, a staple for the Mountaineers over the last 15 years.
"Defensively, I'm trying to keep as much as possible knowing there are certain challenges," he explained. "With four or five fifth-year guys, getting them all on the same page has been a challenge.
"We drill defense, and we drill defense and I worry that when we get to five-on-five we're not doing a good enough job carrying those things over," he added. "You look at these rosters and it's such a revolving door. All these guys are coming from different defensive backgrounds. Jesse sat in a 2-3 zone at Syracuse for four years and we don't have a whole lot of depth at the five, so one of my main focuses is trying to keep him out of foul trouble. I need him on the floor."
West Virginia will play its charity exhibition game against George Mason on Friday, Oct. 27. The season opener will be Monday, Nov. 6 against Missouri State.
Mountaineer Madness tips everything off on Friday, Oct. 6. The full Big 12 schedule was announced on Tuesday.
Season tickets are currently available and can be purchased by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
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