Between The Eers: Why the Hate?
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00:10 Good Tuesday morning everyone, Skylar Callen here on Between the Ears and
00:14 tough loss last night for the Mountaineers 94 to 90.
00:18 In overtime to Kansas State,
00:20 looked like it was gonna be another big time loss.
00:24 Another game that probably would have went to 35, 40 point deficit.
00:31 Similar to the Texas game earlier in the year, but
00:35 just when you thought it was just another game heading in that direction,
00:43 this team fights, claws, and scratches its way all the way back.
00:48 To not only get back in it, but even take the lead for a little bit.
00:52 Game goes to overtime, they ended up losing as I noted,
00:57 but 31 to 9 run to end the game, that's incredible.
01:02 Over the course of the year,
01:08 there's been a lot of, I don't know what to really call,
01:14 animosity maybe towards Josh Eilert, there's a lot of frustration.
01:21 And in a way I understand it because the team is not very good.
01:27 But here's the thing, we go all the way back to the summer when all this
01:34 crap transpired between Huggins, players hitting the portal.
01:39 Him going through the coaching search with Ren Baker along with others, and
01:47 having to find guys late in the process.
01:49 I mean, they'd pluck a kid from Israel in August to add to the team.
01:54 I mean, it was, I think a lot of people just truly forget how difficult
01:59 that situation he was thrown into was, and still is.
02:03 Just because they've got the full boat back doesn't mean
02:09 that he should be judged or viewed differently for his job.
02:14 And again, I'm not saying that he should be the head coach moving forward.
02:18 I believe that this all along was always gonna be a one year plan.
02:22 I never thought there would be a scenario in which Josh would get the job full time,
02:29 unless he made some miraculous run where they got to the tournament,
02:33 they made it pretty deep, but that was probably never gonna happen.
02:38 Even if everything went correctly for them, they didn't have a correct
02:43 suspension, they didn't have all the injuries and eligibility issues.
02:47 It still probably would have been tough because it was his first year on the job.
02:51 And that's what I want people to remember.
02:53 Let's stop disrespecting the guy because he was thrown into a firestorm.
03:01 He had to put this team together in late June, in July, in August.
03:11 And that's something that nobody else has ever had to do.
03:18 The adversity that he has been through is something that no other coach
03:24 has been through in the history of college basketball.
03:27 One thing after another.
03:31 You think that you get past the hugging situation,
03:35 you kind of get your team figured out, kind of get into calmer waters.
03:41 And then it's the Kirk Creases suspension, then it's a cook a cook.
03:46 And then it's Raekwon and Noah Farrakhan's eligibility battle.
03:55 And then it's Jesse Edwards breaking his wrist.
03:59 It's non stop.
04:01 And when you put this team back together, and they've got all their pieces,
04:10 but it doesn't happen until conference play, in the middle of conference play.
04:14 It's still not going to be the product that you want.
04:18 This is the toughest conference in college basketball and
04:24 has been for years, from top to bottom.
04:27 There's not another league that even comes remotely close to competing with Big 12.
04:31 Analytics back that up.
04:36 So to figure out how each other plays in the middle of
04:42 the toughest conference in college basketball, good luck.
04:45 Good luck.
04:48 You should be doing that in non conference against
04:53 the teams that they were losing to earlier in the year.
04:55 But they were trying to figure out what guys to even go to.
05:01 They had six guys.
05:03 Technically seven, but they had six guys.
05:06 That's a tough deal.
05:07 This is a man, and look, for those that, I get the frustration with how the end
05:14 of the game on Saturday against Iowa State was handled, because they could have
05:17 clearly fouled and extended that game a little bit.
05:21 I don't know what happened there.
05:24 I really don't.
05:24 But let's not act like Josh Eiler doesn't care about West Virginia.
05:32 Let's not act like this is just him just trying to get through the year and
05:37 go somewhere else.
05:38 He wants this job.
05:40 Even though they're nine and 19, he wants this job.
05:44 I mean, he has been with this program for 16, 17 years.
05:52 This has become his second home.
05:57 His home away from home.
06:01 He loves this program.
06:02 He's put a lot of time and effort into it, and he wants to be a part of getting
06:10 this program back to its glory.
06:11 We can't just crap on the guy, because he was thrown into a situation that we all
06:19 knew he was set up to fail in, and then, "Oh, no, he's failing.
06:24 Would you look at that?
06:25 Let's get mad at him."
06:26 No.
06:29 We need to calm down.
06:31 We, meaning, well, I shouldn't say me, but the fan base needs to calm down and
06:38 just let this man just do his thing.
06:40 If they don't win another game, so be it.
06:43 That's just the luck of the draw for this season.
06:49 This isn't going to be a repetitive thing.
06:54 He put this team together months after everybody else put together
07:01 their final pieces in the portal.
07:03 Why are we surprised?
07:08 Why are the fans surprised that the product that you're seeing
07:16 right now isn't that good?
07:18 You shouldn't be.
07:23 Everyone said it.
07:24 The moment the Huggins thing went down, where he and the school
07:30 officially parted ways, this was going to be the reality, regardless
07:35 of who stepped in and took this job.
07:37 That's why I give Ren Baker a crap ton of credit for going the interim route
07:47 versus doing an accelerated search and making a quick hire.
07:53 Because one of two things, one, you're going to have this type of season anyway.
07:58 You're bringing a new coach and a new coaching staff.
08:01 Those guys don't really know what's here.
08:03 They don't know what's existing.
08:04 You probably don't even keep what they already had or
08:06 what they were able to keep.
08:08 That's not just the four that were left over.
08:11 I'm talking about Jesse Edwards and Kirk Creason and so on and so forth.
08:14 You don't have those guys.
08:16 You really don't have anything.
08:17 You're going to have this type of season regardless.
08:22 Second of all, you're committing to somebody for multiple years that you're
08:34 really not even all that probably sure about or know much about, where he's had
08:39 over a year now to gather information and speak to other people and get a good
08:46 grasp of who's a good fit and who's not.
08:50 Making that decision on a whim is never good.
08:53 Credit to Randall on that.
08:57 But again, back to Josh.
08:59 Let's show the man some respect.
09:03 I understand you don't have to respect his decisions.
09:08 You don't have to respect his rotations.
09:10 You don't have to respect his sets.
09:13 You don't have to respect any of that.
09:17 But as a human being, as a person, show the man some respect.
09:22 He's put in a lot of work.
09:25 He's put in a ton of time here at West Virginia.
09:28 He's been a part of some very successful years at WVU.
09:33 He's had a part in it.
09:35 Press Virginia, Javon Carter, the final four years.
09:39 I mean, come on.
09:41 He's been a part of this staff.
09:46 One way or another.
09:47 You throw a guy into a situation like the one he was put into, just an
09:55 irregular coach, an experienced coach, one that's been a head coach before,
10:00 and they still will struggle.
10:01 I guarantee it.
10:02 But you put a guy in there that's never been a head coach.
10:07 It's really only been on the coaching side for a very small portion of his
10:15 career, that's what you're going to get.
10:19 And that's okay.
10:21 It's a one year thing.
10:22 This is an anomaly.
10:24 This is not going to be, again, something that happens year in and year out.
10:28 And the way these guys fight, I mean, they could have easily given up.
10:35 They could have easily thrown in the towel on Monday in Manhattan.
10:42 They were down 25.
10:45 And could have said, "Eh, just another one of those nights."
10:49 They didn't.
10:50 They battled back.
10:52 And for a team that's been through as much as they've been through and have
10:59 the record they have, they have nothing to play for.
11:02 Let's be real.
11:04 Now, at this point, at least, maybe here in a couple of weeks, when the
11:09 conference tournament comes around, right now, they don't have anything.
11:11 These wins don't mean anything.
11:14 But for them to care that much and continue to fight and battle, that says a lot.
11:21 And again, I'm not vouching, so don't take this wrong.
11:26 I'm not angling this in a certain way.
11:28 I'm not trying to vouch for Josh to get the job.
11:30 All I'm asking is that the fans just put a little respect on Josh and his name.
11:39 Again, he's done a lot for this program.
11:41 16 plus years.
11:42 Yet, we're only getting to see the sample size people are judging from is just
11:46 this year's sample, which is very, very small.
11:49 And it's a very tough situation.
11:51 But they don't take into account what he did in 2023 and beforehand.
11:57 So, I'm not going to go into the details of that.
12:00 I'm just going to say that he's done a lot for this program.
12:03 And I'm not going to go into the details of the other teams.
12:06 And beforehand.
12:10 So, that's all I'm asking.
12:12 That'll do it for me here today on Between Years.
12:16 I'm Skylar Callahan.
12:17 Make sure you click that subscribe button and give us a like on YouTube at
12:21 Mountaineers Now.
12:22 And give us a follow on X-Wire at it at the same hand.
12:26 We'll be back here with another episode tomorrow of Between Years.
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