Between The Eers: How Attractive is the WVU Job?
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 Good Friday morning everybody, Skylar Callen here on Between the Ears.
00:13 And we're gonna round out this week with more basketball talk.
00:17 And that is, again, more on the coaching search, which will start to get
00:22 underway really heavily here in the next couple of weeks.
00:26 But more so about how attractive this job really is.
00:30 There are three major job openings right now.
00:34 I guess you could consider really only two of them being major, major jobs.
00:38 And that being West Virginia and Ohio State, DePaul being the third.
00:42 DePaul is kind of a weird one because, I mean, it's in Chicago.
00:46 It's had success at times.
00:50 A lot of people feel like it's kind of a somewhat of a sleeping giant,
00:55 if you will, because they haven't really had the success they probably should have,
00:59 considering the hotbed of recruiting that they kind of sit in.
01:02 But for whatever reason, they just haven't had the backing,
01:05 they haven't had the support over the years.
01:08 And DePaul's just kind of been towards the bottom of the league, and
01:11 whatever league they've been in for a very long time.
01:14 And at some point, that might turn if they get the right coach in there.
01:19 So really this comes down to West Virginia and Ohio State.
01:23 And I think there's a lot of comparisons between the two programs.
01:27 But really to me, the thing that separates West Virginia and
01:30 what makes them the clear cut most attractive job is the NIL situation.
01:35 And I'm sure Ohio State has done some things as well with their collective,
01:40 but you're not going to find a better collective right now than West Virginia.
01:46 Country Roads Trust has done such an amazing job of putting together
01:50 opportunities for student athletes to make money off their name, image, and
01:54 likeness.
01:54 And that's really one of the biggest things that everyone's talking about
01:59 in regards to this job at WVU.
02:02 That's one of the biggest reasons why people feel it is the most attractive job.
02:07 Because you're able to not only recruit players out of the transfer portal, but
02:11 you're able to keep your guys.
02:13 If they become studs in the Big 12,
02:17 they become some of the better players around the country.
02:19 You're going to be able to hang on to those guys.
02:22 And it's more likely that you're going to be able to hang on to them in basketball
02:25 probably than football because there's less guys that you have to worry about.
02:29 And you can allocate that money to those players instead of having to spread it
02:32 across over 120 some players on a football roster,
02:36 really only 85 scholarship players, but you get the point.
02:41 Not only is the NIL situation very attractive, but the fan base.
02:48 West Virginia, during a 9 and 19 season,
02:51 ranks fourth among the Big 12 in attendance, fourth.
02:58 What the hell do these fans have to root for right now?
03:03 They haven't had anything to root for for nearly two months, but
03:06 they still show up.
03:08 That is impressive as it gets.
03:10 I don't think that can be talked about enough.
03:14 When you are a team that has no chance of making the NCAA tournament,
03:18 really no chance of making the NIT or any postseason tournament for that matter.
03:23 Yet you still sit fourth out of 14 teams in the Big 12 in home attendance.
03:29 That's remarkable.
03:31 That shows the level of passion from this fan base,
03:35 how much West Virginia sports mean to these people in the state.
03:40 And that should just put it into perspective right there for
03:45 those on the outside that are maybe considering this job.
03:49 That look, this is what they're doing when they're 9 and 19.
03:53 Imagine what happens, say, when I take this job and
03:56 we get this thing turned back around again.
03:58 I mean, this is a team again, or a program, that is not all that far
04:04 removed from making the Big 12 Championship three straight years.
04:10 They were in the Sweet 16 three out of four years.
04:13 They've been to a Final Four in 2010.
04:19 They've won a Big East Championship.
04:20 There's a lot of history here.
04:22 Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley.
04:24 I mean, there's a lot of reasons why West Virginia is the clear cut favorite
04:31 in terms of attractiveness.
04:34 Now, obviously, this can change once the season ends,
04:37 because there will be more coaches around the country that get fired.
04:41 But as of today, out of the three, I mean, it's not even close.
04:45 In Ohio State, like I said a couple of episodes ago, I think there's some
04:49 reports out there about them being tied or linked to Dusty May in some capacity.
04:53 But again, if that's the direction they go in West Virginia,
05:00 who has also been linked to Dusty May, if there's no true push from West Virginia,
05:05 I wouldn't take that as a sign of Ohio State beat West Virginia to the punch.
05:12 Because I feel like Wren's going about this in a very strategic way.
05:18 He's going to get the guy he wants.
05:20 I don't think that he's going to fall back to plan two or
05:25 plan B, however you want to phrase that.
05:27 He's going to get the guy he wants.
05:29 So, and again, that could be Eilert.
05:33 That could be giving him another opportunity with the actual team that he
05:37 can put together, or it could be someone from the outside.
05:40 And as we mentioned yesterday, it is not going to be Bob Huggins.
05:45 It is not going to be John B.
05:47 Line.
05:47 And when those guys are in their 70s,
05:51 it wouldn't really make a whole lot of sense to bring those guys here.
05:53 You're going to hire them.
05:55 They're going to be here for three or four years, maybe, before they decide,
05:58 you know what, I think I'd rather sit on a beach with a drink.
06:01 And then you're back to square one again.
06:03 If you're Wren Baker, why would you put yourself in that position where you have
06:07 to get two coaching hires correctly in four or five years?
06:12 That's not even counting what happens on the football side.
06:16 Right now, everything's all good and dandy with football.
06:19 But if for whatever reason, things go south, then he's got to deal with that mess.
06:24 You got to eliminate some of that.
06:29 If he were to hire Huggins or B.
06:31 Line, knowing this is probably only a three or four year solution at max,
06:36 if that doesn't go well, and they have to move in a different direction,
06:42 maybe earlier or after the three or four years, and the successor doesn't go well,
06:47 it's putting his future in a tough spot.
06:52 So that's why he's got to go with the younger coach now and
06:56 not look at bringing back Huggins or B.
06:58 Line. And like I said yesterday in my article, what those guys have done
07:02 during their stints as the WVU head coach is part of the reason why this job is so
07:09 damn attractive.
07:10 Mountaineer basketball has been pretty damn good overall for the last 25, 30 years.
07:15 And those two in particular, obviously, have played a large part in that.
07:22 But it's time to move in a different direction.
07:27 And I have full faith that they will get the guy that they want.
07:30 Because the attractiveness of the job is there.
07:33 When you talk about NIL, you talk about the fan base,
07:37 you talk about just the overall facilities that West Virginia has.
07:43 There's a lot of people in college basketball that have said
07:48 West Virginia's practice facility is better than anybody's in the country.
07:54 And it's hard to imagine that there really is anybody else out there that has
07:57 a better facility.
07:58 There's MBA facilities that aren't even as nice as West Virginia's practice.
08:05 So that is one thing that I'll give
08:11 the previous ADs some credit on,
08:18 is kind of getting ahead on the basketball front with that practice facility.
08:24 Because they beat everybody to the punch with that.
08:25 And it has paid off in big dividends.
08:30 And I think that combined with, again, the fan passion,
08:36 the attendance, the NIL situation, what coach wouldn't wanna come here?
08:41 If there's a coach out there that is already kind of thinking about leaving or
08:48 knows for damn sure if a power forward job comes open, I'm taking it.
08:54 West Virginia be at the top of my list.
08:56 Again, it's West Virginia, Ohio State, and DePaul right now.
08:59 What does Ohio State and DePaul have to offer that West Virginia doesn't?
09:06 And Ohio State, that's a football school, man.
09:10 Let's be honest.
09:12 It is a football school.
09:13 They can have success in basketball.
09:15 They've had success in basketball.
09:18 But they're not gonna have that type of focus, I would imagine,
09:24 with their NIL leaning towards basketball.
09:26 They're not gonna have the fan base as rabid as West Virginia does in basketball.
09:31 And I mean, like we mentioned in the opening, DePaul is DePaul.
09:35 So if something changes and another job pops up, maybe we can revisit this.
09:42 But as of right now, West Virginia's gonna get their guy.
09:46 And that's a good thing.
09:46 That's about the only good thing that has come out of this season and
09:50 out of the timing of the whole coaching turnover last
09:55 summer was that it happened when it happened.
09:58 It sucked for this year in particular.
10:00 But at least Ren Baker and this administration, they've had nearly a year
10:05 to put together a list, really study it, really pay close attention to
10:10 those candidates on the list, and they can go get their guy.
10:14 Without having to really compete.
10:16 So we'll find out again who they kind of really target.
10:21 I would imagine interviews will start really kind of gain some steam
10:26 as soon as the regular season's over.
10:28 Maybe he'll wait until the end of the Big 12 tournament, or
10:34 at least West Virginia's stay in the Big 12 tournament,
10:36 which I wouldn't think would be all that long.
10:39 Maybe it's just a night or two, but we'll know here soon.
10:43 Mid-March is probably when I would expect this thing to really kind of pick up steam.
10:47 Maybe we even know who the coach is at that point.
10:50 We'll see.
10:51 So that'll do it for us this week on Between the Ears.
10:54 I'm Skylar Callen.
10:55 Make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountain Ears Now while you're
10:58 there. Give us a like.
11:00 Give us a follow on X at the same handle.
11:03 And we'll be back here tomorrow to wrap up the Mountain Ears Now post game show
11:07 with Chris and myself recapping West Virginia and Texas Tech.
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