Eilert Shares Brutal Truth About WVU's Depth

It's going to be an uphill battle for the Mountaineers this season.

Josh Eilert always wanted to be a head coach at the collegiate level, but he never dreamt it would come to fruition in the fashion it did. Instead of taking over a program in a normal coaching change, Eilert had to do something that has possibly never been done before. 

Eilert had to take over a storied program, replacing a Hall of Fame coach unexpectedly and had to re-recruit the guys on the roster while also trying to add talent from the portal well after the top portal options were already off the board. 

In a lot of ways, it's going to be hard to really judge the interim head coach this season because of everything he's had to work through. After the waters appeared to calm down, Eilert formed a pretty solid team considering the circumstances. Unfortunately, WVU took two more gut punches as they parted ways with Jose Perez and then earlier this week, the NCAA denied the waiver for RaeQuan Battle to play this season.

With those two subtractions, West Virginia is going to have an uphill battle when conference play begins and Eilert is well aware of it.

"It's going to be tough because of the depth. Certainly a lot of the teams in the Big 12 have a lot more athleticism than we do and they probably have a lot more depth. Do we have Big 12-caliber players? I would say probably half our roster is right now. Can the bottom half of the roster develop to where they're contributing in the Big 12 and help us win games in the Big 12? They absolutely have the ability to do so. But right now, we have really seven or eight guys that can compete in the Big 12."

Who are those seven to eight guys? 

My guess would be Kerr Kriisa, Seth Wilson, Kobe Johnson, Jesse Edwards, Akok Akok, Pat Suemnick, Josiah Harris and Quinn Slazinski. Noah Farrakhan has to sit out this season due to transfer rules while Ofri Naveh, Ali Ragab, and Jeremiah Bembry still have a lot of developing to do before they're given serious minutes.

WV Governor Jim Justice to Write Letter to NCAA in Support of RaeQuan Battle

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