What Josh Eilert Said Following the Win over Drexel

West Virginia University head coach Josh Eilert Drexel postgame quick hits

The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-5) defeated the Drexel Dragons (5-5) Saturday evening 66-60. 

Team + Individual Stats vs. Drexel

Opening Statement

First thing that kind of sticks out when I look at the box score is us [with] 17 assists. You look back at the game against St. John’s, I believe we had six, so we definitely played well together and shared the ball. I didn’t think we’d come into this game and only shoot five free throws considering how many times we got to the line on average but tt was a well-called game. Credit to Coach (Zach) Spiker for coming here and having a great game plan and taking us to the wire. So, it was a great battle and he’s a really good coach, and I’m sure it was special for him to be back in the coliseum and get to coach on the floor here.

Having more energy in the second half 

In the two days leading up to the game, the big message for me to our guys is don’t lose the joy in this game. We all dreamed of being in a position to be where we are at whether that is us as coaches or those guys as players. I said don’t second guess yourself. Play with complete confidence and when you get a good look at your shooters, let it fly. Seeing (junior guard) Seth (Wilson) get that early one and you could just tell it was a flip of a switch. I kept on trying to go back at him and get him more shots. I’m gonna go to the hot hand whenever I can. It was refreshing to see 7 for 17. It’s a good change of pace there.

Akok Akok's second game of the Mountaineer

He’s plus 15 in 12 minutes and only scoring five points. Big three, but more than anything he just gives everybody a lift on the defensive end. With his size and length and he can sit down and guard a point guard if he has to, he can switch onto anybody on the floor, he can guard bigs.So, from a coaching standpoint, it gives you so much more leverage out there to do what you want to do defensively. He was a huge lift. I don’t know what he played, maybe eight minutes in the last game, and now he’s up to 12 and he looked a little better, a little fresher out there. I know we had to get him out at one point. Fouled to get him out. Hopefully, it will be a big week for him to get him conditioned and take it up a couple of notches and we have a week off to get ready for UMass, and hopefully, we can get his numbers up and his minutes up to 16, 17, 18 minutes a game. He was a huge lift for us.

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