Will Aden Tagaloa-Nelson Play This Season for WVU Hoops?

Some insight on the newest addition to the basketball team.

Josh Eilert has had a short bench to work with all season long whether it be to injuries, suspensions, eligibility hurdles, etc. But over the past few weeks, his rotation has grown exponentially with Kerr Kriisa, RaeQuan Battle, and Noah Farrakhan now in the mix.

On Saturday, he saw his roster grow again, bringing in WVU football safety Aden Tagaloa-Nelson.

"I met Aden probably over a year ago," Eilert told reporters. 'I was out on the recruiting trail out in Kentucky and I met him. I saw him play for the first time when I was scouting someone else and they introduced me to him because he was committed to West Virginia to play football. He's a good basketball player. He was a tough-minded, strong guard and he competed. He was such a nice young man and I carried on that relationship with him and I told him when you get to Morgantown, come by the office and if you need anything let me know, happy to help in any way. And he took me up on that. He showed up in the fall and introduced himself to the staff. I told him if you want to get a run in come by and jump in open gym with our guys. So he took a couple opportunities to play with our guys. He'll text me from time to time throughout the season and stayed in touch and when football was over he hit me up and said can I take you up on that offer and join the team? I said sure, would love to have you. We're really happy to have Aden in whatever capacity that may be."

Tagaloa-Nelson may not be in West Virginia's rotation anytime soon and there's a good chance he doesn't play in a game this season due to his arrival coming midway through the year.

"If it works out and everybody is okay with it, I have no problem with putting him in if the situation calls for it," said Eilert. "He's just so far behind in terms of what we've done this far, so I could see him being a very vital member of our scout team in the short-term. But trying to learn everything we have in place right now might be a challenge, especially this late. But he is a very bright kid, so we'll see how that transpires."

Eilert did mention that he and head football coach Neal Brown have had a few conversations about this being a possibility, dating back to the fall and Brown was all for it. That said, if there are any conflicting dates in regards to practice and/or games in the future, football will remain his priority.

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