WVU's Disappointing Season Comes to an End

A long, disappointing season has come to an end for the Mountaineers.

For just the third time since returning to West Virginia, Bob Huggins had a losing season as the head coach of the Mountaineers finishing the season with a 16-17 record. 

After the NIT took 32 other teams over WVU, the 2021-22 season has come to a close and it might be a good thing. The CBI Tournament could be an option, but West Virginia does not want to pay a $50,000 entry fee in addition to the travel/hotel stay for a tournament that will be played exclusively in Dayton Beach, Florida.

The reason why? Well, much of this team won't be here next season. The Mountaineers will lose Pauly Pauliap, Dimon Carrigan, Gabe Osabuohien, Taz Sherman, Malik Curry, and potentially Sean McNeil and Kedrian Johnson. To say the least, this team will look very different next year. Kobe Johnson and Seth Wilson are the only two freshmen on the team that have played legitimate minutes this season and it would be silly to burn a redshirt year for the others to play in the CBI to give them more game experience. 

Following the loss to Kansas in the Big 12 Conference tournament, Bob Huggins said, "We've got more games to play," hinting that the team would play in some sort of postseason tournament. "We'll get home and have them rest up for a day or so and we'll get back at it and get ready to bring home a trophy. That's what we do, that's what we set our goals for every year. It's obviously not going to be for the one that we wanted, but it's going to be a trophy that is well worth bringing home.

"I asked them that and they want to play. They want to play and I enjoy coaching them. I certainly enjoy representing West Virginia University and the great state of West Virginia. So, anything we can do to represent that state and the people of that state, I'm all for."

Unfortunately, the Mountaineers won't get their wish of continuing their season, but it might be a good idea to close this chapter of WVU basketball and begin rebuilding this thing for the future. As of Monday morning, West Virginia has four recruits slated to come in next season: G Josiah Davis, F Josiah Harris, F Pat Suemnick (JUCO), and F Fede Federiko (JUCO). 

After openly admitting that they didn't do as well in the transfer portal a year ago, I would fully expect Bob Huggins to get a head start on recruiting the portal while other teams are playing in the NCAA Tournament and NIT. "We didn't do very well in the portal. We've got people watching it every day. I kind of favor the idea of having guys here. I don't really want to have one year guys or certainly not very many one year guys. But you're not going to win with 13 freshmen."

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