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Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNew.com
WVU interim coach Josh Eilert gives his team instructions during a recent game. The Mountaineers host No. 3 Kansas at 4 p.m. today at the Coliseum in Morgantown.
MORGANTOWN — Let’s understand one thing right now, it just won’t be the same when No. 3 Kansas comes to the Coliseum to face West Virginia at 4 p.m. today in a game shown on what is fast becoming known as WWVU-TV, nee ESPN+.
With apologies to Mountaineer coach Josh Eilert, what has made West Virginia vs. Kansas special since the Mountaineers jumped from the Big East to the Big 12 in 2013 is that it matched up two Hall of Fame coaches in Bill Self at Kansas and Bob Huggins at WVU.
They had coached against each other in all 27 meetings, with Self winning 21 of them, but then again Self’s Kansas team was nationally ranked in each and every game while Huggins’ only 14 times. What’s more, Self was playing his home games in the venerable Allen Fieldhouse, where Kansas almost never wins.
And against WVU, you remove the qualifier “never” for Kansas is 11 in “The Phog” and 5-0 on neutral courts, if playing in the Big 12 Tournament held in KANSAS City can really be considered neutral.
The rivalry has been spirited the way it is supposed to be between two great coaches, and so it was only fair that Self be asked whether he’ll miss seeing Huggins on this trip.
“Maybe I will see Huggs,” Self said, certainly aware that Huggins has been among the crowd at a number of Mountaineer home games.
It was obvious that Self had prepared for such a question, for he added this:
“I guarantee Josh will be better dressed, no doubt. And he’d look better if they wore the same thing.”
Huggins, deposed as Mountaineer coach this year after a pair of off-season indiscretions, of course, is responsible for the coaching fraternity disposing with wearing coats and ties to coach games, starting a “fashion” trend with pullovers.
Self paid homage to Huggins and his situation without being asked to.
“I want him to be remembered and thought of in a way as a guy who brought a great legacy to our profession. I wish the best for him, but I’m not saying that at the expense of anyone else,” he said.
That was the perfect transition from Memory Lane to Saturday night’s game.
WVU may be 6-11, but Self would not point any fingers at Eilert being responsible for such.
“I think Josh has done a good job in a hard situation. That’s not easy,” Self said.
Think about what it’s like replacing a legend. It’s hard to fill a pair of size 14 shoes when you only have a size 8 foot.
Eilert, who had never been a head coach; who had been a bench assistant just one year, was asked to fill in for a man who was had more wins than any active coach; a man who had been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame; a man who was a legend coaching in his own home town and at his alma mater.
What’s more, he was a man who always seemed to have controversy swirling around him, who was always in the spotlight. You can dare argue he was more famous than even Bill Self himself on a national level and he had carried WVU on his back in terms of creating a national image.
Then you come and ask an unknown in Josh Eilert to not only take over the team, but to do so with an interim title and a one-year contract.
“And then you throw in that he hasn’t had two or three starters for this whole season, at least,” Self said.
Because of that, Self has limited his scouting of the team to just the games since the first of the year when Eilert got RaeQuan Battle, Noah Farrakhan and Kerr Kriisa onto his active roster.
“I’ve only looked at them since they got their three players back,” Self said, fully aware that the team on the floor now resembles nothing of the cast that started the season.
“I didn’t want to gauge it on them not having their full complement of guys … and they still haven’t had it because Jesse Edwards has been hurt. If Edwards is ready to go, he’s a legitimate Top 5 big man in the country.
“Certainly, when they do have all their players, they will be very formidable for anyone. But if you are playing without guys who are capable of getting you a combined 40 points a game, it obviously looks a lot different.”
Kansas, which garnered probably the top transfer in the country when it gathered in Michigan’s Hunter Dickerson over the off-season, is expected to be a contender, along with Houston from the Big 12, for the national championship.
Dickerson is averaging 19.3 points and 11.7 rebounds a game while guard Kevin McCullar averages 19.0 and 5.7 per game, leading the Jayhawks to a 15-2 record, 3-1 in the Big 12 after suffering a stunning loss to Central Florida.
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