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Josh Eilert Listed “On the Hot Seat”

By
Brad Smith
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Cover Photo: The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Despite being faced with overwhelming challenges during his first season in charge of the West Virginia Mountaineers’ basketball program, interim head coach Josh Eilert has remained positive and hopeful that his team can still turn it around.

In Eilert’s first season with the team, the Mountaineers are currently 8-13 overall and 3-5 in Big 12 Conference play. At the time of his hiring, West Virginia’s director of athletics, Wren Baker, was clear that Eilert was the interim head coach and that he intended to find a permanent replacement for Bob Huggins following thi season.

“If you go back to when he was named interim head coach, I set the tone for the expectation for us is and that is that we’re going to give him full autonomy, full decision-making, do the very best that he can do this season and at the conclusion of this season we’ll conduct a search for a coach,” Baker said. “My hope is that he does a great job and that he’s part of that search. As the season goes along, I evaluate every day.”

Although he has faced enormous challenges, it’s difficult to see this season as anything but failure at this point. With that said, it’s unlikely that Eilert will be retained, barring a late-season miracle.

According to college basketball insider, Trilly Donovan, Eilert is squarely on the hot seat. In his latest “Hot Seat List”, Donovan named Eilert on his High-Major Hot Seat list. Donovan had the following to say about West Virginia’s head coaching position: “The biggest what-if season in college basketball history, perhaps? The national search is ongoing.”

Donovan seems to be implying that the decision to move on from Eilert has already been made and that Wren Baker is alerady conducting his search for the program’s next head coach.

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