West Virginia is in the midst of a major search for its next head coach of the men’s basketball team.
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — West Virginia is in contact with a variety of head coaches, including several with close ties to Bob Huggins. Wren Baker wants to wrap this up quickly to keep the roster together and to move forward with the future of the program.
With that said, Baker has a variety of potential replacements on his radar, including Dusty May, who led FAU to the Final 4 last season. May, 46, is one of the hottest young coaches in the nation and recently signed a large contract buyout with the school. It’s unclear if May would be interested in leaving FAU at this time, however, because most of his Final 4 roster returns next season and he could potentially make another Final 4 run with them.
In addition, Andy Kennedy, the current favorite to land the position, has spoken to Baker or will in the coming days. Kennedy is seen as the most qualified for the position, but he was arrested back in 2008 and that is a concern considering the way Huggins left the program.
Jerrod Calhoun, a former Huggins’ assistant at West Virginia and the current head coach at Youngstown State, is also considered a contender for the position. However, he lacks experience at this level and has a subpar 90-90 record at Youngstown State.
The other name that makes a lot of sense is Pat Kelsey, the current head coach at The College of Charleston. Kelsey, 48, has an impressive 48-19 record in 2 seasons at College of Charleston. He’s a passionate young coach and checks a lot of boxes for Baker and is certainly a name to watch in the coming days.
The other potential option is hiring an interim head coach internally from the current coaching staff and see how they do for a year. This would likely keep the talented roster together, but Baker has said from the beginning of the search that he intends to do a “nationwide search”, which seems to indicate that he’s against hiring internally at this time.
Stay tuned to The Voice of Morgantown for more updates as they become available.
WHAT I'M HEARING: West Virginia is looking at several candidates, including Dusty May (FAU), Pat Kelsey (College of Charleston), Jerrod Calhoun and Andy Kennedy.
Dusty May might not leave with most of his Final 4 roster returning.
Kennedy is a concern due to his 2008 arrest.…
— The Voice of Morgantown (@voicemorgantown) June 21, 2023
