By Bill Nestor
West Virginia men’s basketball interim head coach Josh Eilert rounded out his coaching staff recently. It resembles a homecoming for former players that if they had some eligibility remaining would help in this upcoming season roster more on the hardwood than on the bench.
Da,Sean Butler wasn’t just an exceptional scorer, he was a born leader as well. Butler scored 2,095 points in four seasons in Morgantown. From 2007 to 2010, Butler’s teams would notch 107 victories, the most in program history, and in 2020 he was inducted into the WVU Sports Hall of Fame.
Alex Ruoff is the second most recognizable name on the staff and is entering his second season on the sideline. From 2006 to 2009, Ruoff knocked down 261 three-pointers, the most in program history, on his way to 1,420 career points. Ruoff played 12 seasons of professional hoops, which makes him a player favorite since every one of them have professional aspirations. Ruoff will be in the WVU Sports Hall of Fame someday.
Jordan McCabe is the most recent player to wear the gold and blue uniform. McCabe was a Mountaineer from 2019 to 2021. He saw action in 94 games before moving on to the University of Nevada – Las Vegas program. He was set to join the staff when Bob Huggins was still the leader of the program and Eilert decided to bring McCabe in to honor the previous commitment.
Demarr Johnson is a holdover from last year’s staff. Johnson had played one season for Huggins at Cincinnati (1999 to 2000) before embarking on a 16 year professional career that included seven of those in the NBA. Johnson was the director of player development at Cincinnati before joining WVU’s staff to replace Larry Harrison.
The biggest question occurred when the longest tenured assistant, Ron Everhart, was moved to a desk job. Everhart had been an assistant since 2012-2013 and prior to that was the head coach at McNeese State, Northwestern, and, most recently, Duquesne. A Fairmont native, he’s had a dozen years of program running experience prior to his move to the Mountaineer program. Everhart will now be the director of community relations and player outreach.
There are four other key contributors to the program that will be retained by Eilert. One of the most integral is Jay Kuntz, a 15 year veteran, continues his role of director of player personnel/recruiting. Trent Michaels, last year’s operations coordinator and former graduate assistant, is now the Director of Men’s Basketball Operations. Tyler Cheng continues on as the athletic data statistician, a position he has held since 2019. Jared Kortsen stays on as the video and scouting coordinator for a second consecutive campaign; prior to that he was WVU’s graduate manager
Eilert has assembled an impressive staff. A little shuffling and a couple of key additions have him all set for the upcoming season. Now he must block out all of the outside distractions and deal with some major defections. We will save those topics for another day. S you know, the plot has thickened and a constantly evolving backdrop has kept the program at the forefront of the national spotlight.
