Josh Eilert Has the Chance to Wreck West Virginia’s Path to the NCAA Tournament
Darian DeVries and the West Virginia Mountaineers still have a little bit of work to do before they can feel comfortably safe in the NCAA Tournament.
The goal heading into this two-game road trip out west was to, at bare minimum, come away with a split, returning to Morgantown with an 18-13 record. Saturday’s blowout loss to BYU might have been discouraging, but they can still make it a successful road trip with a win over Utah on Tuesday.
Last week, the Utes made an interesting decision to part ways with head coach Craig Smith despite picking up a few quality wins and still having an outside chance to make the tournament. Filling in as the interim head coach? Former WVU interim and longtime assistant Josh Eilert.
Eilert had arguably one of the most challenging seasons college basketball has ever seen thanks to a combination of injuries, health scares, eligibility issues, suspensions, and much more all while trying to replace Hall of Famer Bob Huggins.
Before the season, many thought there would be a chance that Eilert could have the interim tag removed if things went well, but considering how things went, he never stood much of a chance of actually becoming the guy.
Now, on Tuesday, he can play spoiler and make the path to the NCAA Tournament that much harder for WVU. If he and the Utes are successful, the Mountaineers will have to win the regular season finale against UCF and win at least two games in the Big 12 tournament, possibly three to feel really good heading into Selection Sunday.
UCF is just one game over .500, so losing to them would be a massive hit to the resume and the only way to recover would be to make a run in Kansas City.
