WVU Basketball

Josh Eilert Reacts to WVU’s Loss to SMU in Fort Myers

Published

2 weeks ago

November 20, 2023

WVU interim HC Josh Eilert spoke with Tony Caridi following a 70-58 loss to SMU on Monday night in Fort Myers, Fla. West Virginia played a good first half before being completely outplayed in the second frame.

Overall thoughts

“I thought we had a pretty good first half, we were really rebounding it well. To be honest with you, a lot of those shots they were taking were uncontested so they started falling in the second half for them. I tell you what, we weren’t good enough there late in the game with a short bench to match their physicality, the way they run out and try to get easy points. I knew that’s what they were going to go to and they wore us down.”

Explaining using timeouts when WVU is tired

“Yeah, that’s where we are at with timeouts it seems like. I could read them in terms of their exhaustion levels and we’re really only playing six guys with our backup freshman points guard [Jeremiah Bembry] has been injured the last two days. Should’ve got Pat [Suemnick] in there a little bit more but didn’t get the opportunity to do so but he gave us good minutes in the first half. More than anything we couldn’t get that offensive cohesion and couldn’t get our defense set in the second half and it wore us down.”

On Seth Wilson’s rebounding effort

“He did a great job on the glass. That’s what we needed out of him. He had seven defensive rebounds there in the first half and that’s the type of tenacity on the boards we can have. Each and every one of those guys needs to take that approach and it has to be a consistent effort every single night. We are not quite there yet.”

On if Virginia’s slow pace style helps WVU

“I don’t want to be quick to say that but yeah. I’d like to slow this thing down a little bit and be a little more deliberate ourselves. Certainly, I want to take advantage of the open floor if we can score early, and if not score late.”

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5 Comments

Dave Dickey
November 21, 2023 at 9:42 am
This is Eilert’s fault. Recruiting players that can’t play because of the NCAA rules is unwise. Get used to these after the game apologies, Josh. You will get better at it as you gain more experience on losing. How sad is this for WVU. Wren Baker should own some of this as well…Season tickets are worthless.
Don Hamrick
November 21, 2023 at 10:58 am
You couldn’t be more wrong. Just the opposite, given the hand he’s been dealt, Eilert is doing a great job. How can you possibly blame him for the injuries and and an NCAA that has historically not been WVU friendly?
Paul Howard
November 21, 2023 at 11:08 am
1st off, this is not Eilert’s fault. Battle was recruited when Huggins was at the helm. They thought they could get him eligible and the team looked alot different at that time. Akok Akok collapsed on the floor. Did you see that coming? Maybe you should coach/recruit if so. Eilert tried to glue this thing together the best he could under extraordinary circumstances.We need depth unfortunately, your right about that but the effort is there. Even though I think the university overreacted firing Higgins so quickly, he is the one that caused that to happen by his actions. Hopefully things will start looking better after game 9. I’m proud of the effort these guys are given day in and day out! At least with those 2 losses so far, the other team had to earn it!
Dave Dickey
November 21, 2023 at 11:17 am
The hand he was dealt included people leaving that he should have done more to keep, including Perez. Blame Huggins early on, but the recent recruiting indicates he does not know what he is doing. If you know the NCAA is not allowing multiple transfer players a waiver, then do not recruit them. Common sense. Our record speaks clearly on his great job…It’s going to be a really long season, unless he gets Battle a waiver… Strap in for it…
Dave Dickey
November 21, 2023 at 2:20 pm
Maybe Eilert should have used common sense to keep Perez, who was already approved by NCAA since he was a grad transfer…By game 9, we will know that we are in for a really bad losing season. Once the Big 12 part starts, we are in trouble…Huggins has been gone for a while…when do people stop blaming Hugs, and Eilert starts owning it..???