West Virginia Basketball Picked 9th in Big 12 Preseason Poll

West Virginia Basketball was picked ninth in the Big 12 preseason poll that was released on Friday morning. The poll consists of the 14 Big 12 head coaches.

2023-24 Big 12 Preseason Poll:

1. Kansas (12)
2. Houston (2)
3. Texas
4. Baylor
5. TCU
6. Kansas State
7. Iowa State
8. Texas Tech
9. West Virginia
10. Oklahoma State
11. Cincinnati
12. Oklahoma
13. BYU
14. UCF

West Virginia’s program has seen quite the offseason. Following a radio comment and a DUI, long-time HC Bob Huggins resigned in mid-June. Assistant Josh Eilert was then promoted to interim HC a week later and hired new assistants Da’Sean Butler and Jordan McCabe. Last year’s grad assistant Alex Ruoff was moved to a main assistant role and former Houston, Texas Tech HC James Dickey was brought in as a senior advisor for the team.

Eilert and his staff, before and after Huggins, recruited the transfer portal. WVU Basketball has nine new players with Akok Akok (F – Georgetown), RaeQuan Battle (G – Montana State), Jeremiah Bembry (G – Florida State), Jesse Edwards (C – Syracuse), Noah Farrakhan (G – Eastern Michigan), Kerr Kriisa (G – Arizona), Ofri Naveh (F – Israel), Ali Ragab (C – Gannon U), and Quinn Slazinski (F – Iona/St. John’s). West Virginia returns four players Josiah Harris (F), Kobe Johnson (G), Patrick Suemnick (F) and Seth Wilson (G).

Next up for West Virginia basketball is finding out from the NCAA if Battle will be eligible for the 2023-24 season. If denied, Battle will have to sit out a year before suiting up for the Mountaineers.