West Virginia Needs the Transfer Portal to Give Back Once Again

West Virginia lost their fifth departure to the transfer portal on Wednesday as Jose Perez re-entered his name. Perez joins a group of players to leave WVU after Bob Huggins’ resignation almost three weeks ago.

West Virginia needs the transfer portal to give back in a major way but there’s still time to make magic happen. The Mountaineers currently have eight players on roster as of July 5 with five spots to fill.

Still at WVU:

RaeQuan Battle (G), Jesse Edwards (C), Josiah Harris (F), Kobe Johnson (G), Kerr Kriisa (G), Omar Silverio (G), Patrick Suemnick (F), Seth Wilson (G)

What’s next?

Nothing much has changed as West Virginia’s staff will continue to monitor the transfer portal. Players will continue to enter in pockets the rest of the summer into the fall as they become graduate transfers, making them immediately eligible. Perez is on pace to graduate this summer, hence not needing a waiver to play next season. Other players like Perez in college basketball will continue to enter for that reason throughout July and into August.

West Virginia was in contact with Rutgers transfer Paul Mulcahy for the month he opened his recruitment. Mulcahy ended up committing to Washington on Tuesday. Seton Hall transfer Alexis Yetna visited Morgantown but is more than likely out of the picture due to his nagging knee injury. Earlier this week, the coaching staff reached out to Alabama transfer guard Jahvon Quinerly. Quinerly is currently visiting Memphis as the Tigers emerge as the favorite.

The transfer portal is creating movement 365 days of the year. Yes, there are transfer portal windows still. May 11 was the entry deadline for college basketball players to freely enter. Anyone that enters the transfer portal, with the exception of WVU players due to Huggins resigning, needs a waiver. WVU will target graduate transfers as they don’t need a wavier to immediately play.

There are other names the coaching staff are actively looking at as they’ll have to continue to add to the portal. Before Huggins’ resignation, West Virginia brought in a consensus top five transfer portal class. Now the staff will have to run it back and deepen the roster.