WVU Basketball Sees Opportunity to Get Back on Track vs. St. John’s

WVU Basketball has struggled during the first month of the season, starting 3-3. There’s hope within the program that a win over St. John’s on Friday could get the Mountaineers back on track before starting guard Kerr Kriisa returns to the floor.

WVU F Quinn Slazinski isn’t making excuses for the team but sees the potential as the short-handed Mountaineers improve.

“We’ve kind of had trouble this year of playing to competition, which is what young teams do, it’s something we need to get out of,” Slazinski said on Thursday. “You know losing to Monmouth at home and then going down to the wire with a top-20 team in Virginia, who just beat Texas A&M. You’re looking at a team up 11 [vs.] SMU, have the ability to win that tournament. You don’t lose the game to Monmouth, this whole season what people are saying is just completely different.”

“We’ve been in these games and we showed spots of great basketball. It’s getting better and better every game,” Slazinski added.

Slazinski and West Virginia will welcome old Big East foe St. John’s to the coliseum on Friday night. WVU will also welcome back Rick Pitino back to Morgantown for the first time since 2012. Both West Virginia and St. John’s are in need of a quality win during non-conference play.

The Mountaineers are just three games away from bringing Kriisa back to the court to pair him up with Slazinski and Jesse Edwards. Better yet, Kriisa would make that nine scholarship players for the team. WVU could see potentially two more players join the floor with RaeQuan Battle (waiver) and Akok Akok (health). Eilert and his staff should hear about Battle and Akok’s season status in the near future.

West Virginia will need to have a survive and advance mentality until Kriisa returns.

“[Kerr Kriisa] is a program-changing player. You’re bringing in the No. 1 point guard in the country,” Slazinski said. “Obviously, everyone’s head is on fire now with all the things going on. Hopefully, we can get RaeQuan Battle back too but 100% we will be adding the No. 1 point guard in the country to our team.”

WVU Basketball will tip-off with St. John’s in the Big East-Big 12 Battle on Friday night as they look to get over .500.