Bob Huggins' legacy not ignored while West Virginia hands control of basketball program to Josh Eilert

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — From the outset of the news conference inside West Virginia Coliseum, WVU athletic director Wren Baker was honest.

That included his willingness Monday to offer the important details of new coach Josh Eilert’s contract terms (10 months, $1.5 million) while speaking to a room full of reporters, recorders and video cameras.

Plus, there was Baker’s admission that this search to replace Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins was “the most complicated” of the 20 he said he has conducted in 17 years as an athletic administrator.

In the news conference room at WVU Coliseum where Josh Eilert will meet the press at 3 p.m. WVU emphasizes Eilert’s INTERIM role on four TV screens hung around the room. pic.twitter.com/9NvBzDBqtw

— Jerry DiPaola (@JDiPaola_Trib) June 26, 2023

But the most revealing moment during the 109-minute session was his relating a conversation with Huggins on June 18, the day after the former WVU coach resigned in the wake of his DUI arrest in Pittsburgh.

“I believe that I reached out to him,” said Baker, unsure of who made the initial connection that day. “That’s such a blur. I don’t remember exactly. He was over at his office, and I just said, ‘Hey, I’d like to come over and visit with you a little bit.’ ”

Baker has been on the job only seven months after replacing Shane Lyons in November. But he described the strong relationship he has built with Huggins, a WVU graduate who won 935 games in 16 seasons as the Mountaineers’ head coach.

“He and I holed up for a few minutes and shared a few moments,” he said. “Saturday (June 17, the day Huggins resigned) was a really hard day. Sunday was a time for he and I to decompress and give each other hugs.

“We got to express our love and appreciation for each other. It was emotional, but I did ask him for characters and qualities he thinks I should be looking at (in the next coach). I asked him if there were any particular names.”

Baker declined to identify those coaches, but he said speaking to Huggins — along with West Virginia legend Jerry West and Boston Celtics coach and former Mountaineers player Joe Mazzulla — was important.

“(Huggins) is somebody who established a tremendous legacy here over a course of 16 years. He knows the program, and he knows the young men in our program.

“In the time I spent with coach Huggins (over seven months), we never had a cross word. I have tremendous respect for him. He certainly has done a tremendous amount for the university, for the basketball program, for cancer research and a variety of other things. My hope and intention is that, on a personal level, I’ll always have a friendship and respect for coach Huggins. From an institutional perspective, he’s an important part of our history, and we’re going to honor and recognize that in an appropriate way as we move forward.”

Eilert, who has worked on Huggins’ staffs at Kansas State and West Virginia for the past 17 years, had a similar conversation with his former boss a week later — Sunday — a day after he was named to replace him.

“He gave me a call. It was early,” said Eilert, 42, who never has been a head coach. “He just sounded at peace. He really did. The fact that they named me the head coach … I was able to carry the torch. He talked about the day before how many smallmouth bass he caught on the lake. He’s getting some time to reflect and do some things.

“I know he has an extreme amount of remorse for what happened in the last month (including his public homophobic remarks). He owns those mistakes, and we’re going to move on. Time heals all wounds, and there’ll be a time where we really take his legacy and his 16 years here and we celebrate that.

“He’s been a huge, influential part of my life, and that’s not going to change.”

Baker and Eilert emphasized that the hope is to return the WVU program as close to normalcy as possible. But both men acknowledged that Eilert has the word ‘interim’ attached to his job title, and he will need to prove he deserves to be the coach beyond the end of the 2023-24 season.

With the help of a search firm, Baker and his staff spent most of last week making phone calls in their quest to either find a permanent replacement or interim coach.

“Results of those calls varied from absolute interest to, ‘Yes, I’d be interested, but timing makes this difficult,’ ” Baker said.

Considering the late date — most college basketball coach searches are conducted in March and April shortly after the end of the season — Baker said he decided the interim tag was appropriate.

“We felt like this is, maybe, a top-15 job. We did consider a variety of permanent replacements and talked to a lot of people. (Eilert) and I were really clear. This initial agreement is for one season. But there’s no question he gets a chance to show every day what he’s about and what the program’s about. We’ll talk about that at another day and time.

“I consider him a head coach for an interim period of time, not as an interim coach. He will have my full support and the full support of this department and this university to make decisions he feels are in the best interest of the program during this season. He doesn’t need to feel like he doesn’t have the ability to make changes he sees fit to make. He is empowered in that role.”

Eilert’s first job is to keep the roster intact, with players given a 30-day window to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Former starter Tre Mitchell already committed to Kentucky, and Joe Toussaint and James Okonkwo have plans to transfer. Kerr Kriisa entered the portal but quickly withdrew his name.

Why was Eilert chosen to keep the program upright?

“He is the type of human being you want leading young people and the type of person you want to work with. He has incredible integrity,” Baker said. “He is loyal, hasn’t been a job hopper. He stayed right here and worked his way up as a Mountaineer.

“Thoughtful, strategic and honest and has a great basketball mind.”

Baker also noted that Eilert, a Kansas native, was given plenty of responsibility while working for Huggins and didn’t turn away from it.

“A tremendously hard worker,” Baker said. “I believe a farm boy.”