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A week after longtime head coach Bob Huggins stepped down, West Virginia tapped Josh Eilert as interim basketball coach, athletic director Wren Baker announced Saturday. Eilert currently serves as an assistant coach.
Huggins, who abruptly resigned hours after an arrest for drunk driving, was named Mountaineers head coach in 2007. The promotion gives Eilert his first chance as head coach.
Baker said it made more sense for the basketball program to select an internal candidate given the difficulty of searching wide in the summer.
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FILE – West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins watches from the bench during the first half of an NCAA University basketball game against Iowa State, Monday, February 27, 2023, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
“I’ve been talking to knowledgeable basketball people across the country over the past week, including coaches, professional basketball managers and others who I trust can identify a strong pool of candidates to speak to,” Baker said in a statement.
“What I eventually came to recognize was that conducting this search at the end of June was difficult for many of our applicants, and also that it really put our talented student-athletes at a disadvantage. That being said, we will conduct our national search on the conclusion of the 2023-24 season.”
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In accordance with NCAA rules, WVU players have 30 days to decide whether to enter the transfer portal. The athletes would have already entered the portal and still have the option to return to Morgantown before the fall.
Eilert could be the glue holding together a senior squad built largely through transfers.
“Josh Eilert is the right person to lead our men’s basketball program next season,” said Baker. “He has been an important part of our success and he has demonstrated great integrity, work ethic and dedication. He has been involved in all facets of our program during his time on the basketball staff and he has earned this opportunity to coach us. ” team on an interim basis for the 2023-24 season.”
Eilert, 43, first joined Huggins in 2006 as a graduate assistant at Kansas State and followed him to West Virginia in 2007. will be named assistant coach in July 2022.
West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Bob Huggins reacts during the first half against the Maryland Terrapins in the first round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Legacy Arena in the BJCC on March 16, 2023 in Birmingham, Alabama. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
“I want to thank Wren Baker, President Gee, Rob Alsop, Steve Uryasz and the rest of our administration for believing in me and giving me the opportunity to lead our legendary Mountaineer basketball program,” said Eilert. “I also want to thank Coach Huggins for keeping his staff at K-State in 2006 and for bringing me to West Virginia in 2007. I learned so much from Coach Huggins, and it was an honor to work for a Hall of Fame coach for the last 17 years.”
Among others linked to the opening were UAB coach and former Huggins assistant Andy Kennedy, and former West Virginia and Michigan coach John Beilein.
West Virginia Head Coach Bob Huggins watches the play unfold during the Big12 Tournament game between the Kansas Jayhawks and the West Virginia Mountaineers on Thursday, March 9, 2023 at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO. (Nick Tre. Smith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Huggins was the head coach at his alma mater for 16 years. In the late 1970s, he previously served as an assistant coach with West Virginia.
Huggins was charged with drunk driving on June 16 in Pittsburgh. According to an indictment, Huggins initially thought he was in Columbus, Ohio. A breath test found that Huggins’ blood alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit. He has scheduled a preliminary hearing for Aug. 3 in Pittsburgh.
Last month, Huggins agreed to a three-game suspension, a $1 million salary cut and sensitivity training for using the slur during an interview with Cincinnati radio station WLW.
Huggins pleaded no drink driving in a Cincinnati suburb and was ordered to attend a three-day intervention program. The University of Cincinnati, where Huggins was the head coach at the time, suspended him indefinitely with pay and told Huggins to rehabilitate himself.
He was fired a year later amid a power struggle with the school’s president and the aftermath of the DUI arrest.
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Huggins was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame last September. In 41 seasons, his teams have gone to 25 NCAA Tournaments.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Chantz Martin is a sports writer for Fox News Digital.
