As the NCAA Tournament comes to a close, GMS likes to review some of the power conference or power program teams that made it to the Big Dance and ask whether or not they’ve got a shot to return to the show next season. We kick things off with teams eliminated in the first round.
Recruit and Reload: West Virginia Mountaineers
Key Losses: Devin Williams, Jaysean Paige
Key Returners: Jevon Carter, Daxter Miles, Tarik Phillip, Esa Ahmad
Key Newcomers: Four freshmen, all three-star prospects
Breakdown: Head coach Bob Huggins doesn’t build his WVU teams on the number of stars next to their names in their high school recruiting profiles. He doesn’t build it off of the other offers some of his recruits have when they sign with the Mountaineers. No, he builds it on player development and the relentless dedication to his newly hailed system. Press Virginia is Huggins, at this point. Bringing back a core of Carter, Miles, Phillip, and Ahmad should help him with that.
Though, there’s no escaping the fact this this group will miss the firepower and toughness brought by Paige and Williams, respectively. We expect WVU to take a step back, but Huggins keeps proving that his teams are never too far away from competing in the Big 12.
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