Mountaineers host Red Raiders this evening
Trending
MORGANTOWN -- This is almost borrowed time now for Josh Eilert, the interim coach of West Virginia's basketball team who thought he was falling on a fumbled football by Bob Huggins when he accepted that job this past summer.
It turned out to be, instead, a hand grenade he fell upon.
Had he performed a miracle, that being pulling things together as head coach who had exactly one year as an assistant under his belt and putting things together on a contending Big 12 team, he would have been a candidate to at least be in the running as Huggins' full-time successor.
But each time the dice were rolled they came up snake eyes for his program, and he was facing a challenge John Wooden or Dean Smith could not have met, even at the heights of their Hall of Fame careers.
Now, when Texas Tech comes into the Coliseum for what is basically a meaningless game for the Mountaineers and their 9-19 record at 6 p.m. today, the reality is setting in that the end is drawing near, and as Sinatra would sing it, he'll face the final curtain.
Three games left, two at home, then a trip to the Big 12 Tournament is all that seems to be left.
"It was a flash," Eilert admitted in the midst of his Friday morning Zoom call. "At every turn you had a different challenge."
A challenge a day, it seemed … RaeQuan Battle vs. the NCAA … Kerr Kriisa suspended by the NCAA … Akok Akok suffered a medical emergency … and the season hadn't even started.
Then, as they were coming back and it seemed Eilert could coach a full roster, Jesse Edwards, his big man in the middle, broke a bone in his wrist and was sidelined for five weeks.
"You just get up each and every day, take the opportunity you are given and try to make the most of it," he said.
There was barely time to think, let alone put in a system, create chemistry, scout teams, devise game plans, put out the brush fires that crop up in any team's locker room.
"It went really fast this year," Eilert went on. "The summer really didn't exist because it was such a … you try to do everything you can to try and put together a good roster and compete night in and night out in this league.
"We certainly had our challenges and we met them head on. We're certainly not where we want to be from a record standpoint, but I loved the fight we had in the second half against Kansas State (overcoming a 25-point deficit to force overtime on the road). That's the type of resilience, the type of mentality I wanted our guys to play with every day."
He believes that that they did and that there is much deceiving about what the final record will wind up with his first team as a head coach.
"I don't think that the win/lost record defines myself, our staff, our guys. That's my message to them moving forward. You can't let that define you. Let's take the opportunity you have every day and move forward."
For almost any first-time coach the transition is daunting. Fans see it from the outside and can only glimpse at the wrapping, not what lies within and what went into putting it together.
Even an assistant coach can't wrap his mind around the areas that must be tended to.
"There's a lot more behind-the-scenes things that you are dealing with from a day-to-day standpoint that maybe as an assistant coach or a support staff member you don't know the head coach is dealing with," Eiert admitted.
That goes into such matters of TV and radio appearances, media sessions with the TV crews and reporters from opponents' town; health of players, what uniform should be worn, officials, sick children or wives of players or within your own family, meetings with the athletic director … it goes on and on beyond the x's and o's.
"There's probably 10-fold the challenges that you see from the outside looking in. You just try to do the best you can, represent the university and the state as best you can with high integrity, high character as you go about your business every day," Eilert said.
"I know we are about nine months into my 10-month contract and it's a short window to figure out what you can do to be the most successful team you can absolutely be but also to lead the program in the right direction."
But there's another "team" involved, too, and that is the coach's own family. One would hope to be able to keep a touch of normalcy in their lives, to shield them from the social media beating that a coach takes or from the maybe the things kids sometimes say to each other in the schools.
He has a wife, Brandi, two sons, Bendan and Tristan and a daughter, Emri.
"What I can hang my hat on every day is doing things the right way and carrying myself the right way; having high integrity and character about what I do," he said. "The one thing that is always a constant in my life is my family.
"I have a great wife who keeps me grounded and keeps things in perspective and I have a great family to go home each and every night to go home to," Eilert went on. "Just thinking about that there's a 6-year-old there who knows no difference between a win and a loss and he's there smiling and excited to see his dad every night.
"They've done a great job of keeping me grounded and being there to support me each and every day. I try not to take too much work home but the reality of the job is you have to in a lot of ways. These challenges have been hard on everybody.
"I think we did a great job from Day 1 navigating everything we've had to navigate. There's certainly been a lot of obstacles."