--West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker thanked Josh Eilert. He is an incredible human being and did a great job leading the program through some turbulent waters. He displayed class, integrity and professionalism and he thinks the world of him. He thinks he has a very bright future because he has tremendous leadership qualities. He embraced the adversity as a lesson and Baker also thanked the entire family. Eilert will remain a member of the family.
--Baker said it's important they have somebody that understands West Virginians. They don't have to have ties. They want somebody committed to building a championship program on and off the court. They want somebody that demonstrates knowledge and a plan to deal with the complexities in today's college environment. Lastly, they need somebody that can embrace being a face of the state. You don't get to come and just be a basketball coach here, you're an ambassador for the state. After today, Baker will go off the grid.
--Baker wants the most well rounded candidate. He has hired candidates with different profiles and he wants somebody that has been a head coach at some level. You really don't know what comes with that job until you sit in that chair. Those are things that are important but if you start out with a menus of boxes you're willing to check and nobody checks them all you want the best total resume. The most important thing is a demonstrated track record of success in year one.
--Baker will honor the contract with Eilert and his staff. He will be here to provide stability to assure a smooth transition. They will engage him in anything that is needed for the program during this interim period.
--Baker said they will compare the total body of work and sometimes a successful mid-major coach has been in a major program. Baker said he has been sharpening the axe for ninth months and look at different profiles. Candidates look alike and that's when the in-person interviews come into things.
--Because of the portal there is an opportunity to have early success but he encourages coaches to build a program and not just a team. They need to get the culture, the staff and the systems in place and allow them to build that over time. There could be a pretty significant roster overhaul when the portal opens March 18. The results will come sooner or later but they will come.
--Baker had a chance to meet with the men in the program last night. He felt like it's spring break and knew they would scatter so he wanted to talk to them in person. They continued to play hard and he shared with them that they had their admiration and respect. He said he will run the search as expeditiously as he can but they need to be thorough. They were very respectful.
--Baker said you have to be careful not to confuse causation and correlation. He doesn't believe you have to be from here to love it here. If all else is equal maybe that helps you, but it wouldn't be the focus. There are a lot of examples of coaches that aren't from here that do well. You have to come in with the heart to connect with West Virginians.
--Basketball is harder to pin down because the way the post-season is structured. Getting somebody to unplug from preparing a team for the tournament for your search is difficult. The hope should be quickly because they've had enough time to study profiles. They've had time so they are prepared to move quickly but some of that is based on the schedule of the candidates. All of that will be moving in real time but hopefully the search will be completed by the Final Four if not sooner.
--Generally Baker likes to keep a spreadsheet on most sports. They are judicious in doing that and because they had plenty of time and he wanted to start from scratch. He went through all the schools in the country and brought together a screening committee and assigned them conferences and did the same thing. Then it's about digging down into the data with analytics and kenpom, etc. Baker really likes to dig into that stuff and there starts to be natural separations and breaks.
--That's where some of the connections Baker had nationally help with being on the NIT committee and being a coach when it comes to knowing jobs that are open elsewhere. He tracks other job openings a little bit, but it's not part of his process. He doesn't want to do multiple bidding on a house, he wants the right house and the right deal.
--Great coaches still do a really good job of having a winning culture and assessing that on a move when so many recruits are just looking at NIL opportunities is so much more of an art than a science. He wants to talk to successful coaches about that. How do they go about building chemistry and the sense of pulling for one?
--Baker said when they have an opening you always compare that to your closest peer group with pay for coaching, staffs, travel budget, etc. He feels really good about where they will be.
--This is a great basketball job. Really strong program with a tremendous tradition done with multiple coaches, great facilities, KenPom they are No. 2 in the country in home court advantage. Fan passion feeds into it. The passion of the fans come up in any conversation with agents or candidates.
--You have to be great defensively. Every team that has finished in the top half is generally top 50 defensively. Most generally people that value defensive tend to play slower. You won't find somebody outside the top 100 defensively in the Big 12 that has finished in the top half of the Big 12.
--Baker doesn't think it will take them long to be competitive nationally and back in the tournament. Rosters fluctuate a lot anyways and that's especially true when you have a coaching change.
--When people give their wealth, time and talent to support a program Baker always gives an ear to those data points from boosters. But ultimately when a hire doesn't work and you have to come in a room like this, he's never seen anybody else sitting with the athletic director because he bears the front of that decision. He will listen.
--You're going to have hard times in sports but Baker learned how passionate the fan base is and how they kept coming to games even though the season didn't turn out as well as anybody hoped.
--Baker said that he isn't going to get into any individual names. He has great respect for Bob Huggins and what he did here but you can be respectful of the past and focused on the future and he is focused on the future.
--Baker said that the NIL situation is competitive and will continue to be competitive. He has talked to the Trust a lot and it's been a game changer for them. It's hard on NIL in terms of ranking dollars because nobody knows what others have and some exaggerate it to both ends but he is confident that theirs will be competitive in the Big 12 and nationally.
--Baker said it's important they have somebody that understands West Virginians. They don't have to have ties. They want somebody committed to building a championship program on and off the court. They want somebody that demonstrates knowledge and a plan to deal with the complexities in today's college environment. Lastly, they need somebody that can embrace being a face of the state. You don't get to come and just be a basketball coach here, you're an ambassador for the state. After today, Baker will go off the grid.
--Baker wants the most well rounded candidate. He has hired candidates with different profiles and he wants somebody that has been a head coach at some level. You really don't know what comes with that job until you sit in that chair. Those are things that are important but if you start out with a menus of boxes you're willing to check and nobody checks them all you want the best total resume. The most important thing is a demonstrated track record of success in year one.
--Baker will honor the contract with Eilert and his staff. He will be here to provide stability to assure a smooth transition. They will engage him in anything that is needed for the program during this interim period.
--Baker said they will compare the total body of work and sometimes a successful mid-major coach has been in a major program. Baker said he has been sharpening the axe for ninth months and look at different profiles. Candidates look alike and that's when the in-person interviews come into things.
--Because of the portal there is an opportunity to have early success but he encourages coaches to build a program and not just a team. They need to get the culture, the staff and the systems in place and allow them to build that over time. There could be a pretty significant roster overhaul when the portal opens March 18. The results will come sooner or later but they will come.
--Baker had a chance to meet with the men in the program last night. He felt like it's spring break and knew they would scatter so he wanted to talk to them in person. They continued to play hard and he shared with them that they had their admiration and respect. He said he will run the search as expeditiously as he can but they need to be thorough. They were very respectful.
--Baker said you have to be careful not to confuse causation and correlation. He doesn't believe you have to be from here to love it here. If all else is equal maybe that helps you, but it wouldn't be the focus. There are a lot of examples of coaches that aren't from here that do well. You have to come in with the heart to connect with West Virginians.
--Basketball is harder to pin down because the way the post-season is structured. Getting somebody to unplug from preparing a team for the tournament for your search is difficult. The hope should be quickly because they've had enough time to study profiles. They've had time so they are prepared to move quickly but some of that is based on the schedule of the candidates. All of that will be moving in real time but hopefully the search will be completed by the Final Four if not sooner.
--Generally Baker likes to keep a spreadsheet on most sports. They are judicious in doing that and because they had plenty of time and he wanted to start from scratch. He went through all the schools in the country and brought together a screening committee and assigned them conferences and did the same thing. Then it's about digging down into the data with analytics and kenpom, etc. Baker really likes to dig into that stuff and there starts to be natural separations and breaks.
--That's where some of the connections Baker had nationally help with being on the NIT committee and being a coach when it comes to knowing jobs that are open elsewhere. He tracks other job openings a little bit, but it's not part of his process. He doesn't want to do multiple bidding on a house, he wants the right house and the right deal.
--Great coaches still do a really good job of having a winning culture and assessing that on a move when so many recruits are just looking at NIL opportunities is so much more of an art than a science. He wants to talk to successful coaches about that. How do they go about building chemistry and the sense of pulling for one?
--Baker said when they have an opening you always compare that to your closest peer group with pay for coaching, staffs, travel budget, etc. He feels really good about where they will be.
--This is a great basketball job. Really strong program with a tremendous tradition done with multiple coaches, great facilities, KenPom they are No. 2 in the country in home court advantage. Fan passion feeds into it. The passion of the fans come up in any conversation with agents or candidates.
--You have to be great defensively. Every team that has finished in the top half is generally top 50 defensively. Most generally people that value defensive tend to play slower. You won't find somebody outside the top 100 defensively in the Big 12 that has finished in the top half of the Big 12.
--Baker doesn't think it will take them long to be competitive nationally and back in the tournament. Rosters fluctuate a lot anyways and that's especially true when you have a coaching change.
--When people give their wealth, time and talent to support a program Baker always gives an ear to those data points from boosters. But ultimately when a hire doesn't work and you have to come in a room like this, he's never seen anybody else sitting with the athletic director because he bears the front of that decision. He will listen.
--You're going to have hard times in sports but Baker learned how passionate the fan base is and how they kept coming to games even though the season didn't turn out as well as anybody hoped.
--Baker said that he isn't going to get into any individual names. He has great respect for Bob Huggins and what he did here but you can be respectful of the past and focused on the future and he is focused on the future.
--Baker said that the NIL situation is competitive and will continue to be competitive. He has talked to the Trust a lot and it's been a game changer for them. It's hard on NIL in terms of ranking dollars because nobody knows what others have and some exaggerate it to both ends but he is confident that theirs will be competitive in the Big 12 and nationally.
