Portal Portents

Bell’s apparent departure opens up a scholarship spot on the basketball roster (he would not have counted on the football team’s scholarship list until the fall, had he remained on the team). That had to happen at some point, though, as the Mountaineers had recently added RaeQuan Battle from Montana State, who is the fifth transfer of the year who will be playing for WVU this year.

Battle joins Jose Perez, who sat out this year after losing an appeal for immediate eligibility from the NCAA, Kerr Kriisa (Arizona), Omar Silverio (Manhattan) and Jesse Edwards.

Eight scholarship returnees from a season ago are still on the roster, including Mo Wague, James Okonkwo, Pat Suemnick, Tre Mitchell, Josiah Harris, Joe Toussaint, Seth Wilson and Kobe Johnson.

That puts the men’s team at the limit of 13 scholarship players for the upcoming season, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the portal is closed in either direction. WVU has still been mentioned in connection with others who are looking for a new home, and if the Mountaineers were to add one, it would have to make a move with another player who is currently on scholarship, if one did not choose to depart.

The spring NCAA men’s basketball portal window opened on March 13, and extends through May 11, so there is still time for players to decide to enter the portal so as to take advantage of penalty free one-time or graduate transfer options.

However, if this is what West Virginia’s roster will look like for the 2023-24 season, it does look to have a good deal of balance, and a range of abilities. At guard, there are distributors and pure shooters, combo players who can fill different spots and roles, and scorers who might not rack up the highest percentages but can put the ball in the basket in a variety of ways.

On the inside, there are players who operate most comfortably with their backs to the basket, and those that can step out to the mid-range and hit jumpers. There are rebounders and shot blockers, again providing what looks to be a solid mix of abilities.

All of this may look good on paper, but of course the only true proof will come when the team takes to the court for real opposition. But at this point in the assemblage process, it does look like the Mountaineers are ahead of the game.