A summer of roster movement still ahead for WVU Basketball and Baseball

welcome back welcome in this is countryroads confidential at earport dcom I am Mike a joined today by Chris Anderson this an interesting split screen here Chris as always you're in Virginia I'm in West Virginia today is an elite Camp day at West Virginia what are you doing in Virginia it's 97 degrees here I had to do this out in the hottest temperature of the summer so far today walking around trying to cover this camp minimal idea what I'm doing um I'm afraid I'm going to melt though how do I listen I can cover the camp I mean I can look at 40 times and verticals and figure out who gets talked to all that stuff um how do I survive the heat don't know hey they got the Gatorade on the side I have been informed that old people media members like ourselves are allowed to have it even though it's put out for campers so feel free to indulge get your electrolytes back up but the old saying that and I remember I mean we've been hearing this for years of it being 20 degrees hotter out on that Turf it might be legit so if it's 97 like for the rest of the world there in Morgantown it's probably 110 standing there on that field out in the wide open so yeah you wear sneakers right yeah I don't man cuz like one um like my feet were just dying the first couple times I was out there so I like we're like comfortable flip flops but the problem is I get those rubber pellets in it too and then also my flip-flops are black and they just start to get way too hot too there's there's no right answer to this question this is going to be an adventure today um and maybe a seven on seven Wednesday and a seven on seven Friday too so see how this goes we'll Regale you all with details offers information from the camp actually some some stuff already started happening Chris you're already telling me that some of the highlights are going to be pulled out from underneath not even going to get to see some of the good stuff that apparently has already happened early this morning you can catch that on the board right now on the VIP side we'll have updates all that stuff as normal me Andrew out there no Chris trying to make a big deal out of it I'm not we'll talk about basketball and baseball otherwise here today because during time away during time during camps here a lot has happened but also in some regard a lot has not happened too which is still somewhat of a headline when it comes to basketball and then obviously the baseball season over transition of power beginning a lot changing with college sports that could be good or indifferent for baseball depending on how schools lean in let's begin though Chris with basketball as everybody knows I was gone for a couple weeks figured everything would be taken care of when I got back so as I was getting caught up on everything I'm doing the search in the website for new assistant coaches uh who were the extra players in the roster and none of that stuff happened still two assistant coaches to go we do have one spot filled since I got back I believe Jaden Stone I think committed maybe the day I got back something like that so okay that's good um beyond that though still one spot with one player who hasn't V visited anywhere else and still two spots in the bench I think all these things will probably finish up pretty soon because they're going to Italy as well so they want to have a full team full staff full roster sooner than later and people already beginning to make it to campus enroll you see photos and Social Media stuff about workout so I imagine they're trying to wrap this up soon am I wrong that has not been the case so far right they taken time and patience yeah not a not a sense of urgency it doesn't feel like with a lot of these moves and to be quite honest it's kind of worked out like it's taken some time to get there but all of the moves have been pretty good yeah the roster currently is at 11 of the 13 scholarship spots filled after the addition of Jaden Stone um we'll Circle back to him in just a minute but let's see where which way do I want to go because there's a couple things you mentioned there that have been the hot topics on the message board over the last you know few weeks and let's start with the coaches I guess because that was the thing hey why were they not filling out these last two spots why is it not happening and I have mixed feelings on this because my first thought is hey colleges have been getting by with three assistant coaches for decades so what's the big deal about adding more than three at this point however we know mostly right I don't know we're 100% on this but like 99% that not all three of the guys who are currently announced as assistant coaches will be on the road uh once a full staff is established and that's that's the rule there can be five five quote unquote assistants only three of them can be on the road recruiting West Virginia has three those three guys are on the road recruiting right now but they it's not the plan for them to be the three moving forward or at least not all three of them that kind of I don't want to say is bad but it's it's it's time spent where somebody's doing a job they won't aren't normally going to do for this program and a guy who would normally be doing that job for the program is not getting that experience for the program that that's the the big negative for me on this not you know jumping to ad play uh assistant coaches right now where's your stance on West Virginia's current situation with the assisant coaches come around and all this stuff I I I don't know it's been forever since I covered a coaching change and and assistant coaching transactions has not been something I we have been familiar with here so I just assume the head coach would come in and fill his staff out as soon as possible nope so shame on me for not knowing that but I also see that that maybe doesn't make sense because similar to players Chris you really want to have fits and if you get an assistant coach who doesn't do exactly what you want or doesn't know parts of the country or I don't know maybe maybe Chris's contract rolls over and the buyout goes down when you hit a certain date in the calendar there's all sorts of different things to account for that I had not thought of the people have told me but the point that you made you can get by with three on the road one in the office they have that um Nelson Hernandez is their their roster management guy they have three assistance with debris out in the road you can do that and then if Nick Norton is for example is not going to be a full-time on the road assistant coach he's also an assistant and director of Player Development it might make sense for him not to be out in the road recruiting he's also the youngest of the assistant coaches no harm in him going out to do on the RO recruiting that's good for him um he's been with d for a while so perhaps this is good for him down the road whether it's with this staff or with some other staff is it best for West Virginia right now I don't know that he's even helped her hurt not sure so like how can it be a bad thing if it's not apparent one way or the other fine with that and I think most of the time you're going to see your lead assistant coach your head coach probably do a lot of the recruiting which seems to be the case right now with chester Frasier doing a lot of the stuff so I think when it gets into the season and a normal cycle yeah you want to have your people so they can work their their neighborhoods their connections all the stuff and all the people that they know but now Chris it's just such a matter of from the moment they hit the ground to today of just trying to scramble a little bit and filling the pieces in a rush early with quantity and quality and then little bit more calculated toward the finish so it slowed down for sure there was a rush for a while of offers and visit and trying to get people here I think you can slow down once you have a core maybe some surrounding parts and be a little bit more calculated seems like they have um I don't know I was never really worked up about this but I've certainly calmed down about it I was curious I didn't know as much I think the more you see things happen here and the more you learn about what they're doing and how they're doing it you start to understand and appreciate the why they're doing it this way too and everything's different like I think there there's still a lot of people and maybe somewhat myself included here that are stuck in the old ways let's say of of how recruiting works and how how this how the timeline goes you know the standard timeline is you reach out to a player the player gets a visit or an offer then gets visit whichever way it goes an offer and then visits or a visit and then offer and then you go on and get a commitment we've seen that's not the case with this you know a big holdup with Javon small for instance who committed and then other schools were still pursuing him and he didn't sign and this is the I think the podcast we talked about right before you left the country was why is he not signing and Kansas was trying to get back in there but there was also this fact that small had never visited West Virginia he' never been on campus and he came the next day to Morgantown with his mom took a visit and I don't want to say the coaches locked him in a room until he signed his financial aid paperwork so they could announce him but I'm not saying they didn't do that no um that got done but but then there's also like for instance Jaden Stone and he signed his paperwork and he I did an interview with him and he said yeah I'm in Australia I said did you come up visit no never visited West Virginia was in Australia didn't know the coaches he G to see morgant toown for the first time when he arrives later this summer to enroll with the program so it's different old ways of this standard visit the school meet everybody get an offer commit that's gone um I'm not saying it's better or worse but this is how it's going to work especially with some of these high-profile transfers so some of that stuff is uh is going to throw off your Timeline just a bit but the good news is small is signed bone is signed and even one that I don't want to say we forgot we mentioned it on the Pod podcast but yesufu Joseph yufu the back the point guard or presumed backup point guard he hadn't even signed yet and and as as of when we did the last podcast or not the last podcast but the last podcast before you left the country so that's done now all 11 are signed they're as locked in as locked in as you can be in this day of college athletics um and now the staff is kind of moving on which takes me to Duncan Powell the forward from Sacramento State um came up for a visit two weeks ago chose not to do interviews afterwards hasn't visited anywhere else as far as I could tell had some interest from other programs it's June 17th and he has not signed he not chosen a school I don't know what that means I don't know what his timeline is but as of right now it feels like that should be good news for West Virginia would think so I think one of these metrics we have to use now is um is like a calendar and look at like when is their birthday um will they announce on Father's Day do they have a grandmother or a grandfather they want to announce on that date maybe it's maybe it's a simple as that right now too so all of our biographical research on players as he right-handed what was his uh percentage shooting in the paint what's his Corner three-point percentage what's his birthday um what's his mom's birthday like maybe it's a Father's Day omage something like that so it's it's so Random anymore the point you make about visits is pretty interesting too because in the transfer era and you've been over this like Powell doesn't want to talk um that's not unusual for for players they don't want to do a lot or any of the stuff because they've done it once sometimes twice before and they're just not into it like let me just get the paperwork on let me let me talk to the coaches or make the visit and then more on top of that when you're coming from Detroit Mercy or Sacramento State um yuu was in Morgantown Javon small was in Morgantown they've been there before but if you're coming from a smaller school like do you really have to see the facilities I'm going to assume that West Virginia has better stuff than Detroit Mercy in Sacramento State so you could tell them hey we got a practice facility we got a hot tub let's say no more coach I mean right it's going to be a step up so it's not as important for them and they know that they're going to play in the Big 12 they're going to play against Big 12 teams you have some FaceTime and some conversations with the coaches I think that's more important than like the amount of hills on campus where is the mountain layer um what can I do on a Saturday in the summer like that stuff it sounds good like and maybe if you're going to be here for four or five years that's the case but in this one or two year era of players and they've been through it before I think it's probably easier than we we maybe initially recognize or acknowledge and that explains maybe why some of the contact clu before like a visit that's not really as telling anymore and it could be something as simple as like a kid's birthday or like a a relative's birthday or when he can actually um sit down with people and make a decision and make an announcement too but at this point you would kind of be surprised if pal wasn't one of the last two just because of what we know and more importantly what else we don't know we don't know any other names well the other thing they announced was the Italy trip which you mentioned earlier that's coming up pretty quick um to not have a full roster and like you said you would think that they would want to have a full roster and a full complement of coaches before that goes so when we were talking calendars and timelines and all that that seems to or whatever what have to check on this like there has to be I'm assuming some sort of requirements in order to be able to take that trip you know waivers and this and that medical forms all that stuff you got to get that information into the school someday not not 24 hours before the trip it's got to be before that so I'm assuming there's a Deadlight that deadline that is before that that West Virginia needs to get everyone on board that is planning on going well Visa status is important remember that and then um I'm pretty sure you just have to be eligible to play so in this era now where like everybody who transfers is eligible that's not a concern academics we don't know I just don't know so somebody's academically ineligible that would be news to us but at this point you would think anybody who's signed to West Virginia and is eligible to play will be on that plane going to Italy in just a couple of weeks so that would be a good thing then you got to remember the international stuff too Chris I don't have the list of people in front of me but far fewer International prospects on this team than last year where you had Canadians and estonians and um part of West Virginia's recruiting appeal was the fact that they had kind of figured some things out with how to do nil overseas there's a movement to really make that far less restrictive and actually it involved Shelly Moore Capo from West Virginia who have been trying to get a word with for a while and have not been able to so hopefully we can fix that soon but ofri na how many other international players on the team is Stone Australian so yes he is yeah so the thing is you can go overseas and you can do nil business if you have an F1 Visa you can't do that in the US so that's a small thing but Stone you don't have to worry about I mean if you're one of the last two players and you're Finnish for example or or Italian or people say oh let's get an international big let's get a South American Guard whatever that then that might be an incenter people to hurry up and get this done or just to jump aboard because they can get it accomplished or maybe they couldn't in another part of the United States but I also wonder how many international players are truly familiar with nil the opportunities the restrictions and and if even that's a consideration for a player at this point at his career a high school senior coming in I don't know that you're going to have college transfers from Europe coming to Europe Europe to America so that might not be a thing anymore too so you really might be adding one or two players for just basketball purposes Chris and nothing like tricky nil runarounds now before we uh make a switch over to baseball you got any concerns about I don't want to say concerns about the roster but concerns of what is lacking on the roster is there anything you know we we've spent plenty of time over the last few months being like Oh hey they need a shooter a point guard a big and and you know they've added different pieces over time is there anything else that you're like man if they don't get X it's a problem no because my my fill in the blanks would be somebody who's tall and has some some size to him and then somebody who is just like a more traditional let's say boring point guard going to dribble the ball going to break pressure gonna get the teammates involved is not going to be a person who wants to get his own shot I'm not sure that this roster works better or supposed to work with one or both of those parts in here and if you look at some of what the Drake teams did before they yeah they had a great Center the past couple of years in Brody can they function out that maybe and can you can you replicate that like he's 611 270 and became a good offensive player but not a throw it to him and let him back it down so I'm not sure you need that and if you can get by getting similar numbers to his maybe you can do that at 69 68 I'm not sure they have that guy right now don't get me wrong but is is there a 611 guy out there maybe not and someone who's going to really make you behave differently on offense maybe on defense no probably not so that doesn't concern me so much and again when you have Javon small and you don't necessarily have a true backup one but small is going to play the majority of the minutes and if you do get a guy who like I said is your boring point guard who just runs the offense dribbles breaks pressure doesn't turn over plays and defense you're gonna get that for a couple minutes a half couple times year is that gonna make a big difference I'm not sure that again that that changes the way that they run things here too so those would be the names of the the the profiles in my wish list but I'm not so concerned about it because adding those things yeah maybe it completes the picture for me doesn't necessarily mean it does that for West Virginia and it doesn't change things in or it doesn't Advance things in the direction that maybe it's going but I do think you would like to have just some traditional pieces here someone who's big and can play center and someone who's sound and can play point guard guard but not a concern because I don't think that I don't think that they're missing that and and it just pushes us across the go line I think they're missing it and it just completes the picture all right let's switch to baseball let's see if they can complete the picture here because we saw last summer how important this summer transfer window can be for baseball program um we'll get into who's leaving who's coming in in just a second but just a reminder of what happened last summer West Virginia University announced eight transfer Editions in the summer for the baseball program Derek Clark pretty good ace pitcher Tyler swatowski the number two pitcher at least for the postseason uh Oliver a relever that tied for the second most Innings pitched and was pretty good uh Hayden Cooper who was you know Hit or Miss but was in the rotation was the number four guy most of the time um Luke Lyman uh limited action but had the lowest uh whip on the staff which is walks and hits per inning pick pitched so a little bit of promise there Reed Chumley starting third baseman cleanup hitter K West starting DH Ben lumson starting right fielder so what is that seven key contributors out of the eight additions in the summer so you can really make or break your upcoming season with what happens in the summer and I think West Virginia so far as of 9:42 a.m. on June 17th is off to a pretty darn good start as far as ins and outs in the portal for this program now there's still a lot of time to go there's still the major league baseball draft that's coming up next month and we know that JJ weather Holt's going to be gone for that you know he's still got a year of Eligibility but go ahead and chalk him up as a top 10 pick and gone um a couple of West Virginia's High School commits are in the picture for the MLB draft and that'll be interesting see what they do even a couple of the other guys that are on the team right now that Juniors this year that are eligible for the draft they might have some decisions to make especially with the way they finished this season so Mike a current recap of what's happening in the portal first transfers out of the program officially listed in the NCAA transfer portal as of this very moment infielders Nick Veron Tony konop payot outfielders Lincoln pack and Tyler Cox catcher Luke sepc and left-handed pitcher Andrew Calloway not I mean those guys they were they had promising players but none of those guys really made a difference on this year's team were not major contributors in any way transfers into the program Griffin karna a left-handed pitcher from Quincy University at one of the very first things that somebody tweeted uh and you know slow some West Virginia fans down this but it was hey left-handed pitcher from a small school that's dominant hey the next Derek Clark look don't don't get ahead of yourself um Jack carsona a right-handed pitcher from Kent State who was very solid Chase Swain shortstop from Manhattan that batted darn near 400 and then reys Bassinger who is another right-handed pitcher came in uh a relief type pitcher he made believe it 27 appearances and like 60 Innings so he he's a guy that can do two or three Innings at a time as a middle reliever had an erra around three So you you're bulking up that Bullpen which was admittedly a problem at times for this team adding a nice short stop with a bat adding another left-handed B uh pitcher that can throw some nasty stuff pretty darn good start yeah it's like they know what they're doing Chris um I think you worry a little bit about a coaching transition and all that comes with it but Steve savs the head coach now he was he's been their recruiting guy for for a couple of years and it's not just him but he's he's the guy who's kind of held the the marinett in place and made them all work and I think that that's good for continuity when you see some of these things happening like you can joke about a division two left-handed starting pitcher well maybe you have your eye on that level of baseball and you're figuring out who's good and who can get on your team quickly because you know their postseason ends earlier there's still games going on right now too so it's it's you're not going to get players from the best eight teams in the country transferring right now unless they're just not part of the team you're not going to get the best players the best transfer is because A lot's going on so if division 2 is over and you like to look up a pitcher or a short stop or a DH or whatever and you can get it done early that's not a bad thing it doesn't mean he's going to beat Derek Clark but if he could be a guy who can pitch for you then get that done earlier on and then yeah the stats are probably impressive for the other players you mentioned but there's something there that it'd be really fun to listen to sain talk about what he saw how he knew about this person because I'm sure there's something in there where they were encouraged to get this done soon there might have been competition for it but to be to be this accomplished this early like The Season's been over for what eight days now nine days now and to have a couple of things done I think that's pretty good so I'm sure they weren't tampering or anything like that and then you know it's it's so it's so quick Kristen you have to have those nil conversations too and this is a team that was playing not that long ago and then you know had a period of of mning the season and the changing of power for the manager and all that stuff and give him a day right and then to be bang back on the road and doing this stuff um hit the ground running I think that's pretty interesting and pretty promising too but that's what five names you mentioned there going be a lot more than that yeah six six out and four in right now so four okay I think there made more than that obviously you had like you said eight last year so maybe double that but um I think when you have a change like this too baseball's prone to turnover West Virginia like like many schools has had a number of transfers across time you're probably going to have normal attrition and it may be exaggerated by someone who really liked Maisy who might not like Sabin who might be a this this role for Maisy but has been told he'll be this role for Sabin and maybe he leaves I think you're going to see that number go up too but then the question is can the coaching change stimulate interest for people to come in and West Virginia baseball has been good for a couple years has facilities up has facilities coming power conference looks like good nil gets players to the pros so on so forth doesn't have Randy Maisy so how do you work around that um how involved will Randy Maisy be with recruiting that'd be something I'd be curious about too I'm sure he's not picking up the phone calling people but could he be an asset could he be a supplement could he answer questions could he talk about how much he endorses Steve Sabin remember he's still part of the University um he's still going to have a job in a role too so there something that says he can't do that um a lot of a lot of things they can actually make positive of in a situation that you might look at and say ah boy it's not as good as it was a year ago why can't it be and you have parts of people yeah parts of the program who can step forward and say no no no this is good and here's why the last maybe not the last but maybe the most obvious hurdle remaining other than than trying to keep guys in for the transfer portal is the major league baseball draft and there are some key guys for West Virginia that will have decisions to make this is so complicated too yeah well and and here here are the here's the list of guys Aiden major Tyler switowski um Grant hussy Rie creser Kyle West and and I know people are going to be confused about this I'll explain in a second but Logan sa usually the rule is you got to get through your junior year or you have to turn 21 except it's not 21 before the draft it's 21 within 45 days of the draft so he turns 21 after the draft but before the 45 day window so he is technically eligible for the major league baseball draft that did that sound like a a lot of very important players to you Michael it St lineup Chris um so is it 40 days before 45 days before and 45 days after no no no so if you turn 21 any point up to 45 days after the draft so if you turn 21 before the draft at any point you're good like you know guys you red shirt and all that stuff but yeah so you can get it 45 days after the draft you're still good I would bet you run those names by me again I think I C all but one Aiden major gone Tyler switalski gone Logan sa okay Grant hussy for those that are listening and not watching Mike did a grant hussy gone R creser and Kyle West well there's something about that Kyle West bat that left-handed sweet swing maybe maybe gone listen all those guys could be picked in a normal draft um what's normal anymore normal's 20 rounds that's really tricky too that's a a thing that people don't really recognize too um that it's much shorter that's like what half I think of what it used to be so there are not as many picks that's one thing the other thing is too is that last year um what was Wallace's first name the outfielder Wallace can't remember his name undrafted he's in Triple A Chris that was a senior last year Landon Wallace Landon Wallace was uh undrafted a senior he's in tripa already so sometimes you're going to see the draft us as leverage where a senior doesn't have a choice he's gotta go so you don't draft him and you sign him or whatever and someone like sa the reason I didn't really give you a facial expression is that's a guy who can come back and be a face of a team I think he's he's a catcher he's got a really good bat the offense the defense all that stuff is there too he maybe he maybe he spends the future in the field or DH or whatever and he's not a catcher in that that physical wear and tear that comes off and he just blossoms as a hitter or whatever else he does I'm saying he could be in for a big year if you can keep him but if he's an a mid- round pick I don't think he's an early round pick but if he's like in a round that makes you go well now there's leverage because you can sign him you can work all the the angles on him and then you can outdo the nil in Morgantown I think so there's some questions there too um I think aen maor got a big time arm and the way the season went for him um I I just wouldn't be surprised if he got drafted and went swatowski left-handed great postseason known a little bit too it's not the first time he did this he had some good numbers before I'd be surprised if he didn't come back or if he did come back hussy Bea the out of the beholder there same with West like if you can work on that swing and you can get a good contact power hitter you know first baseman and the minor that's that's fine um there's some things you can look at there so and then uh creser he's played a lot of college baseball Chris does he want to give him another shot here and really up his stock but again he loses leverage if he goes too so or if he um if he stays he comes back he loses his leverage next year too and he could be undrafted like Wallace but it can also work out like Wallace too so there's a lot to do there it's complex man but the fact that it's 20 rounds now the fact that nil is on campus the fact that I think there's a lot of people who want to see this work like last year um different reason you know coach going coach arriving I think there's a similar motivation maybe for some players they want to make this work so they have I mean on top of recruiting and keeping your roster together you also have to do the draft too which is um as you mentioned for for 45 different reasons so to speak that's a Tas for for teams at this stage of the year and there's there's one more angle on this and and something for you fans to watch this this draft is in July if a player is taken in the top 10 rounds of that 20 round draft consider them gone because for major league baseball teams if they take a player in the top 10 rounds but then don't sign them they still lose that portion of their signing money that they the the money that they're allowed to use their pool of money that they're allowed to use to sign players so they are doing their homework they are talking with players no major league baseball team is going to take a kid in the top 10 Rounds if he doesn't think the kid is going decide once you get after that 10 Rounds I the odds of a player coming back will probably increase a good bit because maybe that's a point where A team's like hey I don't know if we can get this kid but maybe if we take him later go outside of above and beyond what our slotted cool money is for this signing bonus money is for this and try to convince this kid maybe but if you go in the top 10 Rounds consider that Player gone at this point in time because because MLB MLB teams are no long longer going to use those spots for kids that aren't going to sign yeah and the high school players like you mentioned too that's a good thing because they make it to campus that's fine but boy they're going to be that you look at those guys more more likely now than before because you have your system for a while and and you can you can pull them away but that that really does boy that bugs college coaches some it's like an eighth round pick all of a sudden like I got him I got him maybe I don't we'll see so yeah the season's over and in some regard Chris just getting started but um there's a lot happening off the field too when it comes to the way the scholarships may be restructured you know full scholarships now too instead of fractionals and all the momentum that West Virginia baseball has going for it probably time to lean in and pay attention this because there's a lot going on it could be interesting it does seem promising right now um I I read about this the headline says that you can read the story but there are worse times to make a change like this for baseball and West Virginia has enough going in the right direction that the rules and the changes might actually be beneficial to what they're doing and what they're trying to accomplish um that about wraps it up here Chris I think I'm off to Camp you're off to hang out in the shade no I I think I might have it worse than you you're GNA stand there in 97 degree heat and watch camp for five hours I'm gonna stand over here in 95 degree heat with a bunch of 10-year-olds and their fathers at a baseball tournament yelling at me because I don't properly know how to coach 10y olds apparently so I've been trying to tell them it tell next time I'm Mike cazza and I'm Chris Anderson we will talk to you then