WVU Men’s Basketball Team Loses Two More Underclassmen

WVU Men’s Basketball Team Loses Two More Underclassmen

Two more Mountaineer men’s basketball players have reportedly decided to transfer.

According to various media outlets, WVU forward Lamont West and sophomore center Drew Gordon are both leaving West Virginia University and will seek to transfer elsewhere.

West will be a graduate transfer and thus he would be eligible at any NCAA program immediately. A third-year sophomore, Gordon would be a traditional transfer and unless he receives an NCAA waiver, he would have to sit out a year if he wants to transfer to a Division I program. He could transfer down to a D-II of D-III school and be eligible right away.

A native of Cincinnati, the 6-foot-8, 222-pound West redshirted at WVU as a true freshman in 2014-15, but then played in 109 of the Mountaineers’ 110 games over the next three seasons. He scored a total of 945 points in his time at WVU, including a career-best average of 11.1 points per game this past season, in which he started 20 of the team’s 36 games. He also averaged a career-high 4.1 rebounds this year. His strength with West Virginia was his 3-point shooting. He made 154 shots from beyond the arc in his WVU career, which puts him 12th all-time in Mountaineer history.

Though he did start four games in the middle of the season, Gordon typically was the third center WVU used in its post rotation this year. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.7 rebounds while playing 7.0 minutes in 34 games in his one season with the Mountaineers. A native of Clearwater, Florida, the 6-foot-9, 255-pound Gordon spent the previous two seasons at Northwest Florida State College, though he redshirted in his second year because of a knee injury.

Not counting senior forward Esa Ahmad, who was dismissed from the West Virginia squad midway through the season, West and Gordon are the fourth and fifth Mountaineer underclassmen who will not return to the squad next year. Wes Harris was dismissed from the team in early February the same time as Ahmad. Junior guard Beetle Bolden announced his decision to grad transfer late in the season followed shortly by a statement from freshman guard Trey Doomes that he also was going to transfer.

All that attrition leaves the Mountaineers with seven scholarship players eligible to return next year, though the fate of one of those – junior center Sagaba Konate – still is uncertain. There could always be further departures with other underclassmen as well.

WVU currently has signed two recruits who are slated to join the team next year – guard Deuce McBride and center Oscar Tshiebwe. If all seven current Mountaineers, including Konate, return for the 2019-20 campaign, West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins still has four available scholarships to use for recruits he could sign this spring.

Big transfer news: West Virginia’s Lamont West is transferring, source told @Stadium. Averaged 11 and 5 this past season.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) March 28, 2019

* * * * * *

The Mountaineer men’s basketball team may be losing two more underclassmen, but the women’s squad has a key member who recently revealed that she will be back next year.

Following the team’s season-ending loss to Northwestern in the third round of the WNIT on Wednesday, WVU guard Tynice Martin announced that she will return for the 2019-20 season.

After missing the 2017-18 season due to injury, the Atlanta native was a fourth-year junior this past year who still has one season of eligibility remaining. Though eligible to declare for the 2019 WNBA Draft, Martin has chosen to finish her collegiate career at West Virginia. WVU was 22-11 this past season.

A two-time All-Big 12 First Team honoree and the 2017 Big 12 Championship Most Outstanding Player, Martin boasts 1,588 career points for the Mountaineers and sits at No. 11 on the program’s all-time scoring list. She currently ranks inside the all-time top-10 for career three-pointers made.

Martin led West Virginia in scoring this season, averaging 18.0 points per game. She finished the season ranked among the league leaders, averaging 37.0 minutes per game and produced 15 20-point efforts on the year. Last week, Martin was named a region finalist for the 2019 WBCA NCAA Division I All-America team.