The Major League Baseball draft has come and gone, so how did it impact WVU? To be honest, it went about as well as possible from the Mountaineers’ perspective. There were three players who were draft eligible that had potential to head to pro ball, and WVU only lost two of them. Armani Guzman decided to return to West Virginia, which certainly is a boost to the lineup next year. The pitching duo of Dawson Montessa (to the Cardinals with the 72 nd pick) and Max Yehl (to the Royals with the 91 st pick), were taken and have signed with their pro teams.
This was expected, and WVU had recruited with that assumption. This also marked the first time ever that WVU had two draft picks in the first three rounds.
Day 2 had two additional WVU picks: Paul Schoenfeld (9 th round, Arizona) and Ian Korn (10 th round, SF Giants). That meant that WVU has had at least four players drafted for the past three years. There were a couple of incoming players who were picked and signed with their teams as well. Owen Henne, a transfer from Seton Hil, was chosen in the sixth round by the Cardinals, and high schooler Kyle Casteel was drafted in the eleventh round by the White Sox, who ended up signing him for over $1 million.
It is possible that the Mountaineers could have lost more talent in the draft, but now they should return a good bit of talent, and while it is extremely hard to make it to Omaha two straight years, it is should be a realistic goal for next years team.
The baseball team – which garnered a ton of great publicity during last season’s run – is one of the prime examples of how well the WVU Athletic Department is going right now. To me, basically every program is on a positive trajectory. Last week, I talked about the football team, who I think is primed for an improved season, and ranked well in both recruiting and portal rankings as a sign of the increased talent in Morgantown.
But baseball and football aren’t the only examples. This week, I’ll spotlight some of the other high profile programs.
I’ll start with the other primary “revenue” sport: men’s basketball. For the first time in what seems like a long while, the Mountaineers will have the same head coach as the previous season. I thought Ross Hodge was able to cobble together a pretty good team last year, and they were competitive in the extremely tough Big 12, and capped the season with a win in the Crown Tournament. This year, the roster is nearly brand new, but appears to be very talented.
WVU showed up in the top 25 rankings in both of On3 Sport’s listing of top recruiting classes and transfer classes. Miles Sadler could be a one-and-done player, and the early indications are that he could be that good of a player at point guard.
Women’s basketball is coming off a Big 12 Tournament Championship, and hosting an NCAA Regional, and shows no signs of letting up under Mark Kellogg. USA Today ranked WVU’s portal class #8 in the country, and their lone high school signee, Chante Murray, was a Top 100 player in the recruiting class according to ESPN.
On the soccer pitch, both WVU teams have shown themselves to be players on the national stage. The men’s team has spent plenty of time ranked in the top 10 nationally, and has advanced to the NCAA tournament four of the past five years, including a Final 4 appearance, and another quarter-final run. Dan Stratford has won about 70% of his games at WVU, and that record does not appear to be tailing off anytime soon.
Nikki Izzo-Brown made it to the NCAA Championship game ten years ago, and has been in the tournament seven times since. They had a slight lull a few years ago (they were still good but were a notch below what they had been), but last year looked like a return to the days of being ranked in the Top 25 more often than not.
Finally, there is rifle. Simply put, WVU is THE rifle school in the country. They have 21 National Championships, more than any other school. And after a six year dry spell (which had three runner-up finishes), the Mountaineers have won the last two championships. In rifle, WVU is the standard by which all other teams are measured.
Those six sports (baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, and rifle), along with football, are probably the most high profile sports at WVU right now.
There are several others that have earned plenty of national acclaim themselves, though, and I will highlight those teams, and the rest, next week.
