Darian DeVries has bolted from Morgantown to take the coaching vacancy at Indiana after just one year with the Mountaineers.
WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker was open on Wednesday in a press conference that he worked closely with DeVries to demonstrate the school's commitment to DeVries and the program and was "aggressive" in attempts to retain DeVries. But when a man's "dream job" offers nearly $5 million per year for the gig, there's not much to be done.
This puts the Mountaineers in a difficult position, as they will move onto their fourth head coach in four seasons and their third basketball coaching search in just under 24 months -- it also marks Baker's second overall head coaching search in four months, following Neal Brown's termination and Rich Rodriguez's hiring in December.
However, the Mountaineers are in a position to make this search quite quick and easy, which Baker alluded to on Wednesday. But while he was "noncommittal" on the idea of promoting internally, there is a perfect candidate inside the basketball facilities currently that both current and former players have endorsed as their preferred candidate.
Associate Head Coach Chester Frazier is known as one of the hottest young assistants in the sport, and has made a name for himself in terms of both player development and recruiting at Kansas State, Illinois, and WVU.
Frazier was a big reason that WVU starting guard Sencire Harris and starting forward Amani Hansberry made the move to WVU -- both players followed Frazier from Illinois when he joined DeVries' staff in Morgantown. Both players have multiple seasons of eligibility left, and Harris quickly endorsed Frazier for the job on Tuesday night following the news, and has followed up on that endorsement since.
We want fraz!!!! https://t.co/4MqKCnMnLl
— Sencire Harris (@SencireH) March 19, 2025
Hansberry has yet to speak on the matter publicly, but another former WVU star and prominent member of the Mountaineer sports community did quickly second the call for Frazier to be promoted -- that man is John Flowers.
Flowers played under Bob Huggins at WVU in the 2000s, helping lead the program to the 2010 Final Four and since then has become a prominent member of the greater community surrounding WVU sports and founder of the Final Fourcast podcast covering WVU sports.
Flowers believes promoting Frazier is the "logical" move and that Frazier is "overqualified" for the role.
The most logical thing to do would be to retain Chester Frazier who is over qualified to be the head coach
— john flowers (@jflow41) March 19, 2025
Whether Chester Frazier becomes the next head coach at WVU or not, it is clear that he has support amongst the current roster and prominent alumni. Could Frazier help retain some of the culture and momentum put into place by DeVries and bring pieces like Harris and Hansberry back to Morgantown?