The West Virginia Mountaineers have had their fair share of trouble with stability at head coach in recent seasons – and one former WVU assistant who was passed over in multiple coaching searches for the Mountineers just captured his first-ever NCAA Tournament win at the Division 1 level while the Mountaineers miss their third straight tournament.
Jerrod Calhoun, who served as an assistant coach under Bob Huggins in Morgantown from 2007-2012 and the head coach for the Fairmont State from 2013-2017, leading the Falcons to the NCAA Division 2 National Championship Game, where his team fell to current Iowa coach Ben McCollum's Northwest Missouri State team.
Calhoun was considered as a candidate for the opening at WVU following Josh Eilert's year as interim after Bob Huggins was dismissed the summer prior. Calhoun, who was finishing up his seventh season at Youngstown State, was not chosen andended up with Utah State in the Mountain West.
Last year, after Darian DeVries bolted for Indiana after missing the NCAA Tournament, Calhoun was a candidate once again for the gig after leading the Aggies to the Big Dance in his first year. The Mountaineers would take Ross Hodge instead, and now, Calhoun is headed to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament after upsetting No. 8 seed UConn while the Mountaineers missed the field yet again.
.@USUBasketball players were fired up after advancing to the Round of 32.
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 20, 2026
Head Coach Jerrod Calhoun and Guard Mason Falslev caught up with @LaurenShehadi after the big win. pic.twitter.com/P4keYaQqgK
The elephant in the room for WVU basketball
Listen, I'm sure plenty of people are already fired up with where they think this article is headed, so let me make it clear – I think Ross Hodge is the right guy for the job in Morgantown. Plenty of other people, including Fran Fraschilla, would agree with that statement. His defensive focus in right up West Virginia's alley in terms of historical identity as a program, and he also seems to be a perfect culture fit.
However, watching Calhoun's quick success at Utah State will have folks wondering – what if the Mountaineer had hired Calhoun and not DeVries during the first hiring cycle? Calhoun also understands the program and culture at WVU, and has experience recruiting both to the Mountaineers as an assistant and to the region as a college head coach.
While it's at a mid-major program and not in the Big 12, Calhoun has also proven he's a coach that can make an NCAA trip in his first season, which neither DeVries nor Hodge managed to do. And if he had been hired instead of DeVries, he probably would have been less likely to abandon ship after a single season given his ties to the program and the state. So the Mountaineers could be a season ahead of schedule.
It's reasonable to see why Calhoun's connections to Huggins amidst the former head coach's dishonorable departure from the program left the administration hesitant to bring Calhoun aboard. And during that first hiring cycle, his resume wasn't near as attractive as it is now at the Division 1 level.
And of course, the Mountaineers seem to be in great shape entering the future under Ross Hodge. So there's likely no reason to worry about things too much. But it is also a thought that is likely to be at the forefront of fans minds well Utah State battles Arizona in the Round of 32 on Sunday while the Mountaineers await the College Basketball Crown.