Ross Hodge and his staff at WVU are not wasting any time getting a roster together for the 2025-26 college basketball season. After landing numerous commitments over the last couple of weeks, they are beginning to fill out their roster. The latest transfer to commit to the Mountaineers is Treysen Eaglestaff out of North Dakota.
Treysen Eaglestaff - Senior, North Dakota — 18.9pts, 2.8reb, 2.4ast
Joining Eaglestaff are the likes of:
Jasper Floyd - Senior, North Texas — 9pts, 3reb, 3.9ast, 1.3stl
Brenen Lorient - Senior, North Texas — 11.7pts, 4.9reb, 1.4ast, 1.1blk
Honor Huff - Senior, Chattanooga — 15.2pts, 1.8reb, 2.3ast
Chance Moore - Senior, St. Bonaventure — 13pts, 6.5reb, 1.1ast, 1.3stl
Jackson Fields - Senior, Troy — 7.9pts, 4.8reb, 0.7ast, 0.8blk
Harlan Obioha - Senior, UNC Wilmington — 9.2pts, 6.0reb, 0.9ast, 1.2blk
With nearly half of the 2025-26 roster in place via the transfer portal, fresh starts on a year-to-year basis have become the new norm in Division 1 college basketball.
Percentage of returning minutes and scoring for WVU 🏀:
— Unreasonable Doubt (@ImJoshWhitt) April 22, 2025
2020-21: 73.9% minutes & 76.7% scoring
2021-22: 48.6% & 44.4%
2022-23: 17.1% & 11.5%
2023-24: 14.2% & 10.1%
2024-25: 5.3% & 2.8%
2025-26: 0% minutes & 0% scoring pic.twitter.com/MxTd5AsndW
That’s right, a West Virginia team that returned next to nothing a year ago, will enter the 2025-26 campaign with even less. With 7 scholarships available Hodge and his staff will still be looking to fill out the roster in the coming weeks and months.
One Potential Cause for Concern with the Current WVU Basketball Roster
Well, it does not take a scholar to recognize that each of the West Virginia commits via the transfer portal come from mid-major programs. There are no players coming to WVU from a blue blood program, though there is a blue blood connection as they did lose Jonathan Powell to UNC via the portal.
While the SEC proved to be the best conference in college basketball this past season, the Big 12 remains an elite conference. Houston was a couple plays away from winning the national championship. The Big 12 had four programs reach the Sweet 16 in 2025 (Houston, Texas Tech, Arizona, BYU) and 2 teams (Houston, Texas Tech) reach the Elite 8.
With that said, the ultimate question is whether or not the caliber of players that West Virginia is adding to their roster are good enough to compete in the Big 12 and contest for an NCAA Tournament bid? Surely that is the goal for Ross Hodge in Year 1, to get West Virginia to the NCAA Tournament.
It is also evident that through the off-season, AD Wren Baker and Ross Hodge are not hesitating to dip into the NIL fund. The signings of Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff alone prove that West Virginia is spending some money as they build a roster for the upcoming season. Both Huff and Eagelstaff garnered plenty of interest from elite collegiate programs.
It remains to be seen whether or not these players can make the jump to the Big 12 and find success. Comparing it with last season, rotation players like Toby Okani, Eduardo Andre, and Tucker DeVries (8 games) made the jump from mid-major programs.
While Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris came from Illinois, they did not earn nearly as much playing time prior to transferring to WVU. On top of that, Joseph Yesufu began his career at Drake, and let’s not forget that Big 12 First-Team member, Javon Small spent 2 years at ECU prior to a stop at Oklahoma State before transferring to WVU.
The Counter-Argument: West Virginia’s transfer portal commits have proven that they are ready to make the jump to the Big 12 Conference
West Virginia will have an experienced roster in 2025-26, they just haven’t played in the Big 12. Each of the player listed above have played 70+ games of Division 1 college basketball with several having played over 95 games.
Honor Huff led the nation in three-pointers made, which is certainly an aspect of his game that will translate to the Big 12. Not that Huff will lead the nation again, but he is certainly capable of knocking down a lot of shots.
Treysen Eaglestaff scored 40 points against Alabama this past season. He had another game where he scored 51 in the Summit League tournament. His game will translate to the Big 12.
Chance Moore scored 24 at the WVU Coliseum against the Mountaineers in 2023. He has averaged double-figures in scoring each of the last 3 seasons.
In the new era of college basketball, what Hodge and WVU are doing to fill out their roster is not that uncommon. Players making the jump to major basketball conference late in their career is becoming the norm. With that, Hodge and his staff are essentially saying that it is more valuable to bring in proven Division 1 players with experience versus recruiting unproven freshmen out of high school.
In addition to the scoring threat that West Virginia’s roster possesses, Ross Hodge brings a defensive mindset that is sure to make the trip with him to Morgantown. The North Texas Mean Green ranked 3rd in opponents' points allowed per game last season with an average of just 60.1 points.
While we will have to wait until the season starts to see how it plays out, West Virginia fans can feel cautiously optimistic about their team’s chances to compete at a high level in the Big 12 based on the quick work that Ross Hodge and his staff have done to earn commits out of the transfer portal.