The West Virginia Mountaineers continued their huge offseason in the transfer portal late Friday night as they secured a commitment from Utah transfer Seydou Traore. The 6-foot-6 forward started 31 games for the Utes, and averaged 9.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game.
The Mountaineers were pursuing Traore heavily in the portal, and the addition fills one of the biggest gaps still remaining on the roster as the portal winds down. But perhaps even bigger than that is the fact that Traore represents a continuation of a trend which will hopefully result in a much more successful West Virginia team next season.
Ross Hodge continues to add Power 5 experience in the portal
Last season, West Virginia added just two players in the transfer portal that had played at the Power 5 level previously – Morris Ugusuk and Chance Moore. Ugusuk made 62 appearances over two seasons at South Carolina, but made just six starts and averaged 22 minutes per game as a sophomore. Moore played five games at Arkansas as a freshman before spending the rest of his career at the mid-major level before he got to Morgantown.
With Traore, the Mountaineers now have added five players in the portal, with four of them former Power 5 starters. Finley Bizjack made 65 appearances and started 61 games over the past two seasons for Butler in the Big East, and made 33 appearances as a freshman off the bench.
Traore has 58 total appearances and 43 starts between his time at Utah and his stint with Iowa the season prior, adding experience in two different Power 5 leagues. Mouhamed Sylla started as a true freshman for Georgia Tech in the ACC last season, making 16 appearances and 15 starts before an injury brought his season to an early end. And Martin Somerville adds 33 appearances and 10 starts in the same league for Florida State.
If you aren't keeping track of the numbers, that means WVU will go from adding a total of 67 career Power 5 games played and six starts last season, to adding 205 career games played and 129 starts. That meas the incoming portal class has nearly double the amount of starts at a power conference level as the previous class had total Power 5 experience. That's a big shift in the amount of experience on the roster.
One of the biggest visible issues last season is that it seemed that the Mountaineers did not always have the physical tools or skill set to compete against the top Power 5 competition, and would occasionally make costly blunders in crucial situations. And that was to be expected given the overall lack of Power 5 experience on the roster.
Now, that issue has been thoroughly addressed in the transfer portal. And with that done, you can likely expect a more successful team to be on the way next season.
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