So I’m getting a lot of feedback about something I wrote about Eron Harris this week, I guess because I dared to point out the problem post-Final Four West Virginia basketball is experiencing. You know the numbers: 16 roster additions, 11 departures.

College basketball in this time, and at this time of the year, is, I think, divided up into two factions:

1) Talented teams
2) Experienced teams

I used the Wichita State v. Kentucky for the backdrop of my column on this matter because neither program is right and neither coach is wrong. My point is Bob Huggins and the Mountaineers are guilty of doing neither.

I kind of feel like that’s obvious, but I also feel like Harris is being portrayed in a certain manner, as though he’s merely part of an overarching issue across basketball that has now grown to cover WVU, which them means this instance is not seen as an illustration of the particular problem here.

(I don’t even want to go into the mass of people who think it’s not a loss. I know he’s not a good defender. I think WVU can get by without him. There’s almost no argument to be made that the Mountaineers are better off this way, though. I’ll listen to them, but I’ll be very skeptical. I mean, this was a team that was good at scoring and … well, that’s about it. It just lost its second-best scorer. Prematurely.)

Anyhow, back to the overarching issue and the particular problem here … they’re separate issues, am I wrong?

Look, I am well aware people transfer to and from programs and that, as such, Harris is no different than, say, Bob Huggins was as a player. But look at the list of the 11 players who have left and tell me who among them were traditional transfers. How many became aware, or were made aware, that WVU was not for them and that their role or their PT was going to dramatically change and they were better off somewhere else? How many weren’t welcome?(Your first number ought to be small, your second and third numbers ought to be larger)

And isn’t that a problem? If you’re not going to reach for the top shelf and pull the best talent, you need to develop talent and experience. That development isn’t happening at WVU because by all appearances the players haven’t been good enough. That, as much as anything else, explains why WVU is 49-49 the past three seasons. Yeah, transfers happen, but so do speeding tickets and divorces.

I know it’s extremely difficult to be good without continuity (See: WVU football), but these waves are not because people are using WVU as a springboard or because they come here and go, “Eh, not for me.” It’s not Seth Curry at Liberty or Rodney Hood at Mississippi State seeking the spotlight at a larger program. This is different and it requires repairs, which means it has to be discussed in a different manner than simply stating, “This happens all the time.”

/steps off soap box

That was part of the discourse on Scoop & Score this morning. Tim Hudson’s friend Mark Bowman was strong on baseball, too. Catch it on the podcast.