The West Virginia courts have handed WVU basketball a major boost, and the ripple effect reaches well beyond the hardwood.
Forwards Brenen Lorient and Javan Buchanan have been granted an injunction that makes them eligible for the 2026-27 season. Football cornerback Jason Chambers and baseball pitcher Ben McDougal are also eligible for one more season.
For the Mountaineers, that outcome changes the outlook in a big way. WVU can now be treated as a real Big 12 contender and, if the pieces come together and the team is peaking late, a group capable of making a serious March Madness run.
Without that ruling, West Virginia would have been staring at a frontcourt puzzle. Utah transfer Seydou Traore likely would have been pushed into the starting four spot, with true freshman Aliou Dioum moving into a reserve role there while also getting time at the five.
That kind of depth chart is a lot harder to build around when the goal is to survive the grind of the tournament. Teams that want to make noise in March need veterans who’ve been through it, not a roster full of players still figuring out the pace of a new stop.
Lorient fits that need perfectly. He has spent the last two seasons with Ross Hodge, including one year at North Texas, where he was the American’s Sixth Man of the Year. He already knows the system, understands what Hodge wants, and can help reinforce that message for the newcomers.
Last season, Lorient was West Virginia’s most reliable player in Big 12 play, and he brought a frontcourt dimension the Mountaineers have been missing for years. He’s an athletic four who can play above the rim, defend from one through five, and even step out and hit perimeter shots. He can handle the ball, too.
If Lorient had not been cleared, West Virginia would have lost that exact kind of versatility at the four. His ability to stretch the floor, attack the rim and defend across multiple spots makes the ceiling of this roster look a lot higher.
Buchanan gives WVU another useful piece. After two seasons at Indiana Wesleyan, he moved up to Division I and spent the last two years at Boise State.
As a sophomore there, he came off the bench and averaged 9.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. Last season, he moved into the starting lineup and put up 12.6 points, five rebounds and 1.5 assists while shooting 42% from the field and 31% from three.
Buchanan could have started at plenty of other high-major programs, but instead he’ll be a heavy-minute option off the bench for the Mountaineers.
In Other News...
WVUs Tennessee Game Carries A Charlotte Edge Fans Know Well
West Virginias 2028 trip to Charlotte just moved up a week, with the Mountaineers and Tennessee now set to meet on Aug. 26 as part of the Dukes Mayo Classic. The change from the original Sept. 2 date follows the broader shift in the college football calendar beginning next season, and it keeps one of the more notable neutral-site matchups on the books at a venue that has become familiar territory for the program.
Charlotte carries a bit of extra meaning for West Virginia, too, and athletic director Wren Baker pointed to the citys value as a neutral site for the Mountaineers. For fans, it is the kind of schedule tweak that does not change the opponent or the stage, but does sharpen the anticipation around a game already carrying plenty of early-season intrigue. [Read more 🡒]
Iowa State Faces A Bigger Problem Than Just Bouncing Back
West Virginia and Iowa State both enter Saturday in Ames carrying the sting of recent home losses, which gives this matchup a little more edge than a typical Big 12 meeting. Rich Rodriguez has already had to sort through what went wrong for the Mountaineers, while Jimmy Rogers is doing the same on the other sideline, with both coaches acknowledging the challenges that come with getting a team reset in a hurry.
The ground game could end up shaping the tone, with Cam Cook giving West Virginia a dangerous option and Aiden Flora bringing the same kind of punch for the Cyclones. If Iowa State is going to put its recent disappointment behind it, it will have to do so against a West Virginia group that knows it can make life difficult in a hurry, and that makes the response in Ames feel like more than just a routine bounce-back spot. [Read more 🡒]
Zac Alley Sees One Urgent Fix For WVUs Defensive Collapse
West Virginias defensive problems were front and center after the loss to Oklahoma State, and Zac Alley did not try to dress them up. The defensive coordinator said the unit has work to do in both preparation and execution, a blunt assessment for a group that has spent too much time chasing plays instead of setting the tone. His message pointed less to one bad quarter than to a larger issue with how the defense is being put in position to succeed.
Alley said the fix starts with cleaner technique, a simpler scheme and more rotation so players can keep their legs under them as the season moves forward. He also touched on individual development, noting that some guys are still being evaluated on readiness for the next stretch of games. For West Virginia, the challenge now is turning that self-scouting into something tangible before the defensive slide becomes a bigger problem. [Read more 🡒]