By ADAM ZAGORIA
West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert has “parted ways” with guard Jose Perez due to an academic issue, a source told ZAGSBLOG.
The 6-foot-5 Perez has had a long and winding road to this point and it appears he will never play a game for the Big 12 program.
Perez took to social media to say he felt he had been “thrown to the street like a dead animal.” He said the issue stemmed from his failure to attend a study hall, “and that’s where the decision was made and nowhere else.” He said he was being forced to be “a grad student in undergrad classes after I graduated” and he “never accepted being put in undergraduate classes.”
He announced his transfer to West Virginia last Oct. 29 after Manhattan fired his coach and mentor, Steve Masiello, two weeks before the start of the season, a story broken by ZAGSBLOG. (Masiello later joined Rick Pitino’s staff at Iona and is now with him at St. John’s.) On Dec. 16, the NCAA denied West Virginia’s request for immediate eligibility for Perez, and on Jan. 11 they denied his waiver request. After the school parted ways with former coach Bob Huggins over the summer, Perez entered the Transfer Portal, only to withdraw in July. West Virginia was Perez’s fourth school after previous stints at Gardner-Webb, Marquette and Manhattan. He started 29 games in the 2021-22 season and played in all 30, averaging 18.9 ppg, 4.5 apg and 3.2 rpg. The Bronx native turns 25 Oct. 14. Follow Adam Zagoria on Twitter Follow ZAGSBLOGHoops on Instagram And Like ZAGS on Facebookđź’”.. pic.twitter.com/zrGlwMr623
— Jose Perez (@showout_zayy0) October 1, 2023
