West Virginia Hoops lineup coming together

The West Virginia basketball program is starting to figure out what its upcoming schedule will look like this season under new head coach Darian DeVries.

The Mountaineers are expected to play 20 games in the Big 12 Conference this upcoming campaign, according to Kansas coach Bill Self, which you have to imagine was decided at the league’s annual meetings.

And while the league’s full list of matchups and dates won’t be released until the start of the season, the number of games is a jump from what the Big 12 played last year.

During the 2023-24 season, the league played 18 conference games and used a model where teams played five opponents twice and the other eight opponents once to provide at least one meeting with each team in the conference. This was a solid structure, but it will need to be adjusted.

It remains to be seen what this year will look like, with the Big 12 increasing its membership to 16 teams with the addition of Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah, but it is expected that some sort of hybrid formula will eventually make it to the 10-man layout. home and 10 away games.

That will be a challenge given the difficulty of the Big 12 from top to bottom, which could affect how the Mountaineers assemble the rest of the non-conference slate. And with 20 games occupied, there isn’t much wiggle room, but it will be interesting how the non-conference slate comes together.

At the moment, only a few of these games and dates are booked. DeVries’ Coliseum debut is scheduled for November 4th against Robert Morris, which is the level of play you would expect in this situation. Others are Nov. 20 vs. Iona and Dec. 22 vs. Mercyhurst.

The jewel of the non-conference schedule for the Mountaineers will be their scheduled trip to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas, where they will play three games in a three-day span, beginning on November 27, against Arizona, Davidson, Gonzaga, Indiana, Louisville, Oklahoma and Providence. This is an elite competition, but the trip to the Bahamas is considered one of the sport’s premier multi-team events.

West Virginia will also host Georgetown on December 6 in the final edition of the Big 12-Big East Battle. While the Mountaineers also have a trip scheduled to Pittsburgh as part of the four-year Backyard Brawl extension that was announced in late January, although the date has not yet been set.

West Virginia will travel to Pittsburgh in 2024 and 2026, while hosting the game in 2025 and 2027, with the Mountaineers holding a 101-89 series lead.

That leaves just a few games to work on to fill out the non-conference slate and most of them will likely be in Morgantown as the Mountaineers try to put the finishing touches on where the first year under DeVries is going. it seems from a competition point of view.

With 20 games against Big 12 opponents, the three games against competition in the Bahamas, a trip to Pittsburgh against a longtime rival and hosting another traditional rival in Georgetown with at least 28 games scheduled that should be challenging for this team.