With out-of-conference play officially in the books for the WVU Men’s Basketball team, they will now look to continue to build off of their impressive start in Big 12 competition.
The Mountaineers finished with a 9-2 record in their out-of-conference games, even picking up wins against ranked teams such as Gonzaga and Louisville. The nine wins in the team’s first 11 games are enough to match thee team’s win total from the entire season a year ago.
It will be quite the challenge to kick off conference play as WVU will have to travel to Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kansas to take on the KU Jayhawks who are currently ranked as the nation’s seventh best team in the AP Poll. They are the second highest ranked team in the Big 12.
It is still uncertain if WVU’s second leading scorer, Tucker DeVries, will be available to play with what is still only being called an upper body injury.
The schedule does not get any easier from there for WVU as the Big 12 is one of the best of deepest conferences in all of college basketball. There will be very little nights off for the Mountaineers.
WVU’s leading scorer Javon Small who transferred from Oklahoma State this season, will take on his former team on January fourth in Morgantown.
As the rankings stand right now, the Mountaineers will have seven ranked matchups in conference play, four of which will be on the road.
With the expanded conference, teams no longer play all teams twice throughout the year and instead play only a select few twice. The Mountaineers have a tough draw with the teams they must face twice. 15 Houston, 17 Cincinnati, BYU, and Utah are the four team that WVU will take on twice this season.
Some of the other ranked matchups WVU will have this season are @ Baylor on February 15, and a home matchup against the third ranked team in the nation, Iowa State on January 18.
The rest of the conference schedule looks like this for WVU:
@ Kansas – 12/31
vs. Oklahoma State – 1/4
vs. Arizona – 1/7
@ Colorado – 1/12
@ Houston – 1/15
vs. Iowa State – 1/18
vs. Arizona State – 1/21
@ Kansas State – 1/25
vs. Houston.- 1/29
@ Cincinnati – 2/2
@ TCU – 2/5
vs. Utah – 2/8
vs. BYU – 2/11
@ Baylor – 2/15
vs. Cincinnati – 2/19
@ Texas Tech – 2/22
vs. TCU – 2/25
@ BYU – 3/1
@ Utah – 3/4
vs. UCF – 3/8