West Virginia men’s basketball team is still working on putting the finishing touches on the 2026-27 schedule. While that may not become official until roughly September, things are already taking shape, and it appears it will be a challenging slate.
West Virginia will play a pair of rivalry games against Pitt and Virginia Tech, a neutral-court game against Wake Forest, will participate in the Players Era 8 in Las Vegas, and may take on either Kentucky or North Carolina on Black Friday. There are conflicting reports about who WVU will face that day, and who knows? Maybe they are trying to find a way to play both games, which would be insanely tough.
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Scheduling tough for a reason?
West Virginia University head coach Ross Hodge | Christopher Hall – West Virginia on SI
When you put together a schedule in basketball, you do it one year at a time, not like football, where these things are scheduled 6 to 8 years in advance, if not more. A year ago, Hodge and his staff made sure to challenge themselves in non-conference play, but not go overboard, knowing that they didn’t have a star-studded group or the requisite depth to compensate for it.
We have talked at length this summer about the potential of this team and how they could make a run next March, and if you ask me, I believe the strategy behind this difficult scheduling proves that the staff is confident in the bunch that they have assembled. You are not going to go out and schedule a gauntlet before the annual 18-game gauntlet that is the Big 12 schedule without feeling good about your roster.
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I’m sure some of you are a little concerned about the strength of the schedule being so challenging, giving this team very little wiggle room heading into conference play, but there is no way that Hodge would have signed off on so many of these matchups if he didn’t believe they could win them and ultimately boost their NCAA tournament rsum. On the flip side, if they lose a couple of them, the strength of schedule could play well in their favor on Selection Sunday if they happen to be on the bubble for the third straight year.
Non-con games on the books
11/2 vs. Niagara
11/17 vs. Auburn (Players Era 8 in Las Vegas, NV)
11/18 vs. Kansas or UNLV (Players Era 8 in Las Vegas, NV)
11/19 vs. Houston, Rutgers, Florida, or Notre Dame (Players Era 8 in Las Vegas, NV)
12/1 vs. Mercyhurst
12/5 vs. Virginia Tech
12/9 at Pitt (PPG Paints Arena)
12/13 vs. Coppin State
12/19 vs. Wake Forest (Greensboro, NC)
Big 12 opponents (Dates TBD)
Home-and-away:UCF, Cincinnati, Iowa State
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Home only:Arizona, Arizona State, Houston, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU
Away only:Baylor, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Texas Tech, Utah
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/westvirginia as WVU Basketball is Scheduling Like a Team That Believes It Can Win Big.
