Published: July 02, 2008 11:42 pm         

Mountaineers to play 18 Big East basketball games

MORGANTOWN — The Big East Conference announced on Wednesday the breakdown of league games, home and away, for the West Virginia University men’s 2008-09 basketball team.

The Mountaineers will meet Pitt, Louisville and South Florida twice during the season and each of the other 12 teams only once. All 16 teams will play a total of 18 league games each under a format which was first used last season.

Besides the three teams to be met both at home and on the road, schools scheduled to visit Morgantown for games are Connecticut, DePaul, Notre Dame, Providence, St. John’s and Villanova.

Big East road games will be at Cincinnati,. Georgetown, Marquette, Rutgers, Seton Hall and Syracuse in addition to repeat designates Pitt, Louisville and South Florida.

The specific dates for the conference games won’t be announced until early September.

Bob Huggins, in his second year as the WVU men’s head coach, believes the Big East will be loaded from top to bottom for the upcoming season.

“There are a number of quality players returning on each team,” he said. “We always look forward to the Big East schedule and the competition that it brings. We have a bunch of guys who have played Big East basketball and know its style of play.

“We believe our non-conference schedule will give us enough balance for the Big East slate. I think this is a schedule that our fans will enjoy in person and on television.”

Twelve non-conference contests with definite dates for the men’s team were announced by WVU two weeks ago. A 13th will be added later.

Four of those games will be in the Las Vegas Invitational, including Longwood on Nov. 20 at the Coliseum and Delaware State on Nov. 25 at Charleston.

Then West Virginia will move on to Las Vegas Nov. 28-29 for games against Iowa, Kansas State or Kentucky.

WVU’s home opener will be on Saturday, Nov. 15, against Elon, following a Nov. 8 exhibition game against Mountain State. Other non-Big East teams visiting the Coliseum will include Cleveland State Dec. 6, Miami of Ohio Dec. 20, and Radford Dec. 23.

Non-league road games are at Mississippi Dec. 3, at Duquesne Dec. 13, and at Ohio State Dec. 27. The annual intrastate clash with Marshall will be played on either Jan. 13 or 14 at Charleston.