YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — We welcome you from The Steel Valley, where No. 25 West Virginia will play its first game as a top 25 ranked team for the first time since the season opener of the 2018-19 season.
That was an overtime loss to Buffalo that ended a streak of 55 consecutive weeks in the AP Top 25, one short of tying the school record. This is the 100th week that the Mountaineers have been ranked under head coach Bob Huggins.
With that out of the way, we move on to Youngstown State (7-5), which becomes just the seventh mid-major school to host the Mountaineers (9-1) under Huggins, following Radford, Duquesne, Cleveland State, Gonzaga, Canisius and Northern Kentucky.
Why go to Youngstown State with a showdown against Ohio State and conference play looming in the near future? The answer is simple: It’s a favor to help former WVU assistant Jerrod Calhoun — now the Penguins’ head coach — to build up interest in his program. The three-year deal with YSU is a two-for-one for the Mountaineers, meaning WVU gets two home games and travels here once. And as far as travel, WVU spends way less than usual, because the team bused here Friday night and will bus back after the game.
Much more to discuss, so here is what you need to know:
TV: There is no live TV for this game, which tips off at 1 p.m. The only live broadcast will be from radio. BETTING LINE: West Virginia is a 14-point favorite.
YOU THINK YOU’RE FIRED UP AT ESPN+
I’m told one of the reasons this game wasn’t at least picked up by ESPN+ was a financial concern for Youngstown State. The Covelli Centre is not the school’s home court, so in order to welcome a TV crew to the arena, it would have meant moving a lot of infrastructure from the campus to the Covelli Centre, which would have made a cut into the school’s profits from this game.
As for another story about ESPN+, Huggins joined a long list of West Virginians who are upset with the Big 12’s new online streaming service. His reason isn’t exactly a financial one, though.
To quickly set it up, WVU travels to Kansas on Jan. 4, and the game will be an ESPN+ broadcast, but the start time of the game has yet to be released by the network. When WVU plays at Kansas, it stays at a hotel in Kansas City. It’s expected that the Kansas City Chiefs will host a NFL playoff game the next day, so the hotel is looking for some rooms.
“With this new TV deal that we got, we don’t have a start time for the Kansas game yet,” Huggins said. “It’s caused problems that you really never think about. Like, you never think about the hotel asking you what time you are going to check out? They’re trying to get us out so they can get other people in.”
WVU can’t answer the hotel’s question, because ESPN+ won’t give it a start time to the Kansas game (it will either be 4 or 8 p.m.). So, yeah, Huggins is right there with you at being a little ticked off at ESPN+ at the moment.
Projected starting lineups
West Virginia: G–Jordan McCabe, 6-0, 188, Soph, 2.9 ppg. G–Jermaine Haley, 6-7, 215, Sr., 11.1 ppg. (He sat out the last game by a coach’s decision, but Huggins said Haley would play against YSU and we’re predicting he’ll start, although you could see Chase Harler here, too.) F–Emmitt Matthews Jr., 6-7, 210, Soph., 10.6 ppg. F–Derek Culver, 6-10, 255, Soph., 11.0 ppg. F–Oscar Tshiebwe, 6-9, 258, Fr., 12.3 ppg.
Youngstown State: F–Michael Akuchie, 6-8, 218 Jr., 8.6 ppg. F–Naz Bohannon, 6-6, 228, Jr., 8.1 ppg. G–Darius Quisenberry, 6-1, 188 Soph., 14.6 ppg. G– Donel Cathcart III, 6-5, 200, Sr., 6.2 ppg. G–Garrett Covington, 6-5, 211, Jr., 8.3 ppg.
WHO IS JERROD CALHOUN?
Huggins first met Jerrod Calhoun when Calhoun was coaching an AAU team. Huggins first brought him in as a student assistant when Huggins was the head coach at Cincinnati and then helped him get an assistant coach’s job at Walsh College in North Canton, Ohio.
The two hooked up again when Huggins was hired at WVU. He brought Calhoun in as the team’s director of operations before promoting him to assistant coach. Calhoun first made a name for himself by taking over as head coach at Fairmont State in 2012, where he went 124-38 in five seasons and guided the Falcons to the Division II title game in 2017. He’s trying to build up a YSU program that has never been to the NCAA tournament and has never had a 20-win season.
“We’ve had a great relationship for a number of years,” Huggins said. “He’s a basketball guy. He’s a good coach.”
THREE GOOD QUESTIONS
How much will Jermaine Haley play today? West Virginia’s senior guard sat out last week’s game against Nicholls State by a “coach’s decision,” according to Huggins. The WVU coach said Haley was back at practice this week and playing well. Huggins has said in the past that he doesn’t have a so-called doghouse, so don’t be surprised if Haley isn’t back in the starting lineup against the Penguins and the rotation is back to normal.
Isn’t there a player from Morgantown on Youngstown’s roster? That would be sophomore guard Geoff Hamperian, who is a former standout at University High. We would have had more details about his college experience so far, but he did not return phone or text messages left to him by The Dominion Post this week.
What we can tell you is Calhoun is very high on Hamperian’s future at the school.
“He’s a great kid and an excellent student who has come a long way in his two years so far,” Calhoun said. “He basically won the game for us against North Carolina Central. We had an injury and he stepped in as a starter and scored 14 for us.
“He’s the ultimate team guy that you want on your team. I would say he’s our Cam Thoroughman. If you think back to all the little things Cam did for those teams at West Virginia, that’s what Geoff does for us. You can rely on him to do all the dirty work.”
Can we look ahead a little bit? We can, but it will be a challenge for WVU players not to do the same thing today. There’s no denying that next week’s game against Ohio State (in Cleveland) is the biggest non-conference game on the Mountaineers’ schedule — Yes, it’s bigger than even Pitt — and stands as THE opportunity to find out just where this WVU team stands.
Are the Mountaineers truly a top 25 team? Are they really that much improved from last season? Are they ready for Big 12 play? Those are the questions we will find out next week against the Buckeyes.
The good thing about that game is the Mountaineers will have had basically two weeks to prepare for Ohio State. WVU did not schedule a mid-week game this week, because of final exams, so the team had nothing but practice and then it will have another week to get ready after playing Youngstown State today. The team will have a few days off for Christmas break. Players are expected to report back to campus by Christmas night.
PREDICTION TIME
The Penguins aren’t the big 3-point shooting team they were a year ago and focus a little more on defense. Still, Calhoun is still probably a year, or two, away from having his roster set up to compete in the Horizon League. I like WVU to win and cover the point spread, 77-58.
Justin’s season predictions against the spread: 3-6.
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