MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The West Virginia men’s basketball team still expects to open its season at the Crossover Classic in South Dakota on Nov. 25.
That’s one of the few constants of the tournament.
Ohio State became the third team to opt out of the field Thursday, following Duke and Utah.
After speaking with tournament officials, WVU head coach Bob Huggins confirmed that Saint Mary’s of the West Coast Conference will replace the Buckeyes and play Memphis in the first round.
The Gaels finished 26-8 last season.
Huggins added the Mountaineers are not expecting to drop out of the tournament.
“I talked to the lady who runs the tournament after Ohio State dropped out and they already had (Saint Mary’s) in line to play Memphis,” Huggins said.
Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann told local media members the Buckeyes opted out of the field because of increasing COVID-19 cases in the state of South Dakota and because the team would have to self quarantine for 14 days after returning, which would put the Buckeyes’ Dec. 8 game at Notre Dame in jeopardy.
The 14-day quarantine is an advisory in the state of Ohio that means people returning to Ohio after visiting a state with higher than a 15% or higher positivity rate must quarantine for two weeks.
South Dakota hit a peak of 1,559 new coronavirus cases on Oct. 30 and is one of seven states that has a positivity rate of higher than 50%, according to figures reported by The New York Times.
The rule may also force Dayton to opt out of the tournament. The Flyers were brought in as a replacement for Duke.
The Mountaineers are still scheduled to play Texas A&M in the first round and then play either Memphis or Saint Mary’s on the second day.
South Dakota State was previously announced to replace Utah.
Many schools may still be available if Dayton was to opt out, too, because of the multi-team tournaments (MTE) that were canceled in Orlando last month.
“Honestly with the MTEs that were canceled in Florida, there are a lot of people looking to get into a good MTE,” Huggins said. “This one, you’re going to play three quality games.”
Gabe Osabuohien will wait until the end of the season to make choice
As one of two seniors on the Mountaineers’ roster — along with Taz Sherman — forward Gabe Osabuohien knows he has the option to return to WVU next season for a second senior year.
The Division I Council granted an extra year of eligibility to all college athletes in winter sports, because of the pandemic.
Osabuohien, who averaged 3.1 points in 28 games and led WVU in taking charges, said he isn’t in a hurry to make up his mind.
“I haven’t really thought about that,” Osabuohien said. “The type of person I am, I’m a team player, so our main goal this year is to win a national championship. If we don’t do that this year, that will be on my mind. Whatever the team needs at the end of this year and however things go will factor into my decision at the end of the year.”
Oscar Tshiebwe has a new 15-foot plan
In the offseason, WVU forward Oscar Tshiebwe said a lot of his individual work went into developing a short jump shot.
The reason? As a freshman last season, whenever Tshiebwe caught the ball near the foul line, defenders would drop off and clog up the lane figuring he wouldn’t take that open shot.
A year later, “I hope they do that again this year,” Tshiebwe said with a smile. “I’ll show them what I can do and how much better I am.”
Tshiebwe said he struggled with the ball when facing the basket last season and it closed down the lane for teammate Derek Culver to get open near the basket.
“Teams would drop off me and Derek would have two defenders on him,” Tshiebwe said. “That made it so much harder for us.
“This year, it’s going to be great, because if they leave me alone, I’m going to knock that down. After practice, I go out and make 200 shots, so I can be better in the games.”
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