MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The West Virginia men’s basketball team was given quite the bonus to its nonconference schedule Wednesday.
The 15th-ranked Mountaineers will play No. 1 Gonzaga in the Jimmy V Classic on Dec. 2, in Indianapolis.
The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN, at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
According to a school official, the game with the Bulldogs will tentatively replace the Youngstown State game, which was also scheduled for Dec. 2 at the WVU Coliseum.
Youngstown State has paused its team activities due to positive tests for the coronavirus.
That game could still be played at a later date, if another of West Virginia’s nonconference games were to be canceled, the official added.
It could be the 16th time in school history — provided Gonzaga is still No. 1 in next week’s polls — the Mountaineers will play the top-ranked team in the country.
It will also be the fifth meeting between the two schools. Gonzaga has a 4-0 lead in the series.
The two teams last met in the 2017 NCAA Sweet 16 in San Jose, Calif., with Gonzaga winning, 61-58.
WVU got the invite as a replacement for Tennessee, which was scheduled to face Gonzaga, but had to pause team activities after head coach Rick Barnes tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday.
The WVU-Gonzaga game will be the first game of a doubleheader. Baylor will face Illinois in the second game.
This will be WVU’s fourth appearance in the Jimmy V Classic. The Mountaineers faced Davidson in 2008, Virginia in 2015 and Florida in 2018. Those games were played in New York’s Madison Square Garden.
The event was moved to Indianapolis this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions.
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