MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Fresh off a championship in the Crossover Classic, 15th-ranked West Virginia will have little time to celebrate its accomplishment.
Up next: The Mountaineers (3-0) have a date with top-ranked Gonzaga in the Jimmy V Classic on Wednesday.
As to how the game came about, WVU head coach Bob Huggins has his TV and connections with ESPN to thank.
As for the TV, Huggins said he noticed last week on ESPN’s ticker at the bottom of the screen that Tennessee had to drop out of the Jimmy V Classic due to positive coronavirus tests within its program, including a positive test from head coach Rick Barnes.
Huggins said he almost immediately got on his phone and made a call to people at ESPN.
“I thought, ’what the heck, let’s call ESPN,’ ” Huggins said. “I called some people that I’ve known for a long long time and said, ‘Hey, can you work this out and get us into the Jimmy V against Gonzaga?’ They said they would call me back and in about 10 or 15 minutes they called me back and said we were in. It happened pretty quick.”
It could be the 16th time in school history the Mountaineers have faced the No. 1 team in the nation, but there may be some things to keep an eye on.
The Bulldogs (2-0) went undefeated last week with victories against No. 6 Kansas and Auburn in the Fort Myers (Fla.) Tip-Off, but played without freshmen forwards Julian Strawther and Dominick Harris against Auburn.
Strawther tested positive for COVID-19 following the Kansas game and Harris was quarantined due to contact tracing. There was also a positive test from a Gonzaga staff member.
Both players played against Kansas and were in close contact with teammates following that game.
If Gonzaga is forced to opt out of the Jimmy V Classic, it wouldn’t be anything new to the Mountaineers.
WVU had three first-round opponents named in the Crossover Classic, beginning with Texas A&M, which opted out of the tournament a week before it began.
Northern Iowa was named next, but after tournament officials re-bracketed the field, WVU was finally given South Dakota State in the first round, which came just a day before the team traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D. for the tournament.
WVU players and coaches were tested for COVID-19 three times while in South Dakota and no positive tests were reported out of its program.
Changing opponents at the last second has been a common theme around the country, too, as schools franticly tried to find opponents to fill out a schedule in the opening week.
As the pandemic continues, it’s likely more last-second changes will be needed.
“As I told our guys in the locker room, we’re on a day-to-day basis and we don’t know how many more games we’re going to play or anything else,” Huggins said. “We need to enjoy and cherish the ones we get.”
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