The West Virginia men’s basketball team learned their opponents on Thursday for the Charleston Classic, one of the first major tests for the Mountaineers in the Ross Hodge era. West Virginia will open against Clemson, an NCAA tournament team in back-to-back years.
Following the matchup with the Tigers, the Mountaineers will face either Georgia or Xavier. Both the Bulldogs and the Musketeers were NCAA tournament teams last year, leaving West Virginia as the lone non-participant in last year’s event.
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Clemson, Georgia and Xavier all went down in the first round last season. However, all three finished in the top 50 of the metrics last year, representing two potentially good wins for the Mountaineers. West Virginia will play Clemson on Nov. 21 and either Georgia or Xavier on Nov. 23. All games will take place in Charleston, S.C. as part of an eight-team multi-team event.
The other bracket includes Boston College, Davidson, Tulane and Utah State. There will be no crossover between the brackets, and that’s likely a good thing for the Mountaineers. Only Utah State made the NCAA tournament last year, as the other three finished with triple-digit NET rankings.
Read more: West Virginia Basketball Opponents Set for Charleston Classic
Clemson Will Likely Be a Slow-Paced Game
Brad Brownell has been the Clemson coach for more than a decade, so we can make some educated guesses regarding this matchup. For example, we know that Clemson is likely to be a good free-throw shooting team. Four of Brownell’s past five Clemson teams have ranked in the top 50 nationally in free throw percentage. The Tigers take their foul shots seriously, and it shows.
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Clemson is also perfectly content to slow the pace down. Brownell’s teams usually rank in the bottom half nationally in pace of play. They’re also built on tough, efficient defense. In short, this is going to be a game between two squads who think about the game the same way.
West Virginia will have to take note of Dillon Hunter, who is expected to return for the Tigers after breaking his hand near the end of the season. Last year, Hunter was the Tigers’ best 3-point shooter, and his absence made a big difference in Clemson’s loss to McNeese State.
Xavier Will Push the Pace
Playing Xavier would give us a big clue as to how Ross Hodge wants to play at West Virginia. That’s because the Musketeers are also debuting a new coach, one with a well-known last name. Richard Pitino is back in the power leagues, having moved from New Mexico to Cincinnati.
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If you know anything about the Pitino family, you know they love to push the tempo. Richard Pitino is not his father Rick, but he coaches in some similar ways. And the biggest one is running and pushing the pace. In four years in Albuquerque, the Lobos ranked in the top 20 in pace every season. Pitino knows who he needs to be, and he needs to push the pace.
Ross Hodge has dramatically slowed things down at North Texas. But we don’t yet know if he’s going to hold to that in Morgantown or change things up. He’s new enough in his coaching career that he could either stick to one philosophy or change the way he manages the game. The way he manages a game with a fast-paced team will tell a lot about how he plans to coach.
Georgia Is a Wild Card
Figuring out Georgia is harder because Mike White’s time in Athens has been inconsistent. White is a proven coach, but his teams tend to swing back and forth. He’s also had to rebuild a nonexistent culture at Georgia, which is why he’s gone back and forth.
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His teams tend to win around 20 games a season, so this would be a reasonable test for the Mountaineers. It wouldn’t tell as much as Xavier would, but it would still be a good mark on the schedule.
Building the Schedule
West Virginia tends to be one of the first teams to release its schedule each year. If Hodge follows that, we’ll know pretty early in the fall who the Mountaineers will play outside the Big 12 and when.
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We know that Pitt will come to Morgantown. The Backyard Brawl was extended through 2028, and Pitt coach Jeff Capel loves this matchup. The Mountaineers have played the Panthers every year since Capel arrived in Pittsburgh, and that should continue indefinitely.
Beyond that, expect most of the schedule to take place in Morgantown. The Big 12-Big East Challenge is going away, so the Mountaineers have room to add a name opponent. And realistically, the Mountaineers need one, maybe two. Given that the schedule cost them last year, West Virginia could use at least one on the road. Whether they can find a willing partner remains anyone’s guess.
