MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — The wait is finally over! The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team will take the floor for the first time this season today when they travel to College Park, Maryland, to take on the Maryland Terrapins in an exhibition matchup at the XFINITY Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 3:00 PM ET, and the game will be streamed live on B1G+.
While today’s game won’t count toward the regular-season standings, it will give Mountaineer fans their first opportunity to see what could be a very exciting West Virginia basketball team under second-year head coach Ross Hodge. And perhaps no player has generated more excitement heading into this season than five-star freshman point guard Miles Sadler.
Sadler, the nation’s No. 18 overall prospect according to 247Sports’ composite rankings, arrives in Morgantown with enormous expectations. The talented freshman averaged an incredible 23.3 points, 8.3 assists, and 4.0 rebounds per game during his senior season at Bella Vista Prep, helping lead his team to a Chipotle Nationals championship. He’s an explosive playmaker who can score, distribute the basketball, and completely take over a game, and there’s a legitimate belief that he could become one of the most exciting players to wear a West Virginia uniform in quite some time.
But Sadler is far from the only reason Mountaineer fans should be excited about this team.
Hodge has assembled an impressive roster through the transfer portal, bringing in several players who have already proven themselves at the major college level. Former Butler standout Finley Bizjack averaged 17.1 points per game last season and earned third-team All-Big East honors. Joson Sanon, a former highly regarded recruit who previously played at Arizona State and St. John’s, gives West Virginia another talented scoring option in the backcourt.
The Mountaineers also added 6-foot-10, 240-pound Georgia Tech transfer Mouhamed Sylla, who has the potential to be a dominant presence inside. Sylla became just the third ACC player in the last 30 years to begin his college career with three consecutive double-doubles, and his combination of size, athleticism, and rebounding ability should make a major difference for West Virginia this season.
Add in transfers Martin Somerville, Seydou Traore, and Javan Buchanan, along with the return of Brenen Lorient, and this is a West Virginia roster that looks significantly deeper, bigger, and more athletic than what we saw a season ago.
In fact, Blue Ribbon Magazine has already taken notice of the Mountaineers’ potential, writing, “WVU has a talented, big, experienced roster that should allow Hodge to assemble different lineup combinations, based on the opposition’s strengths.”
The publication was particularly impressed with Sadler, stating, “Getting Sadler was huge. He’s an immediate difference-maker and will continue the national trend of excellent freshman point guards.”
Today’s matchup will also feature an intriguing battle between two of the nation’s most talented freshmen. Maryland will be led in part by five-star forward Baba Oladotun, the nation’s No. 9 overall prospect according to 247Sports. The 6-foot-10 freshman is considered one of the most talented recruits to join the Terrapins in more than a decade, and watching him compete against Sadler and the Mountaineers should make for an entertaining afternoon.
Maryland head coach Buzz Williams is also looking to turn things around after a disappointing 12-21 record in his first season with the Terrapins. Maryland added former Arkansas guard DJ Wagner through the transfer portal and returns talented forward Pharrel Payne, giving the Terrapins plenty of talent of their own.
For Hodge, however, today’s exhibition is about much more than simply winning a basketball game. It’s an opportunity for a largely new roster to begin developing chemistry, establish its identity, and learn how to handle adversity together.
“This will be the first time we do a scouting report, and we will be using this as a dry run for firsts,” Hodge explained earlier this week. “This will be the first time we go through a pregame warm-up and pregame routine; spend a night in a hotel together, so we’ll prepare for the opponent, but in a lot of ways, we are preparing our team to prepare for an opponent.”
Hodge also made it clear that while winning is always important, he’s particularly interested in seeing how his team responds when things don’t go according to plan.
“Any time there is a scoreboard, you want to win just from a competitive standpoint, whether it’s an exhibition, closed-door scrimmage or a card game at home with your family,” Hodge said.
He added that he’s especially interested in seeing how his players communicate in huddles, respond during timeouts, and handle difficult situations throughout the game.
And those are exactly the types of things that will ultimately determine how successful this West Virginia team can be.
The Mountaineers were picked to finish tied for eighth in the Big 12 preseason coaches’ poll, but I believe this team has the talent to exceed those expectations. Hodge has put together an extremely interesting combination of experienced transfers, talented freshmen, and returning players, and if everything comes together, West Virginia could absolutely be a factor in the Big 12 Conference this season.
Of course, there’s still a lot we don’t know about this team. How quickly will Sadler adjust to the college game? Can Bizjack and Sanon provide consistent scoring alongside him? Will Sylla become the dominant interior presence that many expect him to be? And perhaps most importantly, how quickly can Hodge get all of these talented pieces to play together as one cohesive unit?
We’ll begin getting some answers this afternoon.
Following today’s game, West Virginia will have two additional exhibition contests, traveling to face Glenville State on Friday, October 23, before returning to Morgantown to host Wheeling on Wednesday, October 28.
For fans interested in watching today’s game, B1G+ is offering a special one-time pay-per-view option for $8.99 at Big Ten Plus. The game will also be available on the Mountaineer Sports Network, with Tony Caridi and Brad Howe calling the action beginning with the radio pregame show at 2:00 PM ET.
It’s only an exhibition game, and nobody should get too carried away with the final score, but there’s something genuinely exciting about the beginning of a new college basketball season, particularly when you have a player with the potential of Miles Sadler leading the way.
Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for West Virginia basketball, and I can’t wait to see what Ross Hodge, Miles Sadler, and this talented group of Mountaineers have in store for us.
Let’s Go Mountaineers!
