MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The 2025-26 West Virginia University males’s basketball season will conclude this weekend in the eight-team College Basketball Crown in Las Vegas.
West Virginia (18-14) will face Stanford in one quarterfinal sport at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday night time, adopted by Rutgers in opposition to Creighton.
Tonight’s video games will characteristic Oklahoma in opposition to Colorado in the primary contest and Baylor in opposition to Minnesota in the nightcap.
All the quarterfinals shall be performed on the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The particular person gamers are vying for a $500,000 prize pool damaged down to the profitable workforce sharing $300,000 and the runner-up receiving $150,000 to get there.
The format is single elimination with the semifinal-round video games happening on Saturday adopted by the championship sport on Sunday, all in MGM Grand Garden Arena.
All seven video games shall be televised nationally on the FOX Network.
West Virginia’s matchup in opposition to 20-12 Stanford pits two groups that final performed one another on Dec. 28, 1959, in the Los Angeles Classic when the second-rated Mountaineers, led by All-American Jerry West, downed the Cardinal 66-47.
So, from that perspective, Thursday night time’s sport shall be fascinating to observe.
West Virginia coach Ross Hodge talked about that it will likely be one closing alternative for his workforce to be collectively to play school basketball video games.
“Any time you get a chance to put on a college uniform, represent a University and in our case a state, you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities,” Hodge defined. “With the Big 12’s partnership with FOX, if anyone is wondering why the Crown and not the NIT, (the Crown) is what is contractually obligated with the Big 12. The two top teams that don’t play in the NCAA Tournament go to the Crown. Aside from that, for our group in particular, they really do enjoy each other and they enjoy playing basketball, so it makes it an enjoyable experience to keep playing.”
The flip aspect to extending the season for an additional weekend is that it does not permit Hodge and his employees the chance to commit their full consideration to constructing subsequent yr’s roster.
Hodge stated it is actually inconsequential now as a result of the brand new switch portal calendar does not open till subsequent Tuesday after Monday night time’s nationwide championship sport.
“They’ve made some adjustments (to the recruiting calendar) because the coaches complained about that a little bit, the timing of the portal, and now that’s why the portal officially opens the Tuesday,” he stated. “As anybody who has a pulse is conscious, the portal is all the time sort of open. Let’s be trustworthy.
“The biggest difference is if you were still playing a year ago, you could be sacrificing time where you could be having people on official visits or you could be physically in person with people that are already in the portal,” he added. “Now, other than kind of collecting names and seeing who is in it, you are not losing the opportunity to have somebody come visit because you are still playing.”
Hodge stated the Crown’s distinctive NIL monetary element actually does not issue into his messaging to his gamers.
“When they put this idea together and they said, ‘Hey, you can win this amount of money’ it probably felt very significant. It’s kind of sad to say, and maybe disgusting … I hate that I’m even about to say this, but from two years it went from probably, ‘Hey, this is a good amount of money’ to inconsequential,” he stated. “It’s sad to say. You are talking to somebody whose first job as a junior college assistant I made $8,000 for the year, had a meal card and lived in a dorm. There are people out there who work 12 hours a day and be like, ‘How could that be?’ We haven’t discussed it as a group, and I don’t plan on it being a part of my messaging to these guys. These guys love each other, and they want to spend one more weekend with each other.”
The 20-12 Stanford workforce West Virginia shall be going through on Thursday night time completed tied with Cal for ninth place in this yr’s ACC standings with a 9-9 league report. The Cardinal fell 64-63 to Pitt in the ACC Tournament after profitable 4 straight to conclude the common season.
Stanford has one in every of school basketball’s prime freshman gamers in 6-foot-2 guard Ebuka Okorie, a possible first-rounder in this yr’s NBA Draft if he chooses to come out. If he stays at Stanford for an additional season, he might doubtlessly be a lottery decide subsequent season.
The Nashua, New Hampshire, resident is averaging a team-best 22.8 factors per sport. He will get scoring help from backcourt mate Benny Gealer, a 6-foot-1 senior who’s averaging 11.1 factors per contest.
Hodge stated he’s impressed with what he is seen from Okorie whereas finding out Stanford’s video games this season.
“He’s one of those freshmen who has not had the same level of hype as some of the freshmen in our league, but he’s certainly had that same level of production for them. He’s a tough cover,” he acknowledged.
West Virginia flew out to Las Vegas on Tuesday and may have a exercise scheduled as we speak in advance of Thursday night time’s sport.
The Athletics Communications Office launched the official 12-player journey roster for the event, which shall be minus freshman guard Amir Jenkins, who’s scheduled to endure offseason shoulder surgical procedure as we speak.
Hodge indicated Jenkins’ long-term prognosis will not be identified till surgical procedures are accomplished on each shoulders.
The coach additionally indicated conversations have already begun with present gamers on the roster with collegiate eligibility remaining, acknowledging his need to have them again for 2026-27.
This yr’s workforce was constructed with the aim of reaching the NCAA Tournament. Hodge stated it got here out about “five or six possessions” shy of reaching that goal.
Next yr’s roster will embody a November signing interval class rated 20th-best in the nation by ESPN.com, headlined by five-star level guard Miles Sadler from Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona.
WVU’s two different November signees are four-star prospects Kingston Whitty, a 6-foot-2 guard from Mableton, Georgia, and Aliou Dioum, a 6-foot-10 ahead from Dakar, Senegal and a teammate of Sadler at Bella Vista.
Hodge talked about signing one other prep participant is a chance this spring to associate with a number of switch portal gamers to change the seven seniors on this yr’s roster, led by Honor Huff and his 15.8 points-per-game common.
“This year has gone fast, and I really haven’t had a true amount of time to really reflect on anything,” Hodge stated of celebrating his one-year teaching anniversary at WVU final week. “Weirdly sufficient, the slowest time now for a school basketball coach is once you get your new workforce that exhibits up in June. As quickly as your season is over now, you might be proper into the switch portal, and people visits will begin occurring. You are sort of reconstructing your roster yet again, so you actually haven’t got quite a lot of time to mirror on the nice and the dangerous and the place we’re.
“You used to be able to play the season, everybody goes to their neutral corners for a little bit, you get away from your players, they get away from you, and then you realize, ‘Yeah man, we actually do like each other.’ Then you start your offseason workouts. Now, because of the nature of this thing, you have no time in that regard,” he concluded.
Thursday night time’s sport in opposition to Stanford will tip off at 8 p.m. and shall be televised nationally on FS1 (Tim Brando, Jim Jackson and Allison Williams).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio protection with Tony Caridi and Brad Howe will get issues began at 7 p.m. on stations all through West Virginia, on-line by way of WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
The winner will meet the Rutgers-Creighton winner on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT.
West Virginia (18-14) will face Stanford in one quarterfinal sport at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday night time, adopted by Rutgers in opposition to Creighton.
Tonight’s video games will characteristic Oklahoma in opposition to Colorado in the primary contest and Baylor in opposition to Minnesota in the nightcap.
All the quarterfinals shall be performed on the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The particular person gamers are vying for a $500,000 prize pool damaged down to the profitable workforce sharing $300,000 and the runner-up receiving $150,000 to get there.
The format is single elimination with the semifinal-round video games happening on Saturday adopted by the championship sport on Sunday, all in MGM Grand Garden Arena.
All seven video games shall be televised nationally on the FOX Network.
West Virginia’s matchup in opposition to 20-12 Stanford pits two groups that final performed one another on Dec. 28, 1959, in the Los Angeles Classic when the second-rated Mountaineers, led by All-American Jerry West, downed the Cardinal 66-47.
So, from that perspective, Thursday night time’s sport shall be fascinating to observe.
West Virginia coach Ross Hodge talked about that it will likely be one closing alternative for his workforce to be collectively to play school basketball video games.
“Any time you get a chance to put on a college uniform, represent a University and in our case a state, you’ve got to take advantage of those opportunities,” Hodge defined. “With the Big 12’s partnership with FOX, if anyone is wondering why the Crown and not the NIT, (the Crown) is what is contractually obligated with the Big 12. The two top teams that don’t play in the NCAA Tournament go to the Crown. Aside from that, for our group in particular, they really do enjoy each other and they enjoy playing basketball, so it makes it an enjoyable experience to keep playing.”
The flip aspect to extending the season for an additional weekend is that it does not permit Hodge and his employees the chance to commit their full consideration to constructing subsequent yr’s roster.
Hodge stated it is actually inconsequential now as a result of the brand new switch portal calendar does not open till subsequent Tuesday after Monday night time’s nationwide championship sport.
“They’ve made some adjustments (to the recruiting calendar) because the coaches complained about that a little bit, the timing of the portal, and now that’s why the portal officially opens the Tuesday,” he stated. “As anybody who has a pulse is conscious, the portal is all the time sort of open. Let’s be trustworthy.
“The biggest difference is if you were still playing a year ago, you could be sacrificing time where you could be having people on official visits or you could be physically in person with people that are already in the portal,” he added. “Now, other than kind of collecting names and seeing who is in it, you are not losing the opportunity to have somebody come visit because you are still playing.”
Hodge stated the Crown’s distinctive NIL monetary element actually does not issue into his messaging to his gamers.
“When they put this idea together and they said, ‘Hey, you can win this amount of money’ it probably felt very significant. It’s kind of sad to say, and maybe disgusting … I hate that I’m even about to say this, but from two years it went from probably, ‘Hey, this is a good amount of money’ to inconsequential,” he stated. “It’s sad to say. You are talking to somebody whose first job as a junior college assistant I made $8,000 for the year, had a meal card and lived in a dorm. There are people out there who work 12 hours a day and be like, ‘How could that be?’ We haven’t discussed it as a group, and I don’t plan on it being a part of my messaging to these guys. These guys love each other, and they want to spend one more weekend with each other.”
The 20-12 Stanford workforce West Virginia shall be going through on Thursday night time completed tied with Cal for ninth place in this yr’s ACC standings with a 9-9 league report. The Cardinal fell 64-63 to Pitt in the ACC Tournament after profitable 4 straight to conclude the common season.
Stanford has one in every of school basketball’s prime freshman gamers in 6-foot-2 guard Ebuka Okorie, a possible first-rounder in this yr’s NBA Draft if he chooses to come out. If he stays at Stanford for an additional season, he might doubtlessly be a lottery decide subsequent season.
The Nashua, New Hampshire, resident is averaging a team-best 22.8 factors per sport. He will get scoring help from backcourt mate Benny Gealer, a 6-foot-1 senior who’s averaging 11.1 factors per contest.
Hodge stated he’s impressed with what he is seen from Okorie whereas finding out Stanford’s video games this season.
“He’s one of those freshmen who has not had the same level of hype as some of the freshmen in our league, but he’s certainly had that same level of production for them. He’s a tough cover,” he acknowledged.
West Virginia flew out to Las Vegas on Tuesday and may have a exercise scheduled as we speak in advance of Thursday night time’s sport.
The Athletics Communications Office launched the official 12-player journey roster for the event, which shall be minus freshman guard Amir Jenkins, who’s scheduled to endure offseason shoulder surgical procedure as we speak.
Hodge indicated Jenkins’ long-term prognosis will not be identified till surgical procedures are accomplished on each shoulders.
The coach additionally indicated conversations have already begun with present gamers on the roster with collegiate eligibility remaining, acknowledging his need to have them again for 2026-27.
This yr’s workforce was constructed with the aim of reaching the NCAA Tournament. Hodge stated it got here out about “five or six possessions” shy of reaching that goal.
Next yr’s roster will embody a November signing interval class rated 20th-best in the nation by ESPN.com, headlined by five-star level guard Miles Sadler from Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona.
WVU’s two different November signees are four-star prospects Kingston Whitty, a 6-foot-2 guard from Mableton, Georgia, and Aliou Dioum, a 6-foot-10 ahead from Dakar, Senegal and a teammate of Sadler at Bella Vista.
Hodge talked about signing one other prep participant is a chance this spring to associate with a number of switch portal gamers to change the seven seniors on this yr’s roster, led by Honor Huff and his 15.8 points-per-game common.
“This year has gone fast, and I really haven’t had a true amount of time to really reflect on anything,” Hodge stated of celebrating his one-year teaching anniversary at WVU final week. “Weirdly sufficient, the slowest time now for a school basketball coach is once you get your new workforce that exhibits up in June. As quickly as your season is over now, you might be proper into the switch portal, and people visits will begin occurring. You are sort of reconstructing your roster yet again, so you actually haven’t got quite a lot of time to mirror on the nice and the dangerous and the place we’re.
“You used to be able to play the season, everybody goes to their neutral corners for a little bit, you get away from your players, they get away from you, and then you realize, ‘Yeah man, we actually do like each other.’ Then you start your offseason workouts. Now, because of the nature of this thing, you have no time in that regard,” he concluded.
Thursday night time’s sport in opposition to Stanford will tip off at 8 p.m. and shall be televised nationally on FS1 (Tim Brando, Jim Jackson and Allison Williams).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio protection with Tony Caridi and Brad Howe will get issues began at 7 p.m. on stations all through West Virginia, on-line by way of WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
The winner will meet the Rutgers-Creighton winner on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. EDT.
