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WHEN/WHERE

Date: Friday, November 12, 2021

Tip-Off Time: 8:30 PM ET

Where: WVU Coliseum, Morgantown, West Virginia

WVU Basketball | Photo taken by Katie MacCrory

WATCH/LISTEN

Channel: ESPNU | DirecTV 208; Dish 141

Announcers: Rich Hollenberg and Tim Welsh

Online Streaming: ESPN with a valid cable subscription

Cord Cutters: Mountaineer fans can catch all the action on fuboTV. fuboTV is an over-the-top streaming service that carries all the major networks, including CBS, NBC, FOX, and now....the ESPN Disney networks! It also carries ABC, CBS Sports Network, FS1, SEC Network, and more. fuboTV comes with a cloud DVR feature, so you can record the game and watch it later.

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Radio: Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG (Radio Affiliates) | WVU Gameday App (Apple | Android) | SiriusXM 980

Radio Announcers: Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs

Betting Odds: West Virginia -13.5, Total 137.5 points via DraftKings Sportsbook

Reminder: It is against site policy to post links to illegal streams in the comments.

REQUIRED VIEWING

THE ENEMY

Where are they from? Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Series History: West Virginia and Pitt are meeting for the 188th time in series play that began in 1903-04. WVU has won four in a row in the series to take a 99-88 all-time advantage. This is WVU’s longest winning streak since winning four in a row from 1976-77 when Bob Huggins attended WVU.

There is not another team that WVU has faced more than Pitt. This will be the fourth meeting in the last five years. Last year’s game was canceled due to the season being adjusted to late November

Record: 0-1 following a 78-63 loss to The Citadel on Tuesday.

Record in 2020-21: 10-12 (6-10 ACC)

Head Coach: Jeff Capel (4th Season) *pictured below, booing his team for losing a buy-in game to The Citadel on Tuesday

Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

GAME NOTES:

• Bob Huggins recorded his 901st victory against Oakland on Tuesday at the WVU Coliseum. Huggins’ record now stands at 901-382 in his 40th season as a head coach. He needs one more win to tie Bob Knight (902) for fifth place and two more wins to tie Roy Williams for fourth place all-time.
• In his 40th season as a head coach, Huggins became the 18th Division I head coach to coach 40 or more years. At 1,283 career games coached, Huggins has coached the sixth-most games in college basketball history behind Krzyzewski, Boeheim, Jim Phelan, Cliff Ellis and Jim Calhoun.
• Last season, Gabe Osabuohien led WVU with 171 deflections and 23 charges taken. He had five charges taken and nine deflections in the first game of this season against Oakland.

PROBABLE STARTING LINEUP:

West Virginia Mountaineers: Jalen Bridges, Isaiah Cottrell, Taz Sherman, Sean McNeil and Kedarian Johnson

Pittsburgh Panthers: Mouhamadou Gueye, John Hugley, William Jeffress, Femi Odukale and Nate Santos

PREDICTION THAT WILL BE WRONG

After watching Tuesday’s game against Oakland, I fully expect this to be an ugly, low scoring game — just the way the gods intended for The Backyard Brawl. I do expect this to become a potential #RefShow, depending on the officiating crew assigned to the game, as these two teams can’t get the Big East blood out of their system and just want to beat the shit out of each other for 40 minutes.

Gabe Osabuohien takes at least six more charges, Taz Sherman has a big night and the Mountaineers prevail.

West Virginia 66, Pittsburgh 54

PREGAME READING & UPDATES

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JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

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And, as always...