òòò½ÊÓƵ

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” There is a difference between a winning record and a winning team and that difference is all too often found not in the roster but in the schedule.

See, for the most part, you can schedule a winning record, but you have to build a winning team.

And that is the approach Bob Huggins has taken as he has put together, virtually from scratch, his 2022-23 West Virginia basketball team.

With the addition of Auburn as this year's opponent in the Big 12-SEC Challenge, Huggins' schedule was completed this past week.

It is challenging, as challenging as any his team has faced since he returned to òòò½ÊÓƵU 14 years ago.

And that's how he wanted it.

"My challenge to our guys is if you want to be the best, then you've got to beat the best," he told the Cincinnati Enquirer during a trip to where he spent what were the golden days of what now is a Hall of Fame career. "So, let's go beat the best, and then we'll worry about all that other stuff later."

"All that other stuff ... "

What did he mean about that?

He meant returning only guard Kedrian Johnson from last season's starting lineup, although there are actually two players returning who were West Virginia starters.

Don't forget, Emmitt Matthews Jr. was a starter for three years under Huggins before transferring back home to the Washington Huskies last season.

Make no mistake, but Matthews comes back not only to slash to the rim, drop 3s from the corner and hit the boards hard, but to the centerpiece of the team Huggins is putting together.

"All that other stuff", too, was a losing record constructed from two seven-game losing streaks in Big 12 play, which meant a last-place conference record and no NCAA bid.

He could have tried to fix that in the scheduling, but Huggins instead constructed a schedule that would earn his team not victories but respect should he win 20 or more games.

òòò½ÊÓƵU has fallen short of 20 victories in three of the past four years and six of the last 11 seasons.

In this era of transitory players, it is difficult to project teams from one year to the next, but a look at this year's schedule suggests that the schedule offers up a daunting challenge.

òòò½ÊÓƵ Justin Jackson noted in a recent article in the Morgantown Dominion Post, this year's schedule could include as many as 14 ranked teams this season.

That would be three more than they have ever played before ... but even unranked teams will be challenging.

To begin with, òòò½ÊÓƵU could wind up playing two Final Four teams from last year òòò½ÊÓƵ” Duke and Kansas òòò½ÊÓƵ” as well as the team that occupied the No. 1 ranking throughout most of the season, that being Gonzaga.

In fact, òòò½ÊÓƵU has itself included in the field of the Phil Knight Legacy showcase in Oregon that could put them up against both Duke and Gonzaga.

It's true the field for that tournament includes what might have been the worst Power 5 team in the nation last year, a 3-28 team from Oregon State, but it also includes such powers as Purdue, Florida and Xavier.

Xavier is also on òòò½ÊÓƵU's regular schedule, on the road, coming out of the tournament, setting up a scenario that probably won't work out but where òòò½ÊÓƵU theoretically plays the Musketeers in consecutive games.

And, on a personal note, there are few teams Huggins would rather beat than Xavier from the days when they played a Backyard Brawl of their own during his long Cincinnati career.

In fact, of 31 scheduled games òòò½ÊÓƵ” not counting the Big 12 post-season tournament òòò½ÊÓƵ” òòò½ÊÓƵU will play 19 games against teams that won 20 or more games last season.

What's more, they play Kansas, the national champion twice; Baylor, who had the same conference record as Big 12 regular-season champion, Kansas, twice; possibly the ACC champion, Duke, in the Phil Knight Legacy; the SEC regular-season champion, Auburn, once and the possibly Gonzaga, the West Coast Conference regular-season champion.

By last year's record, here is the slate of teams òòò½ÊÓƵU could play this year (including all six potential opponents in Oregon):

Kansas, 34-6; Duke, 32-7; Purdue, 29-8; Gonzaga, 28-4; Auburn, 28-6; Baylor, 27-7; UAB, 27-8; Texas Tech, 27-10; Morehead, 23-11; Xavier, 23-13; Texas, 22-12; Iowa State, 22-13; Navy, 21-11; TCU, 21-13; Florida, 20-14; Buffalo, 19-11; Oklahoma, 19-16; Stoney Brook, 18-13; Oklahoma State, 15-15; Kansas State, 14-17; Mount St. Mary's, 14-16; Portland State, 14-17; Penn, 12-16; Pitt, 11-21; Oregon State, 3-28.

It's a stiff challenge to make a run through that to the NCAA Tournament with a team that has only one returning starter, but think how memorable of a year it will be if Huggins and West Virginia can pull it off.

MORGANTOWN -- In many ways, this was the game West Virginia was waiting on for far too many years, the game where people across the nation looked at the òòò½ÊÓƵU football team and said, 'Hey, they really belong in there with the big boys.'

Just before the game that weighed heavilyi on his mind, putting it this way:

"We have to find out if we are at the point where we can challenge a champion."

He found out that they could challenge them but couldn't beat them, losing 16-13 on a 30-yard field goal by Gabe Brkic as the final second ticked off the click.

Oklahoma certainly is a champion as it has won or shared six straight Big 12 titles.

See, when you go back to the old days and you will see a Southern Conference team that could only find its way into The New York Times Sunday college roundups when it had Jerry West or Sam Huff performing. They were independent days, yes, but in those days they weren't even the elite independents as Notre Dame and Army and Navy ruled the roost.

òòò½ÊÓƵU was good, owns the 15th most victories of all-time ... but even that always come with the explanatory phrase that it is the most wins by any team without a national championship.

òòò½ÊÓƵU was good enough to get a couple of swings at that national title, but fate wasn't about to cooperate. Following an undefeated 1988 season, the magnificent Major Harris suffered an injury against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. Then, in 2007, they were looking at a title game against Ohio State once they brushed a pitiful Pitt aside in the season finale.

Instead, they lost as 28.5-point favorites and lost not only face but their coach.

Oh, along the way there were stunning victories, toppling No. 8 Georgia in the 2006 Sugar Bowl, beating No. 3 Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl after the Pitt debacle, laying 70 points on Clemson in the 2012 Orange Bowl, topping No. 3 Virginia Tech in 2003, beating No. 4 Miami in 993 and so many others.

But somehow the Mountaineers could not keep from being dominated by teams at or near the top. They would come heart-stoppingly close at times, but never could win enough to say they were in the same class as Miami, against whom they were 3-7; or Penn State, against whom they were 9-48-2; or against Oklahoma, against whom they were 2-0 entering Saturday night's game.

Since the polls were started in the '30s, òòò½ÊÓƵU has gone just 8-62 against ranked teams on the road and have lost all 25 of their road games to Top 5 teams.

It wasn't so much that they lost, but how ... a leaping miracle catch on 4th and 7 in Miami by Kellen Winslow keeping a winning drive alive; an electrifying scramble by Michael Vick to set up a last second field goal.

It didn't seem to matter what òòò½ÊÓƵU did. Losses came in games with some of their greatest moments, Quincy Wilson's catch and run over and through Miami defenders in the Winslow game; Tavon Austin setting the school record with 344 rushing yards in a 50-49 loss to Oklahoma; Justin Crawford gaining 33 yards on the ground in a 56-28 loss to the Sooners.

But the timing of this meeting with Oklahoma seemed right. They and Texas and just announced they were defecting from the Big 2 to the SEC, a move that shook the conference and college football at a seismic level, which left òòò½ÊÓƵU out there on its own, hoping to find an offer from another power five conference.

But the Big Ten, the SEC and the ACC turned away, a sign that all the old perceptions of òòò½ÊÓƵU were still intact despite the hiring of Neal Brown, millions spent of facility upgrades, taking on scheduling at the highest level.

If the table wasn't set for something special against Oklahoma again, then when would it be.

This was a money game against the only Big 12 team òòò½ÊÓƵU had never defeated as a conference member.

The nation expected no upset but West Virginians across the nation felt this could be the time, this should be the time.

Then they kicked off.

òòò½ÊÓƵU was ready, This wasn't the kid of offense that would win over a nation that seems to thrive on that, but òòò½ÊÓƵU came out on a hostile field and physically took it to the Sooners, socking them in the mouth with an 9-minute, 17-play drive that ended with a touchdown and a new respect from the Oklahoma team.

òòò½ÊÓƵ hammered away back and forth with yards being given up grudgingly by both sides, it was becoming more and more obvious that òòò½ÊÓƵU belonged with the nation's No. 3 team.

This was hard-nosed football that had Oklahoma's fickle fans chanting to replace Spencer Rattler, a Heisman Trophy candidate with is back up, Caleb Williams.

Still, 30 minutes remained for òòò½ÊÓƵU to make its point and this was going to be 30 minutes of hell for champions seldom fall easily.

So that is how it set up for the stretch run, a proud champion against a òòò½ÊÓƵU team looking for a way to step up into the elite of college football by finally beating Oklahoma for the first time since joining the Big 12.

òòò½ÊÓƵU did its thing ... but it came undone under the pressure in the final minutes as Zach Frazier had miscommunications with his two signal callers as òòò½ÊÓƵU was moving toward what could have been a game-winning field goal, costing 26 yards and essentially the game.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. òòò½ÊÓƵ” The FBS ranks are spinning through changes on a dizzying basis, and that includes the College Football Playoff.