West Virginia gets its first look at the new group Sunday, and the setting is a good one for a preseason test. The Mountaineers will be in College Park for a 3 p.m. exhibition against Maryland inside the XFINITY Center, with the game streaming on the Big Ten Network’s B1G+.
Fans who want to watch can purchase the Big Ten Network’s one-time $8.99 pay-per-view option by going to bigtenplus.com and clicking on the West Virginia vs. Maryland link.
The Mountaineer Sports Network will also carry the game on radio stations across West Virginia, plus online through WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps. Radio airtime is set for 2 p.m.
For Ross Hodge, though, the scoreboard is only part of the equation. The real value, he said Wednesday, comes from treating the trip like a rehearsal for the season ahead.
"(Television, radio and media coverage) doesn't influence what we're doing because you can't really control any part of that," West Virginia coach Ross Hodge said Wednesday. "We will use this to practice preparing for games.
"This will be the first time we do a scouting report, and we will be using this as a dry run for firsts," he said. "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."
Sunday’s matchup also gives the public its first real look at a roster built very differently from a year ago. The headline piece is five-star freshman point guard Miles Sadler, the No. 18 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite rankings. Sadler arrived with plenty of buzz after helping Bella Vista win the Chipotle Nationals last spring and finishing his senior year at 23.3 points, 8.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game.
West Virginia’s overhauled lineup also includes Mouhamed Sylla, the 6-foot-10, 240-pound Georgia Tech transfer who was one of the highest-rated posts in the portal this past spring. Injuries limited him to 15 missed games last season, but when he was on the floor he flashed real production. Sylla became only the third ACC player in the last 30 years to open his college career with three straight double-doubles.
Another major addition is Joson Sanon, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound St. John’s transfer. Sanon was a highly touted recruit, averaged nearly 12 points a game as a freshman at Arizona State, then started 14 games and put up nearly eight points per contest for Rick Pitino and the Red Storm in 2026.
The backcourt also features senior guard Finley Bizjack, who Hodge pulled from the portal after Bizjack averaged 17.1 points per game last year at Butler and earned third-team All-Big East honors. Martin Somerville, Seydou Traore and Javan Buchanan round out other notable transfer additions, coming from Florida State, Utah and Boise State, respectively.
West Virginia also got a key frontcourt boost in August when senior forward Brenen Lorient returned after a U.S. District Court judge ruled that seniors from the class of 2026 would get another year of eligibility.
Buchanan is part of that same ruling, which the NCAA has appealed, though no new court date has been set. Hodge said Wednesday that both players are included in his 2026-27 plans for now.
There are returning pieces, too. Sophomore guard Amir Jenkins is back from last season’s team, though he is still working his way back from offseason surgery on both shoulders. Guard MJ Feenane is the other returnee.
The roster has been filled out with several high school additions: Keonte Greybear, Amadou Seini, Aliou Dioum, Jelani McKoy and Max Olejasz, the Wheeling Central product. Olejasz is a 6-foot-7 forward, while Greybear is listed at 6-foot-3, Seini at 7-foot-1, Dioum at 6-foot-10 and McKoy at 6-foot-3.
Observers around the program have been struck by the group’s size and athleticism, and Blue Ribbon Magazine’s forthcoming issue reflects that optimism. The magazine gives West Virginia positive marks in the backcourt, frontcourt and bench, along with an A- for intangibles.
"Hodge's first year in Morgantown was a success, even though the Mountaineers didn't reach the NCAA Tournament," the magazine wrote. "WVU has a talented, big, experienced roster that should allow Hodge to assemble different lineup combinations, based on the opposition's strengths."
The publication also singled out the freshman guard and the supporting cast. "Getting Sadler was huge.
He's an immediate difference-maker and will continue the national trend of excellent freshman point guards. Sanon, Bizjack and Traore are all strong wings who will work well with him, and Jenkins and Somerville will provide quality depth."
Maryland presents a strong first test, with another five-star freshman in Baba Oladotun, the No. 9 overall prospect in the 247Sports composite and the Terrapins’ highest-rated recruit since Diamond Stone in 2015. The 6-foot-10 forward will be matched against Sadler in one of the game’s more attention-grabbing individual storylines.
The Terps also bring back 6-foot-9, 250-pound forward Pharrel Payne, who was dominant early last season before a December injury ended his year. Maryland coach Buzz Williams went 12-21 in his first season and responded with a roster reset, highlighted by Arkansas guard DJ Wagner as his biggest transfer addition last spring.
For Hodge, the exhibition still comes back to competition, no matter the setting.
"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 explained.
He said the bigger questions are about how the team functions together.
"Big picture-wise, what I'm most interested in seeing - and excited about seeing - is what are our huddles like? What is our bench going to be like during timeouts?
How do we handle when things don't go our way? Those are the things that we've preached pretty much from the moment we first got here," he added.
West Virginia has two more preseason tuneups on the schedule after Sunday, both in-state. The Mountaineers play Glenville State in Glenville on Friday, Oct. 23, then face Wheeling inside Hope Coliseum on Wednesday, Oct.
- The Wheeling game will air on ESPN+ and on the Mountaineer Sports Network.
The Big 12’s preseason coaches’ poll was also released Thursday, and West Virginia landed tied for eighth with Cincinnati in the 16-team league. Arizona was picked first, followed by Houston, Kansas, Iowa State, Texas Tech, BYU and TCU. Behind the Mountaineers and Bearcats came Baylor, Oklahoma State, Arizona State, UCF, Colorado, Kansas State and Utah.
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