NCAA Basketball: 25 best team rivalries heading into 2019-20 season
By Joey Loose
18. Pittsburgh Panthers vs. West Virginia Mountaineers
70 miles separate Pittsburgh and West Virginia making geography a factor in their intense rivalry. Though the former Big East conference foes certainly have had their fair share of football history, the basketball rivalry remains strong as well. These teams both struggled mightily last season, but that doesn’t diminish this year’s game’s excitement.
At the moment, West Virginia holds a 97-88 edge in this longtime rivalry, having won the last three games against the Panthers as well. Like many of these rivalries, chippiness defined last year’s game, though it certainly isn’t an anomaly in a fierce rivalry.
Under Jamie Dixon, this Pitt team was consistently a top-25 program and won most of their games over the Mountaineers, but these last few years have been much less successful.
The big game that comes to mind in recent memory is Pitt’s triple-overtime win over the No. 5-ranked Mountaineers back in 2010. Throughout the 2000s, one or both was ranked as they typically met twice a year in Big East play.
These schools have never met in the NCAA Tournament, but had quite a few Big East tournament matchups, the most recent being a Mountaineers win over the No. 2-ranked Panthers in 2009.
When West Virginia departed for the Big 12, the rivalry went on hold for five seasons. The fanbases are getting back into the rivalry, which will be back for its third season when they play this December.
West Virginia is projected to take a step forward, though they’ll have to travel north for this year’s contest. Can the Panthers enact some revenge on their old rivals and energize this rivalry again?