Continuing basketball Backyard Brawl on the list for West Virginia AD Lyons

It’s not at the forefront of issues now for obvious reasons, but it’s clear that West Virginia Director of Athletics Shane Lyons doesn’t want to see the Pittsburgh basketball series end anytime soon.

The four-game series which was agreed to in 2016 scheduled four games. Each team rotated hosting the game with the first happening in 2017 in Pittsburgh and the final scheduled game set for this season in Morgantown as part of the early non-conference portion of the slate.

The two traditional rivals hadn’t met on the hardwood since the Mountaineers left for the Big 12 Conference after the 2011 season. Played twice a year, the game fell victim to the spinning wheel of conference realignment as West Virginia set up shop in the Big 12 and Pittsburgh the ACC.

The two teams have played a combined 187 times with the Mountaineers holding a 99-88 edge. West Virginia has won all three games of the current series and the last four overall meetings.

It goes without saying that the game’s addition to the slate was a positive for each of the two fanbases separated by around roughly 75-miles.

“I’d love to see it continued,” Lyons said.

Lyons last spoke with Pittsburgh Director of Athletics Heather Lyke when he was in attendance for the game this past November and those are expected to resume at some point. However, given the current uncertainty across the college sports landscape there are other matters at hand in the meantime.

The Mountaineers also are set to play to play a four-game football series renewing the rivalry starting in 2022 and spanning until the 2025 season. It will be the first meeting for the two since the 2011 game.

Still, with this year being the last scheduled meeting between the two Backyard Brawl foes it makes it important for Lyons to try to see that it gets ironed out in the future.

“That is definitely on the list to extend the series with Pitt basketball,” Lyons said.

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