West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins isn’t a fan of the circumstances of the travel that the Mountaineers have to do on a routine basis during the Big 12 Conference season.

Traveling long distances is a given considering that the closest member school to West Virginia is 861 miles away in Iowa State.

And while the league has helped in some regards such as scheduling back-to-back road games especially when the Mountaineers on break from classes, there are still hurdles that make it challenging for those in the basketball program.

It’s been a well-documented subject with the veteran head man and that’s especially true when the Mountaineers are thrust into 9 p.m. tipoffs as they were with Texas Tech.

“We’re going to get home at 5 a.m. or later. And then our guys have to go to class or study hall. And I’d like for those guys to go to class and sit in class and not fall asleep. Or go to study hall and not be groggy,” Huggins said.

Considering that the 9 p.m. games won’t end until after 11 p.m. on the East Coast and then the Mountaineers go through media responsibilities before waiting to take off to fly back to Morgantown it makes for a challenging situation.

On the last flight to a road game before the match up with the Red Raiders, West Virginia waited an hour before the flight took off as they were preparing for takeoff.

That makes for a long day.

“Our people have done a great job of making sure we had planes where our guys could stretch out a little bit but man that isn’t going to bed though. It’s just hard man, it’s harder than I think anybody could imagine it was,” Huggins said.

It’s a subject that Huggins, along with athletic director Shane Lyons, have discussed with officials but there haven’t been many changes on that front. Some of it is dictated by television, but the fact that the Mountaineers are put in those situations makes it difficult for Huggins.

“How in the world with all the rhetoric we get about ‘we want to do the best for student athletes, the betterment of student athletes’, and we’re just starting a new term,” Huggins said. “So that puts those guys behind the eight ball, and nobody seems to think about it or care about.”

It’s something that Huggins would like to see changed, but for now it is just part of the process.

“We’ve talked to them since the beginning and what I’d like them to do is just ride with us a few times,” Huggins said.

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