Bob Huggins and his West Virginia basketball team has been waiting a long time for tonight.

The Mountaineers will play their first basketball game since last season was abruptly stopped at the Big 12 Conference tournament due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

It has been a long road to get to the point where West Virginia can even take the floor at 7 p.m. against South Dakota State in the first round of the Bad Boy Mowers Crossover Classic, but it’s been rewarding journey.

Even participating in this tournament itself has been an adventure with six of the original eight teams in the field replaced at some point throughout the process. One of those, Wichita State, was replaced as late as Monday night.

In total, West Virginia has already had to prepare for four different opponents in the lead up to the event which has helped them in some ways.

“I think we can guard anybody now that we’ve gone through four teams and we’ve looked at film, broken down on film and really guarded them and broken down what they do,” Huggins said. “I think in some ways it was good for our guys.”

With concerns of the virus raging through college basketball programs across the nation, the Mountaineers come into this event healthy and ready to go.

“Everybody is here, available and excited about playing,” Huggins said.

Huggins credits a large portion of that on how the Mountaineers have handled their response to the virus in regards of following the guidelines and doing what has been asked of them.

Since arriving in Sioux Falls, Huggins has been impressed with the setup of the event and how it has been as billed before the Mountaineers elected to travel out there.

“It’s been to this point a really good experience. I think the only thing that can screw it up is if we didn’t win games like we’re supposed to,” he said.

The opening opponent South Dakota State returns all five of their starters from a season ago after finishing 22-10. Senior forward Douglas Wilson is the returning Summit League Player of the Year after averaging 18.6 points per game and two others return averaging in double-figures a year ago.

“They do a great job of spacing and running their offense. They’ve got multiple guys that can make shots. I think they’re a really difficult team to guard in that they space the floor so well and they’ve got so many guys that if you leave them open they’re going to make shots,” he said. “They pass the ball well, defensively they do a great job of making you score the ball over them.”

If the Mountaineers are able to win they will have a date with the winner of the VCU and Utah State game set for 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

The championship game will be played 1:30 p.m. Friday if the Mountaineers can win on consecutive days.

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