West Virginia preparing for quick turnaround road trip
West Virginia is preparing for a pair of quick turnaround road games on Saturday and Monday and all that comes with that.
After a week off, the Mountaineers will travel to Texas for the first of those two contests for a Saturday afternoon game and then will head to TCU for a Monday night matchup.
It’s a scheduling strategy that is plenty familiar to West Virginia over the years as until this year the program was a geographic outlier situated in the east in a predominantly southwest league.
Obviously, that isn’t as pronounced as it once was with the additions of Cincinnati and UCF, but this is one area the Big 12 schedule makers have tried to help the Mountaineers out with over the years.
Essentially in these situations, West Virginia will make one flight west and then travel to the next location with the short turnaround ahead of that game. It not only cuts down on travel but makes it more manageable when it comes to preparation.
“It’s critical for us as a program to knock out some of these two game trips. You can eliminate some of the back and forth especially if it’s Saturday/Monday,” head coach Josh Eilert said.
Now, managing time at a hotel can prove difficult with the team if there is more time between games but knocking out two games in one trip certainly has its advantages.
“Get ready and practice in that home arena to get ready,” Eilert said. “It takes out some of the jet lag in the process. On the road you have a much better chance when you’re settled in and you’re not rushed to go out somewhere.”
Given the tight turnaround, West Virginia won’t be focused on anything but Texas first and then will do film work on the day off to prepare for TCU ahead of the Monday night game.
The Mountaineers should be refreshed for the two games after taking two days off to start the week and then holding a difficult practice before easing into one day and another difficult one. Without a game this past week, the team has been able to get their legs under them and focus on improvement.
And with two games coming up, it’s something this team certainly needed.
“Seemed like we were really rejuvenated,” Eilert said.
West Virginia has yet to win on the road this season, but the Mountaineers are hoping to change that over the final nine games of the year.
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