West Virginia men earn No. 3 seed, will play Morehead State in NCAA Tournament

For the first time in three seasons, West Virginia men’s basketball is going dancing.

The Mountaineers (18-9) were awarded a No. 3 seed in the Midwest region and will open the NCAA Tournament against No. 14 Morehead State (23-7) at 9:50 p.m. Friday.

The game will be played at Lucas Oil Stadium and will be televised on truTV.

All tournament games will be played in Indiana.

“We’re pleased with the seed where we are,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “I’m gonna go home and watch four or five Morehead games, and then I can fill you in on them a little better.”

West Virginia, which was seeded 10th overall, finished 11-6 in the Big 12 and lost to Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament Thursday.

Morehead State was 17-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference and defeated Belmont in the conference title game to earn an automatic bid. The Eagles have won 19 of their last 20 games.

The winner will take on the winner of No. 6 San Diego State and No. 11 Syracuse. Illinois (23-6) earned the No. 1 seed in the Midwest bracket.

“Obviously, I looked at who else was in our bracket, and we’ve played San Diego State before in Las Vegas, and we’ve played Syracuse a bunch from back in the old Big East days,” Huggins said. “Those two (teams) I know very, very well.”

The Mountaineers’ last trip to the NCAA Tournament was as a No. 5 seed in 2018. They reached the Sweet 16 before falling to Villanova.

This is the 30th NCAA Tournament appearance for WVU.

The Final Four games will be April 3, and the national championship will be April 5 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

“We’ve just got to go over things that we have to do and do better,” Huggins said. “I feel good about where we are.”