The West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball program has now won seven of the last nine editions of The Backyard Brawl after capturing a 71-49 win over the Pitt Panthers on Thursday night at the Hope Coliseum in Morgantown.
After dropping the last two consecutive games against Pitt, including the last game in Morgantown against the Panthers in 2023. Legendary WVU play-by-play announcer Tony Caridi described it as a 'welcome to Morgantown' moment for first-year West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge, who had earlier in the week described the Backyard Brawl by saying that it would be "disingenuous" to ignore how much the rivalry means to the program. And after pulling out a dominant victory against the Panthers, he reiterated that his team approached the game as something special, and that they were elated to pull off the win for WVU fans.
"Our guys embraced it. We didn't run from the fact that it means so much to the state," Hodge told the Mountaineer Sports Network after the win. "I'm happy for the state of West Virginia and the people of West Virginia...God bless the Mountaineers and God bless the people of West Virginia."
For Hodge's team, it's a great confidence and morale boost to be able to pull off a big win over the program's toughest rival early in the season, and the Mountaineers will hopefully be able to use that momentum heading into their upcoming Charleston Classic, which starts one week from tomorrow. And in a win for fans that means little in terms of how the season plays out on the court, WVU has now swept Pitt in football and men's basketball this season. And as the iconic Caridi might say – it's a great day to be a Mountaineer, wherever you may be.