WVU Mountaineers News: Joy Naukot at NCAA Championships, Big 12 Basketball Schedule Released, More

Joy Naukot's Big Finish at the NCAA Track and Field Championships

West Virginia track and field star Joy Naukot capped an amazing freshman season on Thursday night with a Top 3 finish in the women's 10,000 meter run at the NCAA Championships.

Under the lights at historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. -- one of the most storied venues in the sport -- Naukot shattered the previous meet record (alongside four other competitors) in a blazing fast race that saw her capture the bronze medal with a new program record of 31 minutes, 34.34 seconds.

The Kapenguria, Kenya, native was honored for her performance with First-Team All-American honors, becoming just the fourth woman in program history to earn the achievement in the 10,000 meter run.

West Virginia Basketball Learns Big 12 Opponents For Upcoming Season

WVU basketball now knows who and where they'll be playing in Big 12 action this season, and it comes with a bit of a twist.

The twist is that the Big 12 has officially reduced itself back to an 18-game schedule for the 2025-2026 season -- that was the previous norm for the league before last year, when it jumped to 20 league games upon the conference expanding to 16 teams. Now, the league will go back to its former approach, allowing teams a couple additional out-of-conference games.

The Mountaineers will play just three teams in a traditional home-and-home series, with Cincinnati, Kansas State, and UCF on that list. The Mountaineers will also receive visits from Baylor, BYU, Colorado, Kansas, Texas Tech and Utah, while they'll find taking trips to Arizona, Arizona State, Houston, Iowa State, Oklahoma State and TCU. Dates and times are yet to be released.

Former WVU guard finds new coaching gig

Former West Virginia basketball guard Jordan McCabe is on the move once again.

McCabe has had a rocky couple of years in the coaching industry -- he spent the 2023-2024 season as an assistant on the staff at WVU under Interim Head Coach Josh Eilert in a historically bad season for the Mountaineers, and spent 2024-2025 as an assistant at Green Bay under Doug Gottlieb, who led the Phoenix to a dismal 4-28 record.

Now, McCabe will be joining Bryce Drew's staff at Grand Canyon, where he hopefully won't encounter the same losing ways as at his past two stops -- Drew has taken the Antelopes to the NCAA Tournament 4 out of the last 5 years.