The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team represents West Virginia University in NCAA Division I college basketball competition. It is a member of the Big East Conference. West Virginia most recently reached the Sweet Sixteen of the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, led by West Virginia coach and former WVU player Bob Huggins.
West Virginia men's basketball has competed in three basketball championship final matches: the 1959 NCAA final, the 1942 NIT final (at that time, the NIT was considered more prestigious than the NCAA), and the 2007 NIT Championship. They lost 71-70 to California in the 1959 final NCAA finals, while the Mountaineers won the 1942 NIT Championship 47-45 over Western Kentucky, and the 2007 NIT contest over Clemson 78-73 in a rebuilding season.
The most points scored in a game was 132 points against Alaska-Fairbanks in 1994, while the largest margin of victory was against Salem College, with the Mountaineers winning 113-32 in 1945. The largest margin of defeat in Mountaineer basketball history came in 1978 against Louisville, when the Cardinals beat the Mountaineers 106-60.
The WVU Mountaineers began the beginning of their basketball legacy in 1955, with the emergence of sophomore guard Hot Rod Hundley and newly appointed head coach Fred Schaus. The Mountaineers finished with a 19-11 record, and earned the first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history under Hundley's lead. The team entered the tournament with a #19 ranking, the first Top 20 ranking in school history. However, they lost to the #3 La Salle Explorers in the first round of the tourney, 95-61.
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