WVU Basketball Unveils Schedule for Tour of Italy

West Virginia’s tour of Italy was initially scheduled to take place before last season, but the program decided to postpone the trip.

“For the trip to be most beneficial to our program, it made more sense to defer the Italy summer trip to next year,” said former interim head coach Josh Eilert in a statement last year. “A lot of factors went into the decision, but it became clear that getting our roster finalized and continuing our workout schedule here in Morgantown was the best course of action.”

At this point one year ago, the Mountaineer program was still reeling from the departure of Hall of Fame head coach Bob Huggins in the midst of multiple scandals throughout the spring and summer.

West Virginia’s last foreign trip was to Spain in August 2019.

The 2024-2025 season will mark WVU head coach Darian DeVries first leading the Mountaineers after he built a program of consistency during his six seasons at Drake. The Bulldogs won 20-plus games in each of DeVries’ seasons at the helm, with three NCAA Tournament appearances. Drake has one March win from the play-in game vs. Wichita State in 2021. The Bulldogs returned to the tournament last season, falling to 7-seed Washington State.

Drake finished with a 28-7 record this season, going 16-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference and then winning the MVC Tournament. Drake had a top-45 offense in the country, averaging 80 points per game. The Bulldogs shot 37% from three as a team, which is 36th in the country. Drake allowed 70.4 points per contest this past season.

For a related story, WVU head coach Darian DeVries talked candidly about taking the WVU job during a podcast appearance in May.