MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The WVU men’s hoops season starts with a tune-up exhibition match against George Mason Friday night in Morgantown. Proceeds from the game will support WVU Medicine Children’s.

Here is everything you need to know about the charity exhibition match at the WVU Coliseum:

West Virginia men’s basketball vs. George Mason exhibition info

Exhibition preview

Coming off a chaotic summer in which its international trip was canceled, and a secret-scrimmage loss to Vanderbilt, WVU men’s basketball is hosting a much-needed exhibition game against George Mason Friday night.

The Mountaineers are still fine-tuning their rotations that will exclude Montana State transfer guard RaeQuan Battle following the denial of his second-time transfer waiver by the NCAA. The roster also includes seven transfers, four returners and one freshman.

Interim head coach Josh Eilert mentioned Wednesday that he and his staff were able to watch film from George Mason’s recent scrimmage against St. Thomas, and the Patriots’ inside presence (+13 in rebounding) could provide problems for the Mountaineers.

“I touched on it early that it could be an issue, and it was an issue and that’s our defensive rebounding,” Eilert said. “We’ve drilled that and drilled that and hopefully it gets through to them that before we run out, we’ve got to check our man. It’s a give and take, especially if you are trying to score early, but we’ve got to do our job on the defensive rebounding side of things before we run out and not put all that pressure on one or two guys.”

George Mason is led by Oklahoma State transfer forward Woody Newton (13 starts at OSU) and returning guard Ronald Polite III. Polite III was the team’s third-leading scorer last season (11.5 points per game).

WVU guard Seth Wilson (4.2 points per game in 2022-23) leads the four returners from a scoring perspective, but the Mountaineers’ offensive production will largely be generated from its transfers

Syracuse transfer Jesse Edwards averaged 14.5 points and 10.3 rebounds per game in 32 starts for the Orange last season. Arizona transfer Kerr Kriisa led the Pac-12 in assists per game in both his sophomore and junior seasons. Georgetown transfer Akok Akok (31 starts, 6.5 points per game in 2022) and Iona transfer Quinn Slazinski will also be expected to shoulder some of the load on offense.