WHEELING — These are good times with West Virginia University athletics.

WVU Athletic Director Shane Lyons, however, is not one to stand pat.

The affable AD was in Wheeling Monday as part of the university’s well-attended Coaching Caravan at River City. Lyons likes the current state of Mountaineer athletics, as well he should. The current sports landscape in Morgantown is one steeped in success.

Lyons is raising the bar, however.

He announced to the Blue & Gold-adorned crowd that between $75-$100 million in football facilities and Coliseum complex upgrades are in the works.

“We want to keep building and keep thinking positive,” Lyons said. “The upgrades are part of our master plan.”

That master plan encompasses a 7-10 year time period. It includes several renovations to the Puskar Center, including the training room, meeting rooms and locker rooms.

Meanwhile, the Coliseum work calls for a new weight room, training room for our Olympic sports athletes as well as enhancements to the arena such as lighting, sound, scoreboard and seating.

As always is the case, much fund-raising must take place for the work to come to fruition down the road. It has to be refreshing to Mountaineer fans that Lyons is not content with the current good times. He wants to take all Mountaineer sports to another level.

“We are good in a lot of sports. We want to continue to build and build,” Lyons said. “We have great fans. We want to make them proud.

“I ask our staff, ‘Why can’t it be WVU?’ We have played for national championships in football and have made the Final Four in basketball. It can be us,” he continued. “We don’t have bad facilities at WVU. But what we have to compete against in the Big 12 is tough. The upgrades will help us in the recruiting process.”

WVU’s membership in the Big 12 has yielded much banter over the years. The biggest drawback being the geography factor. Lyons is one staunch supporter of the conference affiliation.

“The Big 12 has been good to us. It enables us to do a lot of things,” Lyons offered. “These are exciting times for WVU athletics. With your support great things can happen.”

Lyons was joined by an impressive WVU coaching entourage, including Bob Huggins, Dana Holgorsen and Mike Carey

HUGGINS WAS asked his thoughts on his squad’s performance this past season as well what the future holds.

“We won 26 games which is a pretty good season. But you always want more. We want to still be playing on the big weekend and stay the whole time. I think we are getting closer,” Huggins said. “We now have been ranked in the top 25 for the last 70 weeks in the USA Today poll and the last 50 weeks in the AP poll. That’s never happened before.

“We will be fine (in regards to next year). We have a good recruiting class coming in with a pair of 6-10 guys,” he added. “Trust me, we are going to be fine. We are not done yet.”

HOLGORSEN, MEANWHILE, also felt good about what his Blue & Gold gridders accomplished last year.

“I am proud of our guys this past year. We went through a lot of transition with a lot of new players. We battled hard,” Holgorsen said. “If not for a bad decision on the goal line against Texas we would have won that game and some more after.

“We are excited about the coming year but we have a challenging schedule. We are playing 11 Power 5 schools,” the offensive mastermind added. “We have an unbelievable opportunity with this program moving forward.”

CAREY WAS not as upbeat about the Lady Mountaineers’ recent hoop campaign.

“I am disappointed with how the season played out. We only lost one player from our title team but injuries really hit us hard,” he said. “But we have a good recruiting class coming in. We just need to develop an inside game. If I don’t mess things up we will be pretty good.”

BUBBA’S ‘EER BITS

HUGGINS WILL become a member of the NCAA Basketball Rules Committee this coming year.

THE CARAVAN crowd at River City totaled well in excess of 200.

THE BELMONT Mountaineer Athletic Club presented Lyons a check for $10,000 for the WVU Mountaineer Athletic Fund. All told, BMAC has now donated more than $100,000 to support Mountaineer athletics.

TREVOR KIESS — the Mountaineer Mascot — was at the fete, toting his musket.

He posed for more photos than any WVU coach.

HUGGINS SAYS he expects Sagaba Konate to return for his junior season. The talented forward is going through the NBA Draft process but did not hire an agent.

BUBBA’S BITS

STEUBENVILLE HIGH product Tariq Wilson has been named to the Amateur Wrestling News 2018 All-Rookie Team. Wilson compiled a 27-10 mark for North Carolina State this past season in the 133-pound class. The talented frosh finished third in the NCAA Championships. Wilson was a four-time OVAC champion, four-time state placer, three-time state runner-up and the all-time wins leader at Steubenville.

KUDOS TO the Wheeling Jesuit University women’s track & field program for winning the Mountain East Conference Women?s Track & Field championship. In the process, Cardinals pocketed two special awards. Ricky Moore was named Coach of the Year while Kaitlyn Workman captured the Track Athlete of the Year. Workman won the 5K- and 10K-meter races while finishing runnerup in the 1500 meters.

I WAS stunned when I heard the news that former Barnesville High coach Darrell David had died Monday. I spent much time with Davis just two days prior at the OVAC Track Championships. He sounded and looked great and was upbeat about life. Davis is destined to become an OVAC Hall of Famer as he scripted a tremendous coaching resume with the Shamrocks, including guiding the Red & Green to the 1985 state wrestling championship. Darrell was one of the nicest people in the coaching business. Our prayers go out to his family.

THE VICTORY Awards Dinner played out a week ago in Charleston. Two Wheeling Central athletes were recipients of special awards. Riley Bennington earned the Doug Huff Award for doing the dirty work and being a great defender for Penn Kurtz’s state champion lady hoopsters. Adam Murray, meanwhile, pocketed the Sam Huff Award, which goes to the state’s premier lineman. Wheeling Intelligencer and News-Register Sports Editor Josh Strope presented both awards in class fashion.

KUDOS to Steubenville’s Fred Heatherington on reaching the 600-win plateau in his amazing baseball coaching career with Big Red.

CAMBRIDGE HIGH product Eric Fox recently captured the decathlon competition in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship meet. The Louisville standout totaled 7,277 to win by a mere two points.

WISHING ALL mothers a special day on their special day.