WHEELING — The last time the Wheeling University men’s basketball team scrimmaged against West Virginia University was in December of 2017. Soon though, that clock will reset.

Wheeling University and WVU will scrimmage inside the WVU Coliseum on Oct. 26, the Mountaineers’ athletics website announced on Friday as part of their non-conference schedule release.

“It’s very exciting,” Wheeling University head coach Chris Richardson said Friday. “We love the opportunities we get night in, night out in the Mountain East and in Division II. But anytime you get the opportunity to step up and play a team at the highest level of college basketball, particularly one in the Big 12, it’s a really great opportunity. I know our guys will be excited, our coaches will be excited, and it’ll be a game where we learn a lot about our team, but it’ll also be a good experience.”

Next month’s scrimmage was made possible by shared history between Richardson and WVU’s coaching staff.

“So much of coaching and college athletics is about relationships,” Richardson said. “And just having crossed paths with a lot of the new coaching staff at West Virginia during the years that I’ve been coaching, not just at Wheeling, but at other places where I’ve been. There were a lot of guys that worked at the Division 2 level, a lot of them worked at the junior college level, which I’ve always recruited heavily.

“Just relationships, I’d say, is the best way to say how it came about. And obviously it’s an opportunity for them to play in the Coliseum for the first time as a team with this roster and work on some things that they want to work on, and we’re going to do the same thing. I’m very appreciative and thankful of the opportunity that Coach Hodge and his staff have given our program to come compete.”

The scrimmage against the Mountaineers will be the Cardinals’ only public scrimmage. They will have two closed scrimmages.

“This will be the first time that we play in front of fans and the only time we play in front of fans, you know, before it really counts.

Over the last few years, WVU has entered their season with all-new rosters as roster turnover has been a prevailing factor across college sports.

Many of the same transfer rules that have made for a high-profile impact on the collegiate landscape have affected Division II as well, but Wheeling has been able to find a luxury in this day and age — continuity.

In that way, October’s scrimmage will be between two teams that not only reside in different conferences and NCAA Divisions, but which have been built differently too.

“You have turnover every year, particularly in this era,” Richardson said. “But, we still recruit a lot of freshmen, so our continuity, I think, is a little bit better than maybe some other teams that rely heavily on transfers, because a lot of transfers are maybe only going to be there for a year now. It takes the freshman a little bit longer to hit the floor and develop in some cases, and those that do hit the floor, you know, aren’t anywhere close to being the player that they’re going to be in a couple years.

“But we do have decent continuity. We got some new pieces as well, and we look forward to seeing how those all fit together here in the coming weeks when we get started, early September with our workouts. I think with [WVU] having a whole new team, it’s a great chance for them to kind of, like I said, play under the lights, play in front of fans, and work on some of the things that are, you know, going to make them successful during the season, especially when they get into Big 12 play. And for us, it’s a chance to be part of a great experience that our players will never forget.”

Richardson, a WVU graduate, is excited for the opportunity to play against the gold and blue, as are his handful of players from the Mountain State and the Ohio Valley, including Trevor Beresford (Cameron) and Caleb Murray (Linsly).

“We’ve got several West Virginia kids,” Richardson said. “We have a couple guys from Beckley, we have some Ohio Valley products, we have kids from Charleston. You know, I went to school at West Virginia, I grew up rooting for West Virginia. Pretty much any day but October 26th, I’ll still be rooting for West Virginia.

“My son is six years old, and he loves WVU, he’s go WVU stuff all over his wardrobe. When I told him that we were gonna play West Virginia, he was very measured in his response. And I said, ‘Aren’t you excited?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’m excited. I just don’t know who I’m gonna root for yet.’ And so what he told me is that he’s gonna root for Wheeling, but then after the game, if West Virginia wins, he’s gonna stand up and sing Country Roads.”

The tension in the Richardson household underpins the unique loyalty that WVU has in its home state– a status that has Richardson and his team excited for October’s opportunity.

“I’ve been a part of these games at other places I’ve been, and there’s not many places like West Virginia where everybody in the whole state follows them and pretty much roots for them statewide. It’s a unique experience at WVU and I was a part of that growing up as a kid, you know, I was one of those people rooting for them. So this will be kind of cool from that perspective. Just personally getting to be out there in the Coliseum, where I’ve seen hundreds of games over the years, it’ll be great to be part of one.”