The games count tonight for the West Virginia Mountaineers as they welcome Robert Morris to the 2024-25 season opener.

Here are our predictions for tonight's game.

It's an exciting time for West Virginia fans as the next chapter of Mountaineer basketball begins. Last season felt like a gap year in many ways, and now there's actually a product that fans are excited about.

Tucker DeVries and Javon Small will cause problems for the Colonials defensively and could each score over 20 points in this game. While all of the attention is on the offensive end of the floor, my attention is on the other end. I'm interested in how this group looks compared to the stronger competition and how well connected they are defensively.

The secret matchup against Wake Forest produced a lot of good results, and if what I heard is true, Robert Morris will have a challenge scoring the ball tonight. Midway through the second half, West Virginia pulls away and takes the win.

This year's edition of the West Virginia men's basketball team has a new head coach in Darian DeVries and 14 new faces take the court Monday night. Expectations for the season are rather low as the Big 12 Conference media has picked the Mountaineers for the 13th place ranking.

West Virginia appeared to have the edge in its performance against the University of Charleston, with forward Tucker DeVries leading the way offensively with 18 points and the Mountaineers showing tenacity on defense.

The concern heading into the season is the Mountaineers' frontcourt, but that shouldn't be a problem against the Colonials and it's another opportunity to learn to recover as a cohesive unit.

I don't suspect the Mountaineers will have much trouble with Robert Morris and will control most of the game. West Virginia wins the season opener 82-65.

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Spread & Over/Under Predictions for WVU vs. Robert Morris