Is West Virginia a Basketball School? Kansas State's Coach Thinks So

In recent years, West Virginia football and basketball have underperformed, but throughout their entire existence, the two programs have been competitive, produced some legendary players, coaches, and have had an incredible amount of success.

So it begs to ask the question, is West Virginia a football school or a basketball school?

I've thought about this before, but have never really put much thought into it. That changed when Kansas State men's head basketball coach Jerome Tang made it a point to tab WVU as a basketball school in his postgame press conference following their loss to the Mountaineers on Tuesday night.

"What was it? Like 8,000? Maybe more out there? It’s snowing like crazy, it’s -7, and I saw people walking. These fans, man, they just love this place. This is the pro team. It’s a basketball school. You see the statues out front…it’s a special place."

When you look at the two programs' accolades side-by-side, they are pretty similar.

They've each been to the national championship once, came oh so close one other time (2007 in football, 2010 in basketball), 13 conference championships for basketball, 15 for football. Basketball has been to three Elite Eights, and football has appeared in and won three BCS/New Year's Six bowls. Football has legends that everyone knows, like Major Harris, Darryl Talley, Pat White, Steve Slaton, and Tavon Austin. Basketball has Jerry West, Hot Rod Hundley, Rod Thorn, Kevin Pittsnogle, and Jevon Carter. Football is the 15th-winningest program in the country, while basketball is 23rd.

It's a tough call, especially when the basketball program has the logo of the NBA. That said, I'd still probably give the slightest of edges to football if we're talking about overall success and what others around the country know WVU more for. You may disagree wholeheartedly, and I wouldn’t have much of an argument against it.

To me, though, whenever folks get into this conversation, I'm always wary to side with one program over the other because calling a school a "basketball school" or "football school" sounds like that's the only sport that fan base cares about. Duke? A basketball school. Alabama? Football school. See what I mean? To me, West Virginia University is West Virginia's school. It doesn't matter the sport; if they're keeping score, there will be a bunch of fans there pulling for their Mountaineers. And hey, if we're being honest, baseball has taken the lead here recently.

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