ESPN BPI Heavily Favors WVU's in Big 12-Big East Battle vs. Georgetown

West Virginia appears to be in a great position to pick up win No. 6 in the young season.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Friday night's game inside the WVU Coliseum will have a nostalgic feel to it as the West Virginia Mountaineers meet up with an old Big East foe, the Georgetown Hoyas, in the Big 12-Big East Battle.

What the ESPN BPI says

According to the ESPN Basketball Power Index (BPI), West Virginia has an 80.1% chance to win while Georgetown has a 19.9% chance.

West Virginia comes into this game winners in three of their last four, including a pair of top-25 wins over No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 24 Arizona. Their only loss during that stretch came to Louisville in overtime, a game that could have gone their way if Amani Hansberry connected on his three-point attempt at the end of regulation.

For the Hoyas, they've only truly been tested once this season, and it resulted in a 21-point loss to Notre Dame. All seven of their wins have come against teams ranked 224 or lower in the KenPom ratings. Three of them (Wagner, Fairfield, and St. Francis) are all below 300.

Is the BPI right?

80% may seem a bit strong, but the Mountaineers are a much better team, and they've been battle-tested in four of their first seven matchups of the year. In addition to a weak schedule to this point, the Hoyas have yet to play on the road. Knocking off WVU in the Coliseum seems a bit unlikely, so I can't really argue with the percentages for this one.

How accurate has the BPI been?

It's early in the year, so it's hard to say how accurate the BPI has been when there have been a handful of easy matchups for West Virginia. But as of today, the BPI is 5-2 in its predictions, only wrongly predicting the outcome of the Gonzaga and Arizona games.

Next up

Life is about to get a little easier for the Mountaineers, at least for their next three games. They'll face North Carolina Central, Bethune-Cookman, and Mercyhurst before opening Big 12 Conference play on the road at Kansas.

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