WVU's Toby Okani Gives Intriguing Response to Question on Expectations

Could West Virginia surprise some people in 2024-25?

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 4, 2024

West Virginia University forward Toby Okani / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

In this story:

West Virginia Mountaineers

It's going to be a bit of an uphill battle for the West Virginia men's basketball team this winter with an entirely new coaching staff and almost a brand new roster with Ofri Naveh being the lone returning piece from last year's team.

Because of all the newness, expectations for this Mountaineer team are fairly low. One of West Virginia's newcomers, senior forward Toby Okani, wants fans to know that there is an urgency to win now and that there is enough talent on hand to do so.

“I feel that the expectations for this team is just to keep an open mind of us, regardless of what the media says right now. We have a whole lot of basketball to play ahead of us and it’s October. Just keep an open mind of us and don’t be closed off because of the past," Okani stated. "We’re here to win and we’re not here to win later. This team is built with a lot of seniors and fifth-years and with a mix of freshmen ready to win now.”

The closer we get to the start of the 2024-25 college basketball season, you'll start to hear more and more about how challenging and deep the Big 12 Conference is. Very few outside of the state will be talking about the Mountaineers until they do something noteworthy in league play.

With the league expanding to a 20-game conference schedule, it makes life all the more difficult especially when you add Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, and Utah to what was already viewed as the best basketball league in America. There could be a stretch of games on WVU's schedule where they'll play four straight ranked opponents or five of six versus ranked teams. It's going to be a dogfight every single night.

“For our team, I think we just go one game at a time," Okani stated when asked about the challenging schedule. "Overseeing a team or seeing that we have someone else on the back end of a road trip doesn’t give respect to the team that we’re actually playing. We’re not like that. The way we go about practicing and the way coach drills us is it’s one drill at a time, one play at a time. We’re not overstepping, not looking toward the end of practice. We’re looking towards the next drill, the next play.”

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI