West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball
The West Virginia Mountaineers finished the regular season with a record of 20–11 overall and 11–7 in the Big East, good for sixth place in the conference. They earned a 5th seed in East region of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, one of the record eleven Big East Conference teams selected. They defeated the Clemson Tigers in the second round, 84–76, to advance to the Round of 32. In a rematch of last season's Elite Eight match-up, the Mountaineers played the Kentucky Wildcats. Despite holding a 41–33 halftime lead, the Mountaineers lost, 71–63. WVU finished their season with a record of 21–12.With 184 games played between 1906 and 2012, West Virginia's rivalry against Pittsburgh, whose campus is roughly 80 miles north of WVU, is West Virginia's most-played men's basketball rivalry. This was an in-conference rivalry for many years: 1976 to 1982 in the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League and Eastern Athletic Association (predecessors to the Atlantic 10 Conference) and 1995 to 2012 in the Big East Conference. Following the conference realignment, West Virginia moved to the Big 12 Conference in 2012, and Pittsburgh moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013 and the series was put on hold until the 2017-2018 season. West Virginia has a 97–88 series lead.
West Virginia Mountaineers football
Beginning with the 1953 season, the Mountaineers would reel off three consecutive eight-win seasons and five Southern Conference (SoCon) championships in six seasons. In 1953, the Mountaineers finished with an 8–2 record, their first SoCon championship, a No. 10 ranking in the Associated Press (AP) Poll, and a berth in the Sugar Bowl with Georgia Tech. The 1954 edition of the Mountaineers also finished the regular season with an 8–1 mark, losing their only game to Pitt by a 13–10 score. The Mountaineers did not earn a bowl bid, however, despite winning their second consecutive SoCon title and earning a No. 12 ranking in the AP Poll. In 1955, the Mountaineers engineered yet another eight-win season and SoCon championship, but upset losses to Pitt and Syracuse doomed West Virginia's shot at a bowl bid. Despite its disappointing finish, WVU produced two All-American offensive linemen and future College Football Hall of Fame inductees in Bruce Bosley and Sam Huff. Bosley earned Consensus All-American status that season, becoming the first Mountaineer to do so since Ira Errett Rodgers in 1919.
Despite finishing with a modest 6–4 record in 1956, West Virginia won its fourth consecutive SoCon title with a 5–0 record in conference play. The 1957 season resulted in a 7–2–1 record and a 3–0 mark in Southern Conference play. Although the Mountaineers once again compiled an undefeated SoCon record, they were not awarded the conference championship, as VMI earned the title with a 9–0–1 overall record and 6–0 record in SoCon play. In 1958, the Mountaineers had their first losing season in eight years, but their 4–0 record in SoCon play earned them a 5th conference title in six seasons. The 1958 season was the final season that West Virginia would win a conference championship under Lewis's tenure. The Mountaineers finished 3–7 in 1959, losing the final five games of the season by a combined score of 24–140. Lewis resigned as head coach afterward. Despite the program's drop off in success in his final two seasons as coach, Lewis produced 58 victories overall during his tenure at West Virginia, placing him fourth overall in the program's history.