It's only mid-May, but two things appear to be true about West Virginia basketball's 2026-27 campaign: they have a higher ceiling, and they are going to be tested early. Yesterday, a report surfaced that the Mountaineers are finalizing a deal to play North Carolina in the Dick Vitale Invitational on November 27th in Charlotte, NC. This adds to what is already going to be a challenging non-conference slate for WVU, which features matchups against Pitt, Wake Forest, and the Players Era Tournament, where they will play one of the following teams in the opening round: Auburn, Florida, Houston, Kansas, Notre Dame, Rutgers, or UNLV. In all likelihood, the tournament will try to prevent teams from the conference from playing each other for as long as possible. So one of Auburn, Florida, Notre Dame, Rutgers, or UNLV is who WVU will see to start. Although they lost this past year's game in Charleston, the neutral court matchup in Greensboro against Wake Forest is certainly winnable.…