MORGANTOWN - The money hasn't been raised and there is only a tentative timetable for construction, but the proposed basketball practice facility at West Virginia does have vision.

The sleek, new building adjacent to the Coliseum would house practice facilities for both men's and women's basketball, as well as a weight room, training rooms and coaches' offices.

Now the only issue is raising nearly $25 million for the project and then beginning construction.

"I think we're going to need in the neighborhood of $22, $23, $24 million the way it looks right now,'' said Russ Sharp, WVU's assistant athletic director in charge of finance and facilities. "There are a lot of asks out there and a lot of pledges in hand. We've had enough interest to know that the project is viable.''

The entire project will be funded privately.

Assuming the fundraising progresses satisfactorily, Sharp estimates taking bids on the building in September, beginning construction a month later and having the facility ready to occupy by November of 2009, not for the start of basketball practice but around the beginning of the season.

Initially, Sharp said, the concept for the building was to house just the basketball practice floors and be built connected to the Coliseum so that the existing weight room and training facilities could still be tied in. Very early in the process, however, it became apparent that connecting the two was not feasible.

"The reality is we just don't have a large enough footprint there to do that, to connect the two,'' Sharp said. "So we needed to incorporate the training room and the weight room and those kinds of things into it so that it was a complete facility.''

The architectural firm of Ellerbe Becket in Kansas City is doing the planning for the building. The firm has designed similar structures across the country.

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, use e-mail or call 348-1734.