West Virginia believes that 18 wins will get them into the NCAA Tournament. Currently the Mountaineers are sitting at 13-9, and have nine games left in the regular season and then one game guaranteed in the Big 12 Tournament.
“You would think that 18 would get us in, in that we’re playing in the hardest league in the country,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said.
Erik Stevenson echoed that message saying, “in my option, I’d say 18’s for sure safe, especially with this league… I’d say 18’s the number safely. 19 would probably get us an 8-seed, 20 would probably get us a 6-seed or better.”
KenPom, an advanced analytics website which looks at college basketball ranks teams’ percent chances to win games on their schedule. KenPom projects West Virginia will go 18-13, finishing right at that mark of 18 wins.
The Mountaineers simply need to defend home court. Stealing a game on the road would be a bonus, and then anything they do at the Big 12 Tournament would also be an added bonus.
For Huggins and the Mountaineers, there first step is beating an Oklahoma team they lost to on the road by one point in mid-January at home, breaking a seven-game losing streak against the Sooners.
“You hope that the building’s enthusiastic,” Huggins said of the environment Saturday night against the Sooners. “Hopefully the fans show up, the students show up and there’s excitement in the building. That helps considerably.”
| Opponent | Percent Chance to Win |
| vs Oklahoma | 71% |
| vs Iowa State | 62% |
| @ Texas | 31% |
| @ Baylor | 36% |
| vs Texas Tech | 77% |
| vs Oklahoma State | 66% |
| @ Kansas | 30% |
| @ Iowa State | 38% |
| vs Kansas State | 64% |
