With the win over No. 11 Iowa State on Wednesday, the Mountaineers claimed their third victory over a top-15 in opponent in as many weeks, while also giving them their fifth win in their last seven games.
The recent wins have helped lift a team who in the middle of January found themselves 0-5 in Big 12 play. Less than a month later, that same team is 4-7 in Big 12 play, and has a legitimate shot to make the NCAA Tournament.
“Since I’ve been here, except for my first year here, I feel like our backs have always been against the wall,” Kedrian Johnson said following West Virginia’s win over Iowa State. “I think that’s when we thrive the most, when our backs against the wall, people count us out, I think that motivates us to come out and win games.”
Johnson and Emmitt Matthews are two fifth-year players for West Virginia who have helped lift West Virginia to the win on Wednesday, as they combined to score 42 points.
Both Johnson and Matthews had the option to not play this year. With both guys using an extra year of eligibility granted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the decision for Matthews was because he wanted to finish what he started in Morgantown.
“I came back here to win games,” Matthews said. “I didn’t come back here to average 20 points; I didn’t come back here to score a bunch of buckets. I came back here to try and do something special with this team. Obviously, we’ve been off to a slow start in Big 12 and right now we’re trying to correct it all.”
That slow start came in large part to West Virginia beating themselves. Missed free throws, technical fouls, missed looks close to the basket, too many turnovers, were all things which caused the Mountaineers to drop their first five conference games.
“I think as the old proverb says, ‘you dug ourselves a hole, you need to climb out of it.’ We dug ourselves a hole and so we’re trying to climb out of it,” West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins said.
A big reason for the turnaround has been West Virginia’s increased effort and intensity on defense. In the first five games of Big 12 play, West Virginia allowed 77 points per game. In the last seven for the Mountaineers, they have only allowed 68.6 points per game.
“I think that’s a big part of our competitiveness now. I think that’s a big part of why we’re playing so much harder than what we’ve played before,” Huggins said. “We’re trying to get out of that hole, and we’ve made strides in getting out of the hole. Once you get close to getting out of the hole, you sure as heck don’t want to fall back in it. I think that’s a big part of it.”
Despite the recent success and getting closer to where they want to be, West Virginia still has a hill to climb.
The Mountaineers have seven regular season games left, needing to win four more games between the regular season and Big 12 Tournament to feel comfortable heading into Selection Sunday.
Matthews having been through the full Big 12 gauntlet multiple times says there is still time for this team to continue to grow and get better.
“NCAA Tournament starts in March,” Matthews said. “We’re going to try our best to win all our games remaining in the regular season. We know Kansas City (Big 12 Tournament), we know what that atmosphere is like, and we obviously would love to go do something special there.”
The goal for Matthews, just like every college basketball extends past March into April — the weekend of the Final Four.
“That first weekend in April is what everybody wants to play for. Obviously, we’re going to take this one game at a time, we’re not going to look past any opponents,” Matthews said. “We got a road trip coming up, two tough opponents. We’re going to try and go handle business, come back home and handle business even more.”
That road trip for West Virginia features two trips to face two of the top teams in the country. West Virginia battles No. 5 Texas on Saturday in Austin, before heading to Waco on Monday to face No. 14 Baylor.
In recent Bracketology predictions, West Virginia is floating around the 9-seed range in NCAA Tournament projections. Get to 20 wins and West Virginia could be looking at a top-seven seed come March. Go back to the old ways seen early on in conference play, and West Virginai still could miss the tournament all together.
Matthews is taking this one day at a time. He knows nothing is given and everything is earned from here on out, but with West Virginia’s recent success, there is positivity that West Virginia has what it takes to possibly make a late season run.
“Nothing’s ruled out,” Matthews said. “I’ve watched 12 seeds get to the Final Four. You see it happen like every other year. I think we’re going to keep the wheels turning and hopefully get up to a 5-, 6-seed. But National Championship is what everybody wants.”
