On the road at Allen Fieldhouse playing a top-three team, a projected one-seed in the NCAA Tournament is no easy task for any team. West Virginia had the opportunity to tie or take the lead on the final possession of the game, and failed to generate any good look over the final 24 seconds in their two-point loss to No. 3 Kansas on Saturday.
And despite the loss and the bitter feeling it leaves, the result of the game did prove one thing for West Virginia. They belong in the NCAA Tournament.
West Virginia — considered a bubble team by most — has played the fifth-toughest schedule in the country and out of the top-16 teams the NCAA selection committee revealed last week, West Virginia had played seven of them.
“We belong (in the NCAA Tournament). There’s not question about it,” West Virginia fifth-year guard Erik Stevenson said.
West Virginia remains ranked 27th in the NET and 20th in KenPom after the loss to the Jayhawks. For West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins though he feels his team should be in a comfortable position with three guaranteed games remaining. It is highly suspected the Mountaineers need to win at least once more to guarantee entry to the NCAA Tournament.
“We have far and away — and it’s not even close — the best strength of schedule in the country,” Huggins said. “If that doesn’t mean something to the committee shame on them.”
Huggins and the Mountaineers have a 49.1 percent chance to make the NCAA Tournament according to analytical website Bart Tovik. West Virginia’s holds a 25-point road win over current ACC leader Pitt, as well as two wins over SEC opponents which strengthens their non-conference resume. Conference-wise, there is no debate about the Big 12 being the best conference in college basketball.
“I think you look at our scores, we deserve to be in the tournament,” Huggins said. “They give you all that BS about play a strong schedule, then you play a strong schedule. If they continue to tell you to do that then by god they better hold up their end of the bargain.”
The newly-inducted Hall of Fame head coach for West Virginia said his team being excluded from the tournament this year would mean listening to the selection committee’s request of playing a strong schedule would prove pointless.
“I told our guys, I don’t think we have anything to worry about and I will blast their (the NCAA Tournament selection committee) ass as far and as long as I can if they don’t let those guys in the [NCAA] Tournament after years and years of play a competitive schedule,” Huggins said.
Kansas head coach Bill Self agrees with Huggins that the Mountaineers belong saying, West Virginia belongs in the dance.
“You guys saw them play today — does that look like an NCAA Tournament team to you — and the answer is an emphatic yes,” Self said. “They’re good, and the league is just really hard. The league is really and they’re really good.”
