West Virginia men’s basketball has made the trip to the Big 12 Tournament for over a decade now, and with that has come some good and some bad for the Mountaineers.
The three best years in the tournament are during the ‘Press Virginia’ era, when the Mountaineers went to the title game in three consecutive years from 2016-2018. West Virginia lost all three of those gams, falling twice to Kansas and once to Iowa State.
Four times WVU has played only one game in the Big 12 Tournament, with the most recent one-and-done coming in 2021 in a quarterfinal round loss to Oklahoma State.
This is the first year the Big 12 Tournament will feature a new format with the expanded league. In past years, the bottom four teams in the league would have to play in the first round, and everyone else would have a bye until the quarterfinal round. This year, if WVU wants to make the quarterfinals, they are going to have to win two games.
WVU has been in the first round of games four times, including each of the past two years. The Mountaineers are 3-1 in first round games.
West Virginia has another first round game this time around, as they face Cincinnati. In past years, WVU would have to win four games if they were to take home the Big 12 Tournament title, but this year, they are going to have to win five games with the extra round of games.
No. 10-seeded Missouri in 1997 was the lowest seed to make it to the championship game, while No. 5 Iowa State in 2019 was able to be the lowest seed to ever win the tournament.
West Virginia and Cincinnati are set to tip-off around 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon in their first round game of the Big 12 Tournament. Cincinnati and WVU split the season series, but it was just three days ago, the Bearcats demolished the Mountaineers, 92-56.
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