The West Virginia Mountaineers had a tough week of conference play last week. They went 0-2 losing both games to unranked opponents. Andy Katz’s latest bracketology has the Mountaineers dropping to an eighth seed in the tournament.
After being projected as a potential second seed earlier in the year, the Mountaineers have seen that number drop every week. The team’s huge win against No. 2 Iowa State had them projected as a sixth seed in the tournament last week, but two back-to-back losses to Arizona State and Kansas State have caused this to drop.
This is not a huge worry for the Mountaineers, who are in one of the toughest conferences in the nation. The latest predictions believe the Mountaineers need 19 wins to make the tournament, a task very possible with a softer schedule approaching in the back end of conference play.
The biggest issue for the Mountaineers is a second guy. Javon Small is an All-Big 12 player so far this season averaging 19.6 points per game, but a second-leading scorer is yet to emerge.
The injury to Tucker DeVries, who was originally the second guy for the Mountaineers, has put a lot of pressure on the rest of the team to fill that hole.
WVU will host No. 7 Houston at home on Jan. 29. They will then hit the road to play a tough Cincinnati squad on Feb. 2.
