WVU women’s basketball is set to begin their tournament run on Saturday, let’s take a look at how they match up with the rest of the field.
The Mountaineers finished the season with a dominant 24-7 record and fell just short in the Big 12 tournament with a fourth-place finish. WVU is one of seven Big 12 teams to make the NCAA Tournament and are one of the six to be ranked inside of the top ten in their region. The Mountaineers have now made the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season and the 16th time in the program’s history.
The team is led by JJ Quinerly, who has won back-to-back Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year awards. The Mountaineers defense was their strong suit all season long, where they ranked No. 15 in total defensive scoring in the country, allowing only 55.5 points allowed per game.
The Mountaineers will await the winner of the play-in-game between No. 11 seeds Washington and Columbia. Washington finished the season 19-13, which had them at No. 12 in the Big Ten, while Columbia finished the season 23-6, 13-1 in Ivy League play and finished first in the Ivy League.
These are both favorable matchups for WVU as they are set to take the floor in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. If the Mountaineers advance to the next round, they will play the winner of No. 3 UNC and No. 14 Oregon State. UNC finished their season with a 27-7 record and finished fourth in ACC. Meanwhile, Oregon State finished 19-15 and finished fourth in the West Coast Conference.
West Virginia’s best finish in the NCAA Tournament came in 2014 when they reached the Elite Eight but lost to the UConn Huskies, who would go on to win the whole tournament. The team has had success in the first round, as they have won seven of their last nine first-round games, including last season, where they defeated Princeton before they would have to travel to Iowa City for a matchup with the Hawkeyes and Caitlin Clark, a game that would end the Mountaineers’ run.
