West Virginia was surprisingly left out of the NCAA Tournament field and ultimately won’t be participating in any postseason basketball.
The Mountaineers had opportunities to participate in other avenues such as the College Basketball Crown but ultimately the players on the team decided it wasn’t what they wanted to do.
The decision was made after discussions with the current team following what Athletic Director Wren Baker best described as a gut punch to those on the roster during an appearance on the Statewide Sportsline.
“We had a lot of seniors on the team. It was a really difficult time for them,” Baker said.
Those seniors included point guard Javon Small, forward Toby Okani, guard Joe Yesufu, center Eduaro Andre and guard Jake Auer with all but Yesufu looking forward to making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament in their final season.
Admittedly, it wasn’t a scenario that West Virginia spent a lot of time discussing prior to the NCAA Tournament bracket reveal Sunday night given how they were projected heading into the release.
At 19-13 West Virginia was safely projected into the field in every possible bracket but ultimately were the first team out of the tournament despite recording six quadrant one wins. That led to plenty of criticism both from within the program and on a national level with the exclusion of the Mountaineers despite their resume.
“I felt confident we would be in the field,” Baker said.
Those decisions must be made quickly and there is no question that the raw emotion of being left out of the field played a role in the choice for the Mountaineers roster to elect to bypass other postseason events.
“Our coaches would have loved to continue on but they just didn't feel like it was something the student-athletes wanted to do, they had kind of set their mind on the NCAA Tournament,” Baker said.
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