As West Virginia begins Big 12 play this week, they will start their slow climb towards March.
With that, there will be an emphasis on who you beat and where you beat them, as it all goes into WVU's NET ranking, one of the primary tools used by the NCAA Selection Committee.
Breaking Down The NET
The NET is fairly simple to understand. It's a computer-generated ranking, which is a tool for the NCAA Selection Committee. It puts an emphasis on the location of games, separating home, away, and neutral site games. It also looks at the quality of the win, such as the margin of victory, strength of schedule, and the overall quality of an opponent in terms of efficiency.
With the NET, there are four quadrants a game can be categorized into. Quad 1-4, with Quad 1 games being the hardest opponent and location and Quad 4 games being for lesser opponents.
Here is the breakdown for each quadrant:
Quad 1: It's considered a Quad 1 game if you are at home against a team ranked 1-30 in the NET. It's a Quad 1 game if you are against a team ranked 1-50 played on a neutral court. It's a Quad 1 game if you are against a team ranked 1-75 on an away court.
Keep in mind in the Big 12, there are seven teams currently ranked in the top 30 of the NET, meaning any home game against those seven opponents would be a Quad 1 victory. There are then 14 teams ranked at No. 81 or higher, meaning almost every road game in league play will be a Quad 1 game.
WVU's Current NET Resumé
Through 11 games, West Virginia has already matched their 2023-2024 win total with nine wins.
They are 2-1 in Quad 1 games, 0-1 in Quad 2 games, 1-0 in Quad 3 games, and 6-0 in Quad 4 games. Keep in mind that because the rankings fluctuate, some games and their associated quad can also change. For example, WVU's sole Quad 2 game is a loss on a neutral floor against Louisville. The Cardinals are currently No. 53 in the NET, and if they move up three spots, that then turns into a Quad 1 game for the Mountaineers.
Big 12 Outlook
The Mountaineers have 20 games left in the regular season, and 12 of them are currently Quad 1 games, six are Quad 2 games, and two are Quad 3 games.
Out of WVU's first eight games of the season, they have four Quad 1 games (@ Kansas, vs Arizona, @ Houston, vs Iowa State.
Then, out of their final 12 games of Big 12 play, West Virginia has eight Quad 1 games, including a stretch of six of eight games against Quad 1 opponents.
A Look Back At Last Season
As West Virginia gets into their season, it's important where they end up in the NET and how many wins they rack up.
Last season, there were nine teams ranked in the top 50 of the NET that didn't receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Eight of those teams were teams in a power conference, and out of those eight, only one team compiled more than 20 wins (Pitt at 22-11).
Only one of those teams (Oklahoma) didn't have a Quad 3 loss on their sheet, and the most Quad 1 victories any of the teams had was four (six of the eight had four Quad 1 wins).
The teams who did not receive a bid were No. 28 Indiana State, No. 32 St. John's, No. 37 Cincinnati, No. 40 Pitt, No. 41 Villanova, No. 43 Wake Forest, No. 46 Oklahoma, No. 48 Utah, and No. 49 Ohio State.
The lowest team ranked in the NET to make the NCAA Tournament was No. 54 Virginia, and they went 2-7 in Quad 1 games, 8-3 in Quad 2 games, 7-0 in Quad 3 games, and 6-0 in Quad 4 games. The difference between Virginia and the rest of these teams was their win total of 23 total wins.
Out of the teams in the top 50 of the NET to make the NCAA Tournament last season, only three schools had fewer than 21 wins. No. 24 Michigan State (19-14), No. 30 Texas (20-12), and No. 45 Texas A&M (20-14).
Out of the eight power conference teams ranked in the top 50 excluded from the NCAA Tournament, their average win breakdowns were:
Quad 1: 3.6 wins, 9.3 losses (29-74 overall)
Quad 2: 5.1 wins, 2.4 losses (41-19 overall)
Quad 3: 4.9 wins, 1.5 losses (39-12 overall)
Quad 4: 6.7 wins, 0 losses (53-0 overall)
What This Means For WVU?
For West Virginia, they would need three wins to total more Quad 1 victories than any of those teams who missed the tournament last season.
Out of their 12 Quad 1 games, four of them come at home at the WVU Coliseum. In addition, WVU is currently one of nine Big 12 teams projected to make the NCAA Tournament according to where they currently stand in the NET as well as their future outlook.
The Big 12's average NET is currently 47.38, which is second among all conferences. Between the Big 12, SEC, and Big Ten, they are currently projected to have 33 NCAA Tournament teams combined between the three conferences.
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