Final scenarios for West Virginia basketball with Big 12 Tournament

After all the discussion and speculation, we’ve arrived at the regular season finale for West Virginia with a lot on the line at home against Oklahoma State.

The Mountaineers currently sit at 18-7 overall and 11-5 in the Big 12 Conference with the program currently teetering on the two and three line in most major NCAA Tournament bracket projections. But more is within grasp and that begins with the final scenarios for seeding in the conference tournament.

It’s been a long road for West Virginia given the unusual nature of the season with the COVID-19 pandemic then coupled with roster turnover with a departure and an injury. Then you throw in a complete change to the offensive identity of this basketball team and it’s been quite a trip.

But now the picture has cleared and the final options for seeding for Kansas City are clear.

The first one is the simplest and the only where the Mountaineers can control their own destiny.

With a win they can clinch second place in the Big 12 Conference with a 12-5 record bypassing Kansas who currently sits at 12-6 in the league. That would bump the Jayhawks to third and set the Mountaineers up to play the winner of the No. 7 Oklahoma vs. No. 10 Iowa State contest.

There are two scenarios available if West Virginia would lose to Oklahoma State depending on the result of the matchup between Texas and TCU set for March 7.

In the first, if TCU would beat Texas in Fort Worth, West Virginia would slot as the No. 3 seed with an 11-6 mark. In that scenario the Mountaineers would open against No. 6 Texas Tech unless the Red Raiders are able to beat Baylor Sunday afternoon. If that would happen, it would place Texas into that sixth slot for the league tournament against the Mountaineers instead.

The second scenario would have Texas beating TCU which would bump West Virginia down to the No. 4 seed where they would square off against No. 5 Oklahoma State. That would be the result regardless of the results to the Texas Tech and Baylor matchup.

The reasoning for being bumped down to No. 4 below Texas despite an identical 11-6 record and splitting the two regular season meetings is the fact that the Longhorns would have a 2-0 mark against No. 2 seed Kansas and the Mountaineers were 1-1 against the Jayhawks.

That means West Virginia could either end up at No. 2, No. 3 or No. 4 heading into the Big 12 Tournament with one game remaining. That puts the Mountaineers right around where they were projected pre-season when they were tabbed as No. 3 in the league.

Obviously, it’s a very different roster than what that was at the time, but the Mountaineers approach the finish line with a chance to surpass the expectations in front of them.

The wait is almost over, and West Virginia certainly has a lot left to play for Saturday.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @JaredSerre

•Like us on Facebook