The Big 12 Tournament will start in less than a week March 11 in Kansas City but there’s still a lot left to play out when it comes to seeding for West Virginia.
At the top Kansas or Baylor will have the first or second seeds for the event, but the third through seventh lines are still very much up for grabs.
Why is that significant? Well, the top six teams in the league get a bye and avoid playing four games in four days if they want to try to win the event and the automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
But how about the Mountaineers?
West Virginia at 8-9 is currently tied with Oklahoma for the sixth slot with one game left this weekend at Baylor. That game is significant for a number of reasons and with a win over the Bears the program could potentially be in a four-way tie for third place at 9-9 as well as several other outcomes.
The final weekend slate has Texas Tech (9-8) hosting Kansas, Texas (9-8) hosting Oklahoma State and Oklahoma (8-9) going on the road to play TCU (7-10) lending itself to some interesting options depending on how things play out on the final Saturday.
West Virginia could find itself as high as in third place under a scenario where the Mountaineers are able to beat Baylor, both Texas and Texas Tech lose and then TCU takes care of Oklahoma. That would force a three-way tie-breaker between the Mountaineers, Texas and Texas Tech and the ultimate determination would be going 1-1 against the Bears due to neither beating Kansas. West Virginia would play TCU in the 3/6 match-up under this scenario.
Fourth place also is still in the cards with a win over Baylor if Texas wins and TCU is able to beat Oklahoma. That is because the Mountaineers would be tied with Texas Tech and would get the edge by going 1-1 against the Bears. Ironically that would force a rematch with the Red Raiders in the 4/5 game.
A fifth place combination would require West Virginia win over Baylor, a TCU win over Oklahoma and Kansas State beating Iowa State with Texas Tech and Texas both winning Saturday. That would put the Mountaineers against No. 4 Texas.
If that four-way tie scenario would occur with West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech all finishing 9-9, it would put the four teams into a mini-conference where they would be seeded in order of winning percentage against one another. The Mountaineers would be 2-4 putting them in the sixth seed behind Oklahoma (4-2), Texas (3-3) and Texas Tech (3-3). The matchup would be against the Sooners.
There are multiple other scenarios where West Virginia falls in the sixth seed as well.
But the final placement and if the program will avoid playing on the first day of the tournament if the Mountaineers can't upend Baylor will depend entirely on what happens with TCU when they host the Sooners.
The Horned Frogs are sitting at 7-10 in league play with that final game against a Sooners team desperate for a win after an unexpected loss to Texas. If West Virginia can beat Baylor, the Horned Frogs’ result against the Sooners won’t matter when it comes to seeding considering that the Mountaineers would have nine wins which is more than TCU can accumulate but let’s look at things if the opposite occurs.
All three teams (West Virginia, Oklahoma and TCU) would be sitting at 8-10 overall in league play under that scenario. That would again create a three-team mini-conference with the records of each against one another creating the order from the fifth to the seventh seed. That order would be Oklahoma (3-1), TCU (2-2) and West Virginia (1-3) putting the Mountaineers in line to play on the first day of the tournament.
That would slot the Mountaineers as the No. 7 overall seed and a rematch with Kansas State on the first night, something that Bob Huggins and his club would like to avoid.
A lot of options left to play out and all eyes will be on Saturday.
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