The whole story for the West Virginia basketball team will never be known.

We’ll always be left to wonder what if when it comes to the 2019-20 edition of the Mountaineers in the wake of the cancelations of the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments.

But the group still hit some benchmarks with the release of the final AP Poll of the year.

Bob Huggins team finished No. 24 in the national poll at 21-10 and ended the season on a high-note unlike that any West Virginia basketball team can say since the Mountaineers won the NIT.

It was a year full of ups and downs with a young club, but it was a team that grew throughout the year and was arguably in position to play its best basketball when it mattered the most.

The finish inside the top 25 is now the seventh time that the Mountaineers have done so under the leadership of Bob Huggins in his 13 seasons with the team. When you consider that the program as a whole has only finished ranked in 12 other seasons in school history it puts things into perspective.

That has been especially true of late with top 25 finishes in the AP Poll in five of the last six years, with the only season falling outside of that was the 15-21 campaign last year. Had the tournament not been canceled this season, the Mountaineers were on their way to their 10th appearance in 13 years.

When you consider that from 1968 to 2006 there were 10 appearances total and only two appearances in the entire decade of the 90’s it speaks to the success that Huggins has had at his alma mater.

Yes, the lack of an NCAA Tournament is something that will leave a sour taste in all of our mouths but the program has put together strong performances including another turnaround this past year.

After that 15-21 record, one that set the record for losses in a single campaign, Huggins said that he would go about fixing it to make amends for what unfolded on the court. Sitting in the top 25 at the end of the year with early projections putting the program right back there next year is quite a response.

We’ll always wonder what could have been but with a talented crop of players set to arrive in the summer and a strong nucleus back the ride isn’t over for the Mountaineers moving forward.

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