As the NCAA Tournament started Tuesday night with the First Four games, and will continue later this week with the first round, it will be hard for West Virginia players, fans, and coaches not to feel like they should be the ones on the floor.
While the departure of head coach Darian DeVries is still at the forefront of the mind of Mountaineer fans, it doesn't change the fact the Mountaineers were snubbed from an NCAA Tournament berth, being the first team out of the field, despite every expert, pointing towards WVU being in the field.
The losers of this are obvious, with the West Virginia senior class being on the outside looking in of what they could’ve had. However, the ones that this hurts the most are Javon Small, and those who won’t get to watch him play in March.
Less than two weeks ago, West Virginia earned their 19th win on the season, beating UCF, and seemingly shoring up an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. DeVries thought so, Javon Small thought so, and so did many bracketologists around the country, calling WVU a lock to make the big dance.
“It’s really big. I’ve never played in an NCAA Tournament. I’ve only played in one game of the Big 12 Tournament and then my freshman and sophomore year I only played, I think we were in the American Tournament, I only played one game. I haven’t played many postseason games. Now that we're in it, I want to win the whole thing,” Small said at the time.
“We came in here with a whole new team, different faces, everybody was new. Everybody expected us to win no more than 15 games, no more than 13 games. We’re sitting at 10-10 in the conference, made the NCAA Tournament, nobody expected us to do that. Even now, I’m sure people expect us to go into the NCAA Tournament and lose first round and that’s not going to happen. We know how important our job is, I’m just proud of this team, nobody expected us to be where we are right now,” Small later added.
Flashback to when Small decided to come to WVU out of the transfer portal, he joined a roster of guys who were all new to West Virginia.
That group held a meeting where they discussed their plans for the season and one of the things Small discussed was his want to get to the NCAA Tournament after not making it in either of his first three seasons playing college basketball.
“We all had a meeting our first, second, day meeting each other. I feel like we still remember that meeting to this day,” Small said.
Small’s response when asked about what he discussed in that meeting was simple — “That I ain’t never been to the NCAA Tournament and we’re going to make it.”
That mindset and attitude from Small of doing anything and everything he can to try and will his team to the postseason was on full display this season. Small was a First Team All-Big 12 Selection, likely having received Big 12 Player of the Year votes.
Small finished tied for first in the Big 12 in scoring, while he finished in the top 11 in steals, assists, field goal percentage, 3-point field goal percentage, and free throw percentage. Small scored 20 or more points in a game 14 times this season and the Mountaineers went 9-5 in those games.
Small also had three double-doubles, as WVU went 3-0 in those games. Safe to say, when Small had success, West Virginia had success.
Flash forward to Sunday night and Monday, after the 68-team field was announced and West Virginia was shockingly on the outside looking in.
University of North Carolina Athletic Director and NCAA Tournament Selection Committee Chair Bubba Cunningham had to answer for WVU not being included in the tournament and his response was consistent, the Mountaineers were without Tucker DeVries and their success came with him.
Yes, that is true, DeVries played in eight games, and WVU won two Quad 1 games with him in the lineup. They also won four other Quad 1 games, because of Small. In those four Quad 1 wins, Small averaged 19.3 points, 6.8 assists, and 5.8 rebounds. Using the Big 12 statistical averages for the season, that would have placed him first in both points and assists in the league. Those four Quad 1 victories are also three more than Cunningham’s Tar Heels had not just in that stretch, but for the entirety of the season.
If Cunningham wants to critique the play of WVU down the stretch, that’s fair, even though it’s not a measure looked at by the selection committee anymore. If Cunningham wants to say WVU fared worse without DeVries in the lineup, that’s also true, but it was also their entire Big 12 schedule they played without him. However, if Cunningham wants to say the reason the Mountaineers should not be in the NCAA Tournament is because DeVries is out, he must have missed what Small did all season long.
What brings the country around the sport of basketball this time of year is not the one seed dominating all the way to the Final Four. It’s not the favorite crushing the competition or the top seeds advancing through the tournament.
The beauty of March and March Madness is guys who will their teams to victory, who put their teams on their back, just like Small did all season long for West Virginia.
Unfortunately for America, they won’t get to see Small this March on college basketball’s biggest stage. And unfortunately for Small, he did everything in his power to get his team to the one place he desired the most and was robbed of the opportunity to be there.
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