West Virginia approaches Big 12 tournament as opportunity
Time is running out if West Virginia is going to do anything to change their fortunes.
Despite all the struggles this year with the Mountaineers sitting at 15-16 and 9th place out of 9 qualifying teams in the Big 12 Conference Tournament there is still hope.
Hope in the sense that if this club can string together four consecutive wins, it will erase a season of frustration and provide a pathway to their ultimate goal of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament field.
It sounds farfetched, sure. There's no denying that.
Is it realistic to expect a team that has only won four conference games all year to suddenly reel off four in a row? Most likely not, but this West Virginia team certainly isn’t packing things in at this stage of things either.
Even with all the disappointment, this West Virginia team at 15-16 has played 17 quadrant 1 games in the NET formula. Perched at No. 79 overall, no team has more such games ranked above them with Iowa State in the second place with 16.
The problem lines in the fact that the Mountaineers are 2-15 in such games with their other loss being a quadrant one defeat. It’s a string of what aren’t considered bad losses, but losses all the same.
“We played 17 quad one teams. We played the third hardest schedule in the country and we lost a bunch of games right at the end,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “Nobody else has played the schedule that we’ve played, which you hope would bode well for us.”
The Mountaineers have discussed turning things round and shocking the world but this is their last chance to do it if it wants to mean anything. That’s motivation and something to play for in itself.
West Virginia beat TCU to close out the regular season and battled hard but lost in the final moments to Iowa State and Texas. Given the round robin format of the Big 12, the Mountaineers have played and have been competitive against every team in the league. But there is a wide gap between being competitive and finding a way to close out games and win them.
“We strongly feel like we can win this whole thing. We played everybody; we know we can compete with anybody it all just comes down to a matter to finishing games,” guard Taz Sherman said.
Fortunately, none of the body of work matters now, it’s essentially a win or go home scenario for this team as they prepare to tipoff against Kansas State tonight. The Mountaineers split the season series against the Wildcats and are hoping to flush the season as they prepare for a final stand in Kansas City.
It’s not likely, but the chance is there and for a West Virginia team grasping for any hope at this stage of the season that’s enough for them.
“We’ve got an opportunity and that’s all you can ask for this time of the year,” guard Sean McNeil said.
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