West Virginia has first of many opportunities for NET gains
West Virginia has expectedly started off on the right foot this season but things are about to take a turn whether the basketball program is ready for it or not.
That’s because at 7-1, head coach Bob Huggins club is set to take a major step up in terms of competition in the near future beginning when the Connecticut Huskies come to the Coliseum.
In those eight previous games, the Mountaineers have yet to play a single contest against a Quadrant 1 team. The Quadrants are a collection of metrics used to put together the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) rankings in order to help eventually seed teams in the tournament.
The NET takes into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency as well as the quality of wins and losses.
Out of those eight games already in the books, five wins are over Quadrant 4 teams which is the lowest available group and the remaining three are Quadrant 2 contests with West Virginia going 2-1 in those.
“We’ve got a huge step Wednesday now. Those are as good of athletes as there are in the country,” Huggins said of the Huskies.
Connecticut sits at No. 13 in the NET Rankings, putting them as a solid Quadrant 1 opportunity at the moment. The Huskies are 8-1 on the season with their only loss coming to Michigan State who is No. 19.
In comparison, West Virginia sits at No. 73 which this game as well as the rest of the upcoming schedule is going to provide plenty of opportunities for the Mountaineers to move up.
After this contest with Connecticut, a road trip to No. 35 UAB will qualify as a Quad 1 contest and then there is the Big 12 schedule that is filled with two opportunities each against teams such as No. 6 Baylor, No. 14 Kansas, No. 17 Texas, No. 20 Iowa State, No. 34 Oklahoma, No. 38 Texas Tech, No. 62 Oklahoma State and No. 69 Kansas State that are all currently ranked ahead of the Mountaineers.
That doesn’t even factor a road trip to No. 44 Arkansas as part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.
Still, that doesn’t help cover some of the struggles that West Virginia has had with taking advantage of an early season schedule that hasn’t offered many pitfalls.
“After the last game I tried to explain the Sagarin to them because it’s part of the net, it matters. They don’t get it. At least I’m not going to feel bad when we think we’re going to be a No. 9 seed and we end up an 11 or we don’t get in at all because they didn’t listen,” Huggins said.
But those games are in the rearview and now it’s full steam ahead for the Mountaineers as they look to piece together their resume for the NCAA Tournament.
That first opportunity awaits with the rekindling of the Connecticut rivalry which will certainly offer a much different speed than what the program has been accustomed to this year. Either way, we're going to find out where this basketball team is at.
“We’re out of those games now, the rest of the games are going to be brutal for us to win,” he said.
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