West Virginia enters the final stop on a grueling 20-game road in the Big 12 Conference at home against UCF.
The Mountaineers currently sit at 18-12 overall this season and 9-10 within the league in the first year of the expanded conference slate.
And a win over the Knights could serve as an exclamation point on a productive first season under new head coach Darian DeVries for many different reasons.
For one, with some help it could catapult West Virginia into a first-round bye in the upcoming conference tournament set to begin March 11 in Kansas City. It also would guarantee the Mountaineers a 10-10 finish in the league which isn’t bad for a team that was selected 13th in the pre-season media poll.
It will serve as the final home game for five seniors on the roster in point guard Javon Small, forward Toby Okani, guard Joe Yesufu, center Eduardo Andre, and forward Haris Elezovic, which means that those players would like to go out on a high note in their last appearance in Morgantown.
But perhaps most importantly, a win over the 16-14 Knights would essentially erase any doubt that the Mountaineers will be included in the NCAA Tournament field regardless of what unfolds in Kansas City.
West Virginia already has a worthy resume for inclusion with six quadrant one victories, a total that only 25 other teams in college basketball have accomplished this season.
All but three of those 26 total teams are perched within the top 40 in the NET Rankings, with only West Virginia (48), Memphis (47) and Minnesota (94) falling outside of that umbrella.
The Mountaineers also are 4-2 in quadrant two games and have yet to sustain a loss in the quadrant three or four variety, which can be avoided completely if they can knock off the Knights.
West Virginia is likely in the field regardless of what unfolds against UCF, but why leave it to chance? Given the parity across college basketball, bid-stealers could make things more interesting but at 19-12 in the regular season, given the difficult schedule, which ranks in the 40’s overall, there won’t be much mystery at all.
This team has shown the ability to step up down the stretch and win the games that they must in order to ensure that they’re on the pathway to playing significant games in March. Can they do it one more time?
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