The difference between winning and losing in the Big 12 can often come down to one or two plays.
West Virginia has experienced both sides of the coin this season but in the past two against BYU and Baylor, the Mountaineers haven’t been able to make those plays in close defeats.
The Mountaineers had the ball against BYU trailing by one with a chance to win the game but a three-ball off the hands of Joe Yesufu did not drop. Against Baylor, West Virginia was able to force overtime but couldn’t make the necessary plays down the stretch to close it out.
The end result is that West Virginia finds itself 15-10 and 6-8 in the league and perched around the bubble in terms of NCAA seeding with six games remaining. Those two wins would have likely cemented their place in the field, but that’s just the nature of the beast in the league.
“In conference play that’s what it is. It’s like you have to be incredibly tough, mentally tough to be able to turn the page and put your entire focus on let’s look at what happened and then let’s move on and put your entire mental capacity into the next game,” head coach Darian DeVries said.
Truthfully, given the 20-game nature of the Big 12 there isn’t much of a choice but to pick things from each game and then move forward. The teams that are able to do that the best are the ones that put themselves in a position to be among the top of the league.
“That's what our guys will continue to try to do,” DeVries said.
The Mountaineers will have more challenges ahead starting with a home game against a resurgent Cincinnati basketball team before heading to Texas Tech.
The Bearcats are in a similar position to West Virginia sitting at 15-10 overall but are 5-9 in the league and are looking to improve their own standing on the bubble line.
“We're going to battle through this next one coming up. We got a home game against Cincinnati who's playing really well. That's all we care about, and that's where our focus will be,” DeVries said.
When it comes to positives, West Virginia has continued to play hard and has put together three consecutive strong performances on the offensive end of the floor. But it was the bounce back on defense against Baylor after a difficult second half in the BYU game that was truly eye-catching.
That same type of effort is going to be needed moving forward as the Mountaineers have put 14 games in their rearview mirror in the league but now must finish strong.
“Nothing changes for us. You know, six games left, you’ve battled through 14,” DeVries said.
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