The West Virginia basketball team knew all too well the importance of beating TCU at home when it comes to their standing with the NCAA Tournament.
But there isn’t much time to celebrate that accomplishment as the convincing 73-55 win over the Horned Frogs doesn’t mean much if the Mountaineers can’t close the season on a strong note over the final three games.
Against TCU, West Virginia was able to put together one of their most complete performances of the season shooting 52-percent overall and 42-percent from three. On the other end, the Horned Frogs made just 39-percent of their shots and only 21-percent from three.
And the hope is that it can carry over into a critical three game close to the regular season.
“That's why we always talk about just hanging on your defense. Then on those nights when you've got it going like tonight, hopefully you're going to be highly successful. I'm hoping we've got a few more of those left in us,” head coach Darian DeVries said.
But now sitting at 17-11 and 8-9 in the Big 12 Conference, the Mountaineers find themselves in a tie for seventh in the league. That is significant because if West Virginia is able to finish in the top eight, they would receive a first-round bye in the event.
Now, there are a lot of scenarios left to play out over the final two weeks but it is another dangling carrot for this team outside of simply cementing their overall tournament resume.
But the Mountaineers are 5-8 against quadrant one opponents, while 3-3 against quadrant two teams and a perfect 9-0 against both quadrant three and four teams.
West Virginia is currently situated at No. 47 in the NET Rankings.
“On to the next,” sophomore guard Sencire Harris said.
That next challenge is back-to-back road games at BYU and Utah, both of which could potentially qualify as quadrant one wins with the Cougars at 20-8 sitting at 28th in the rankings and the Utes around the the cutoff at 74th with a 15-13 record overall.
The Mountaineers then close the regular season at home against No. 77 UCF who sits at 15-13. So there are chances there for this team to further increase their resume down the stretch run including additionally what unfolds in the Big 12 Tournament.
But it must be checked off one game at a time.
“It's huge, I think we have three more games left. It's important for us to finish the season strong and heading into the postseason, so these three games are vital,” senior guard Joe Yesufu said.
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