With Big 12 crown out of hands, goal for WVU is to enhance seed
West Virginia can’t control what happens in regards to a possible bid to win the Big 12 Conference regular season crown at this stage of the season. But there are still things definitely still in their hands.
The Mountaineers are well on their way to a fourth straight NCAA Tournament bid, but still have room to continue to improve their positioning over the final three games of the year.
“The biggest thing you can do for the NCAA Tournament is enhance your seed. You can’t enhance your seed unless you win,” head coach Bob Huggins said.
West Virginia will host Iowa State Saturday, a Cyclones team that beat the Mountaineers handily in the first meeting in Ames 93-77. It probably wasn’t even as close as the scoreboard indicates but this time around Iowa State will be shorthanded due to injuries and other circumstances set to play only six players.
Revenge also will be on the mind in the following game as Texas Tech will come to town for senior night. The Red Raiders overcame a double-digit second half deficit to upend the Mountaineers.
The final game of the regular season will be played on the road at Texas.
Currently according to Bracketmatrix.com, which compiles a large number of projected seedings for the NCAA Tournament the Mountaineers currently slot anywhere from a three seed to a seven seed. But the majority of the projects indicate that West Virginia falls in as a four or five seed.
While beating Iowa State won’t provide much of a bump to the current RPI of 25th for West Virginia, getting a potential win over a Texas Tech team slotted at 17th in the metric and a Texas team that is right around the top 50 on the road would certainly enhance the profile.
If West Virginia is able to win out, it hypothetically could put itself in play to win the conference crown as well but again it will need help. However, the boost in seeding could be the difference in seeing a one seed in the second round or a lower ranked option.
The Mountaineers finished 28-9 last season overall including a 12-6 mark in the Big 12 which resulted in a four seed in the NCAA Tournament. If West Virginia can indeed win out the team would finish with the same mark in the league. That doesn’t include the conference tournament although Huggins debates whether that actually enhances your seed and could depend on the committee.
“Some years it has really helped the seed and other years it hasn’t really affected,” he said.
Regardless Huggins left no doubt that there won’t be any instances of looking at anything other than winning the league tournament as a positive.
“If you’re going to play try to win,” he said.
That team last year was eliminated by a No. 1 seed in Gonzaga in what would be a closely contested battle despite missing 40 shots in the game, Huggins said. Ultimately the success of this team in the NCAA Tournament regardless of where it eventually falls in seeding comes down to one thing.
You guessed it.
“We’re going to guard for the most part. We’re going to rebound for the most part. We just can’t miss open shots constantly. You get an open shot you’ve got to make it,” Huggins said. “You watch teams in the NCAA Tournament and teams that advance, they advance because they made shots.”
