Steve Sabins Thinks There Should Be Zero Debate About WVU Hosting

A sweep of TCU this weekend would have pretty much removed all doubt regarding West Virginia's chances of hosting a regional in the NCAA Tournament. Winning the series, as I mentioned prior to the series opener, is more than enough to solidify WVU's hosting resume, if you ask me.

TCU is a talented team that has been ravaged by injuries, yet still finds itself on the NCAA Tournament bubble. They came into this weekend fighting to extend their season, and while they have the Big 12 tournament to help them out, this was a quality chance for the Frogs to make a statement. Taking two of three from TCU is what WVU had to do at the bare minimum. They could not afford to lose this series, and they were able to avoid that.

Despite winning, West Virginia dropped one spot in the RPI to No. 19 following yesterday's slate of games. They will have an opportunity to improve that ranking next week at the Big 12 Conference tournament, but even if they hang around in that 19-20 spot, they still have a resume that's worthy of hosting, as head coach Steve Sabins alluded to in his postgame press conference on Saturday.

“I find it really hard to believe that in one of the top three conferences in the country, with no doubt and a team that set a program record for conference wins with 21, a team that finishes second in the league, a team that has the best pitcher in one of the top three leagues in the country, is not hosting. We have won every series but two and have multiple sweeps in a Power Four league that’s well-respected with good strength of schedule. And the team that won the league, we swept on the road. So, if that’s not a hosting resume, then I have no idea what is. We have absolutely earned that up to this point, and this place should be rocking, sold out, packed, and be one of the best venues in the country.”

The RPI is just one of many things the selection committee takes into account, so while it does hold a lot of weight, it is not the end-all be-all. Speaking of something that holds a lot of weight, the part of Sabins argument that does exactly that is mentioning their sweep of Kansas.

WVU finished one game behind the Jayhawks in the Big 12 standings and took all three games from them at their place. If the Big 12 champ, whom you swept, finished just one game better record-wise and is hosting, you should be hosting as well.

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