Rich Rod Pounds the Table for WVU Women to Host NCAA Tournament

The West Virginia women's basketball team cut down the nets in Kansas City on Sunday, bringing home the program's second Big 12 championship trophy. With that win, the Mountaineers have put themselves in a great position to earn a top 16 seed and host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

Even with the 27-6 record and Big 12 title, it's not necessarily a given that WVU will receive that top 16 seed.

During Monday's football press conference, head coach Rich Rodriguez, unprompted, brought up the women's success and pounded the table for them to be a tournament host.

“By the way, I’d be remiss if I didn’t give a shoutout to our women’s basketball team and Coach (Mark) Kellogg. That was great. I got a chance to watch them, and they make you play now. They play great defense and make you bring the ball up the court. Really excited. I think…we get to host now? Maybe? We should! Doggone it if you win the Big 12 and you’re not hosting in the tournament…come on now. I’ll get on my soapbox. You’re damn right. We should be hosting the first couple of rounds right there in Hope Coliseum. I put my spin out there, but they don’t listen to me anyway.”

Rich Rod had a little more of a fiery speech than the one women's head coach Mark Kellogg gave today in his press conference, although he's been making the argument for a few days now.

“Yeah, I think we’ve kind of pitched it quite a bit here over the weekend from our standpoint and from a league standpoint. Yes, I think it would be really hard after we just earned the championship, with all the other metrics for us not to get to play here," Kellogg said. "I’m not a part of that committee; I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. None of us do. I’ll be cautiously optimistic until we hear on Saturday, because they do the reveal on Saturday if you’re a top 16 team, meaning you’re a host institution. Now you won’t know who you play and what seed you are, but we certainly think we’ve done enough to earn the right to host. I just could only imagine what this place would be like if we were to host those first two rounds.”

The full women's bracket will be revealed on Sunday, March 15th, at 8 p.m. on ESPN.