The National Title Run That Was Taken Away From West Virginia

Looking back at the season that could have been for the Mountaineers.

Mar 7, 2020; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Miles McBride (4) and forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. (11) celebrate after a play during the second half against the Baylor Bears at WVU Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

West Virginia is the winningest college football program without a national championship to its name.

The men's basketball program is mentioned in the same vein as they are among the most successful programs still in search of their first national title. Just a handful of years ago, it almost happened. Well, many of those who were on or around the team believe that to be the case.

One of the members of that team, Emmitt Matthews Jr., recently tweeted, "19-20 we might’ve won a natty omg."

Of course, that would be the year of the pandemic, and the world was shut down for several months. I still remember the day I was sitting in my office at IMG, working on a Rice Basketball game in the conference tournament, and I was getting all sorts of notifications on my phone that all of these famous celebrities and athletes were testing positive for COVID.

It was an odd feeling. No way to really describe it. J.P. Heath, the voice of the Owls, kept feeding me information during commercial breaks that there would be a chance that the game would be postponed or even the tournament itself. Then, one morning, I woke up, and the ACC shut it down, and everyone else eventually followed.

West Virginia had beaten No. 2 Ohio State, No. 22 Texas Tech, and No. 4 Baylor that year, with the home game against the Bears being the final game that group would ever play together. They had the best frontcourt in the Big 12 and perhaps the country with the duo of Derek Culver and Oscar Tshiebwe, a future NBA guard in Miles McBride, a defensive menace in Gabe Osabuohien, and Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil coming off the bench. Not to mention, a 6'7" point guard in Jermaine Haley.

It was one of the deepest teams Bob Huggins had at West Virginia since the Final Four group in 2010. With the way they could defend and knock down shots, they would have posed as a legitimate threat to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, we'll never know how it would have played out.

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