West Virginia is Officially in Trouble
Sitting at 13-6 overall and 2-5 in the Big 12 Conference, the West Virginia Mountaineers find themselves on the outside looking in for a spot in this year's NCAA Tournament.
Following a 72-62 loss at home to Oklahoma, head coach Bob Huggins told Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs on the radio broadcast that he warned his team about the importance of this game. Unfortunately, the message wasn't received.
"I told our guys all week, this was a crucial, crucial game for us. If you look at Joe Lunardi and all the people who are already talking about the NCAA Tournament, we were a 10 seed coming into this. We're probably out of the tournament right now. Now, we're going to get back in. We're going to win enough games, we're going to get back in. But right now we're out of the tournament. To me, that's very sobering. I don't know if it is to some of them and that's what I've got to find out."
Throughout the years, Huggins has been very forthright with his team in terms of knowing what needs to happen to make it to the tournament. He does pay attention to the NET Rankings and the all of the bracketology projections that are put out because he feels like it helps his guys know what has to be done.
"I've talked to them about it since the first day of practice. I kind of felt like as a player, if we had known more we might of as a team played harder, worked harder. We just never knew anything. I mean, I told the guys at Walsh what we had to do to get in the tournament. Told the guys at Akron what we had to do. Told them at Cincinnati, told them at Kansas State, and I've told them here. I think you should do that. I think the worst thing would be is those guys coming up to you later on and saying, man I wish you would have told me."
To be exact, Lunardi had West Virginia as a No. 11 seed in the South Region matched up with UConn, a team they beat earlier in the year but the Huskies were without two of its best players. Right now the one thing that WVU is lacking is a signature win, holding just a 2-5 record in Quad 1 games. The UConn win doesn't hold the same weight as it would had they have been at full strength.
As bad as the Mountaineers have played, there are still several opportunities for them to pick up some key wins to strengthen their resume ahead of Selection Sunday which is about seven weeks away. WVU still has a home and home with Iowa State and TCU, home games against Kansas, Texas Tech, and Texas, and road matchups against Arkansas, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Oklahoma. Even if WVU could go 6-5 in their remaining 11 conference games and finish with a 8-10 record in league play, that may be enough to punch a ticket to the big dance. The strength of the Big 12 will play into their favor.
The only problem is, going 6-5 down the stretch is a lot easier said then done. According to the ESPN BPI matchup predictor, the Mountaineers are only favored in two of the remaining conference games - both home games against Iowa State and TCU.
On top of the on the floor issues, Huggins is also having to sift through an "attitude problem" that has crept up inside the program. If he follows through with his word, this team could look very different in the coming weeks.
"I take full responsibility. I do understand how much this means to Mountaineer Nation and the people of West Virginia. It eats me up, man it just it's me up. I promise those people, I will do everything in my power to try to fix this. That may mean some of those guys will no longer be with us but if that's what it takes, then that's what we have to do."
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