MORGANTOWN — As the 10th-ranked WVU men’s basketball team was some 30,000 feet in the air returning home from its 74-66 victory at TCU on Tuesday night, the Mountaineers’ place in the Big 12 standings was also on the rise.
An overtime victory by Texas against Kansas and an unexpected upset by Kansas State over Oklahoma propelled WVU (16-6, 9-4 Big 12) into second place in the conference standings with four home games remaining for the Mountaineers in the regular season.
The final stretch begins at 4 p.m. Saturday, when WVU hosts Kansas State.
It also includes three games next week against Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma State.
If West Virginia was to go 4-0, the Mountaineers can’t finish lower than second in the Big 12.
“I think they’re happy to go home and be able to play in the Coliseum and be able to play in front of some home people,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “This crowd here (at TCU) and some of the other crowds, they’re pretty good at heckling, so it would be nice to go home and have some people cheering for you.”
A wild night in conference play Tuesday, which also included first-place Baylor coming back to beat last-place Iowa State after the Bears had three weeks off for COVID-19 protocols, produced some shuffling in the standings.
Earlier Tuesday, the conference laid out the final revised schedule of games for next week.
Under the revision, only Baylor (14) and TCU (16) will play less than 17 Big 12 games and only Kansas and Oklahoma State are scheduled to play all 18 league games.
According to the Big 12’s unbalanced-games tiebreaker policy, “Actual win percentage will be used as a basis for all seeds in the conference tournament regardless of regular season championship or number of games played.”
As it stands, both WVU and Kansas are 2.5 games behind No. 2 Baylor in second place in the league standings, but the Mountaineers’ winning percentage of 69.2% in Big 12 play is higher than the Jayhawks’ 64.7%.
Kansas’ final regular-season game is at home Saturday against Baylor.
A Kansas loss would mean the Mountaineers would need to go 2-2 in their final four games to remain above the Jayhawks, or 3-1 if Kansas were to beat Baylor.
With three games remaining, Oklahoma may wind up having a better chance at catching WVU.
The Sooners own a tiebreaker against the Mountaineers via their season sweep during the regular season.
So, if Oklahoma and WVU wind up with the same conference record, the Sooners would earn the higher seed.
Oklahoma ends the regular season with two games against rival Oklahoma State and then by hosting Texas on March 4.
If Oklahoma wins all three, WVU would need to finish 4-0 to stay above the Sooners.
Wilder scenarios could also include the possibilities of Texas, Oklahoma State or even Texas Tech also catching the Mountaineers if WVU were to finish 0-4 down the stretch.
One more wild scenario: WVU is still mathematically alive for the Big 12 title with a 4-0 finish, but would also need Baylor to lose its four remaining games.
All of the possibilities set up what will likely be a wild week to end the Big 12 season.
“If we win out, we’re looking at the No. 2 seed,” WVU guard Taz Sherman said. “We control our own destiny. Whatever everybody else does in the conference, they can do whatever, but we control our own destiny. If we win out these four games, we’re in good shape.”
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