MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Of Mike Carey’s previous 10 trips to the NCAA tournament with West Virginia, he wound up playing an opponent on its home court seven times.
“That was always one of the biggest complaints I’ve had about the tournament,” he said. “When you get to this point, it should be on a neutral floor.”
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire 2021 NCAA women’s tournament will be held in the state of Texas (mostly in San Antonio) with every one of the 63 games a neutral court for the participating teams.
In the years to come, once the pandemic has been neutralized, the NCAA is expecting to go back to its format where the top 16 seeds get to host the early-round games.
Could that ever change?
“There’s been talk about that, there really has,” Carey said. “Maybe (the 2021 format) goes well and we’ll continue to do something like this.
“It all comes down to financial, and playing at the home sites financially makes it better for the NCAA and the schools. I think a lot of things are going to change even when COVID is over. These Zoom calls and other things, I think we’ll continue. Hopefully playing at a neutral site will continue, but we’ll see.”
Smith will travel with WVU
Injured point guard Madisen Smith (hamstring) will travel with the Mountaineers to San Antonio, where WVU will play Lehigh at 8 p.m. Sunday in the first round.
There is no guarantee Smith will play. She’s been out since Feb. 20, when she injured her leg against TCU. Smith is averaging 8.7 points per game for WVU (21-6) this season.
“She will travel, but we’ll see where that ends up,” Carey said. “Is she getting better? Yes, but I don’t know if we’re going to be willing to put her out there. She’ll have a chance to get better this week, so we’ll see.”
Gondrezick named an All-American
WVU senior guard Kysre Gondrezick was named an honorable mention All-American on Wednesday by the Associated Press.
Gondrezick is the first WVU women’s player to be named to the AP All-American team since Teana Muldrow in 2018.
She led WVU in scoring at 19.9 points per game heading into the NCAA tournament and also averaged 4.5 assists per game.
Gondrezick needs 18 points to reach 1,000 for her WVU career.
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