MORGANTOWN — Darian DeVries’ first season as the head coach of the WVU men’s basketball team is officially over.
The school announced Monday morning — less than 24 hours after getting snubbed by the NCAA tournament — it had rejected invitations to other postseason tournaments.
“After consulting with our team, we have decided not to participate in any other postseason tournaments and will direct our support to the current members of our program and our preparation for next year,” WVU athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement.
That was far from the end of the Mountaineers being in the news, as the state’s political leaders threw their hat into the ring.
West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey went public Monday, saying he has asked state Attorney General John McCuskey to launch an investigation into the NCAA tournament selection committee.
The investigation would determine, “If there were any back-room deals, corruption, bribes or any nefarious activity occurred during the selection process,” Morrisey said. “I know the attorney general and I will leave no stone unturned in this process.”
Morrisey, standing behind a podium that sported a sign that read “National Corrupt Athletic Association” to poke a jab at the NCAA, stopped short of threatening any lawsuits or injunctions that would delay the start of this year’s NCAA tournament, which begins today.
Instead, Morrisey, called for transparency from the NCAA selection committee in sharing information with the investigation.
“I think it’s premature to talk about litigation right now,” he said. “Right now, we need answers right away. We’re never going to rule anything out. We want to work collaboratively with them. This smells a great deal.
”First, you try to work with them to get all the information you need. Quite frankly, it’s nothing they should hide. They should want to provide all of this information.”
Calling the NCAA tournament a multi-billion-dollar business, Morrisey said the endgame of the investigation would be to ensure that future NCAA tournament participants would be chosen in a less subjective and more transparent manner.
“How it works in this case remains to be seen,” Morrisey said. “I think if everyone in America starts asking those same questions to the NCAA, the quicker that information gets public, the better. We want transparency. We want objective criteria, and maybe we won’t be able to reverse this particular situation, but for the future, it will be better.”
WVU’s NCAA snub on Sunday night went viral on social media, and drew criticism from several national college hoops reporters and broadcasters, like ESPN’s Dick Vitale.
Much of the criticism was thrown at Bubba Cunningham, the chair of the NCAA tournament selection committee, as well as North Carolina’s athletic director.
North Carolina was chosen as the final at-large team into the field of 68, while WVU was listed as the first team out.
As per the traditional rules of the committee, Cunningham said he was not in the room when North Carolina was discussed and did not participate when the Tar Heels were up for a vote.
“The first team out was West Virginia,” Cunningham told CBS on Sunday night. “They had an outstanding year. Unfortunately, Tucker DeVries was hurt. Player availability was something we talked about.”
Tucker DeVries, the son of WVU’s head coach, played in only eight games this season for the Mountaineers and recently had shoulder surgery.
North Carolina was ranked higher than WVU — 36 to 51 — in the NCAA NET rankings, but the Tar Heels were 1-12 against Quad 1 competition, while the Mountaineers had a 6-10 record in Quad 1 games.
“I was surprised and disappointed to see West Virginia not receive a bid to the NCAA tournament,” Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark said. “In addition to their six Quad 1 wins, the Mountaineers won 10 conference games in one of the toughest leagues in the country. West Virginia deserved a spot, and fans across the country agree.”
The Mountaineers (19-13), as the highest-ranked non-NCAA tournament participating team from the Big 12, had earned an automatic invitation to the new College Basketball Crown tournament.
That tournament, the creation of Fox Sports, is a 16-team field and is in its first year of creation.
The tournament is played in Las Vegas, but doesn’t begin until March 31.
A conflict arises there, because the spring transfer portal window opens on March 24, meaning current players on WVU’s roster could announce intentions of transferring to another school before the tournament even begins.
There is also the possibility that DeVries will no longer be the Mountaineers’ head coach on March 31, as both Iowa and Indiana have reportedly shown interest in hiring DeVries as head coach.
“One of our team goals was making the NCAA tournament and we had a resumé worthy of an NCAA tournament selection,” DeVries said in a statement on Monday. “Our guys poured their hearts into this season and all of their collective efforts into making the NCAA tournament.”
