MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia will enjoy its brief Christmas break knowing it is now the 22nd-ranked college basketball team in the country, up three spots from last week.
The Mountaineers are one of four Big 12 teams ranked in this week’s Associated Press top 25 poll, which was released Monday.
Kansas fell four spots to No. 5 following its weekend loss to Villanova, while Baylor is up three to No. 7 and last year’s NCAA tournament runner-up Texas Tech moves up one spot to 23.
West Virginia has now been ranked at least once in 10 of the 13 years Bob Huggins has coached the Mountaineers.
West Virginia’s next opponent, Ohio State, is up to No. 2 following its 71-65 triumph over Kentucky on Saturday. The Buckeyes and the Mountaineers will be one of college basketball’s marquee matchups this weekend when the two top 25 teams meet at noon Sunday at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland. The game will be televised on FS1.
West Virginia (10-1) got 19 points and six rebounds from freshman forward Oscar Tshiebwe and 15 points, seven rebounds and seven assists from sophomore forward Derek Culver in last week’s 75-64 victory at Youngstown State.
The Mountaineers overcame a seven-point deficit early in the second half against the Penguins (7-6). The game was part of a two-for-one arrangement with Youngstown State, which is slated to meet the Mountaineers one more time in Morgantown next season.
Penguins coach Jerrod Calhoun worked on Huggins’ staffs at Cincinnati and West Virginia, which is one of the reasons Huggins scheduled a game in Youngstown, Ohio.
“The problem before was you go play a game like this and you lost it was really bad for you,” Huggins said Saturday. “It’s not as bad for you now because of the NET instead of the RPI. The NET takes into consideration away games, so you are not risking as much.”
West Virginia’s NET ranking this week is now 10, one spot above Wichita State, which the Mountaineers defeated by 12 in Cancun last month.
Northern Iowa is another West Virginia November victim with a strong NET ranking of 23. Although it didn’t defeat South Carolina, WVU benefits from the Gamecocks’ big road win at Virginia last Saturday because Wichita State beat them one day before the Shockers lost to West Virginia in Cancun.
“In some ways, (road games) help your NET, which is how you get into the NCAA tournament and how you get seeded and so forth,” Huggins explained. “I was on the committee when we did this and some of us were really for it and some of us weren’t for it.
“The guys who were really for it are the kind of guys like Jerrod who started out as a head coach at Fairmont and now he’s here. When he becomes a coach in the Big Ten, the SEC or somewhere else, hopefully he’ll do this for somebody, because that’s really the reason that we did this. (John) Calipari was a big part of it and Tom Izzo was a big part in pushing the NET as opposed to the RPI.”
Meanwhile, a victory this Sunday against No. 2 Ohio State in Cleveland would give West Virginia a significant boost in the NET with Big 12 play on the horizon in January.
