WVU teetering on missing out on postseason play with Oklahoma State coming to town

MORGANTOWN — After months of toting its strength of schedule and its spot in the NET rankings, West Virginia’s basketball season officially hit a point it had refused to conceive earlier.

Following its 78-72 loss against Texas Tech — a loss that solidified WVU can finish no higher than the No. 7 seed for the Big 12 tournament — the Mountaineers are now in danger of missing out on postseason play for a second consecutive season.

Even earning the No. 7 seed would require a sort of small miracle, beginning with WVU (15-12, 4-10 Big 12) winning the remainder of its regular-season games, including Monday’s 7 p.m. matchup against Oklahoma State (16-11, 7-7) inside the Coliseum.

WVU STATS

Most likely, WVU and Texas Tech will be battling each other for the No. 8 and No. 9 seeds, which means they would play each other in the opening round of the Big 12 tourney, with eyes on whether or not Oklahoma has enough left in the tank to catch or surpass them.

“Our focus is to try and win the rest of our games here and move up the league standings and, obviously, move up where we’re seeded for the NCAA tournament,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said the day before losing against the Red Raiders.

That focus was blurred by the Red Raiders, who took an eight-point deficit with 8:16 remaining in the game and turned it into a bunkhouse stampede that saw them outplay WVU down the stretch.

“When we got the eight-point lead, I honestly think we had some guys relax,” Huggins said.

That lounging around cost the Mountaineers nine critical spots — from No. 23 to 32 — in the NET, a computer ranking used by the selection committee to determine at-large teams and seeding for the NCAA tournament.

And if those struggles continue against the Cowboys, who are playing without one of their top guards in Avery Anderson (wrist), WVU isn’t far from a reality where it could be denied a bid to the NCAAs and even the NIT.

That sounded nearly impossible a few weeks ago, especially after Huggins proclaimed the Mountaineers were “going to play in the NCAA tournament,” but there is a fine line for what constitutes an NCAA-worthy team and one set for the NIT.

The NIT selection committee isn’t as caught up in NET rankings and strength of schedule as much as a team’s overall record.

There is no rule that says a team must have a winning record, but since 2017, no team with a losing record has ever received an NIT invite.

A year ago, WVU had a similar strength of schedule and had played more Quad 1 games than any other team in the country, but it’s 16-17 overall record kept it out of the NIT.

WVU, which hasn’t gone consecutive seasons without a postseason appearance since 2002-03, must win at least one more game to assure itself of a 16-15 record heading into the Big 12 tournament.

The remaining schedule is not easy, beginning with back-to-back road games against No. 5 Kansas and No. 19 Iowa State, before returning to Morgantown and hosting No. 12 Kansas State.

If it’s difficult to predict many wins there, then that puts even more emphasis in today’s game against Oklahoma State, which is 6-4 all-time in the Coliseum.

All of this is conjecture, and WVU is still in a place where it can control its own destiny in reaching the NCAA tournament, yet it’s not a comfortable place as it once was.

“We’ve got to look in the mirror and move on,” is how WVU guard Erik Stevenson put it. “We just lost to a team we should have beat. Obviously we want to win as many games as we can just to not even be on the bubble to make sure we’re in the (NCAA) tournament. We’ve just got to take it day by day, man.”

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