WVU basketball has been a dominant force inside the Big 12 Conference, but can the Mountaineers survive in the NCAA Tournament?
The Mountaineers are currently tied with Kansas for first place in the Big 12, which is arguably the best conference in the nation. However, when you take a deeper look at the West Virginia team, they have two losses outside of the conference that were complete blowouts.
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Against teams that are in power five conferences outside of the Big 12, WVU is 1-2 overall. The Mountaineers hammered a very average Virginia Tech squad of the ACC, but since then have been blown out by the Virginia Cavaliers (ACC) and Florida Gators (SEC). That leads us to think if the Mountaineer style of play only works in conference.
To put it as simple as possible, no. West Virginia’s style works outside of the Big 12 just as well as it does inside. Let’s not forget the Mountaineers were up by 12 over Virginia before totally exploding in the second half. You’ll have these games, it’s common across college basketball. The Mountaineers proved they could compete with Virginia, but failed to play a complete game.
We all know the Mountaineers got blown out by an average Florida team as well, but remember it was their first game without Jonathan Holton. West Virginia was trying to figure out how to play without him, and in a very rough environment. Not to mention, Florida had one of their best games of the year as they shot the ball lights out. “This was one of those nights we put it all together. Obviously, we’re not 17 points better than West Virginia” said Florida head coach Mike White.
West Virginia is unconventional, daunting, annoying, and gritty which is exactly how they beat you. You won’t find a team in the country that prepares for WVU 5 on 5, they are putting seven guys on defense to simulate the amount of pressure their starting five will see. For people to say that West Virginia basketball will struggle outside of the Big 12 is a joke. WVU is the only team in the country to beat multiple teams in the top 25 RPI and lose to no one outside of the top 25 RPI. There is a reason for that, and West Virginia has as much of a chance as anyone else to win the national title.