With 4 games remaining ahead of conference tournament week, the Mountaineers find themselves with work to do in their pursuit of an NCAA Tournament bid.
After splitting a pair of games this past week (win over Cincinnati, loss to Texas Tech), West Virginia is currently 16-11 overall and 7-9 in conference play. In his latest bracketology breakdown, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has West Virginia on the right side of the bubble, even coming off the blowout loss at Texas Tech.
Certainly, West Virginia needs to win some games down the stretch in order to make the big dance, but what might that magic number be?
Let’s simplify things a bit:
4 consecutive wins to close out the regular season would not only get WVU off of the bubble but in play for a potential 6 or 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament -- they would finish with 20 wins total and 2 wins over .500 in conference play, not counting the Big 12 Tournament.
3 wins would put WVU at .500 in conference play and likely land them in the NCAA Tournament field without having to sweat too much on Selection Sunday.
2 wins would likely put them squarely on the bubble on Selection Sunday, not taking into consideration conference tournament play. Which side of the bubble they land on would have to do with their Big 12 Tournament performance and how other bubble teams fare over the next two weeks.
1 win down the stretch would put WVU at 8-12 in conference play and with just 17 wins overall, which undoubtedly would leave some serious work to be done in Kansas City at the conference tournament if they want to go dancing.
Zero wins down the stretch is the worst-case scenario, and WVU would probably need to win the Big 12 Tournament to secure an NCAA Tournament.
With that being laid out, let’s look at who the Mountaineers have remaining on their regular season schedule.
vs TCU (15-12, 8-8)
Tuesday, February 25th, 9pm ET
According to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, TCU is currently on the wrong side of the bubble leaving them with some work to do down the stretch. This will be West Virginia’s second crack at the Horned Frogs this season after falling at TCU 65-60 in early February.
at BYU (19-8, 10-6)
Saturday, March 1st, 10pm ET
As the calendar turns to March, West Virginia will head to Provo for a tough test against the BYU Cougars, who defeated the Mountaineers in Morgantown on February 11th.
The Cougars are finding their groove, winning 4 straight and 8 of their last 10 games. At this rate, BYU has seemingly worked its way off of the NCAA Tournament bubble, and they are coming off of an impressive road win at Arizona on Saturday night.
at Utah (15-12, 7-9)
Tuesday, March 4th, 9pm ET
West Virginia will stay in the state of Utah when they play the Utes for the second time this season. WVU defeated Utah 72-61 back on February 8th. Utah is not currently on Lunardi’s bubble radar despite bolstering the same conference record as the Mountaineers currently.
vs UCF (14-13, 5-11)
Saturday, March 8th, 5pm ET
West Virginia will close out the regular season at home when they host the UCF Knights. It will be their only matchup with UCF this season, and one that the Mountaineers may very well need to win if they want to make the NCAA Tournament.