It's just a couple hours after the bracket release on Selection Sunday, but it's likely everyone reading this has heard or seen -- despite just about every 'bracketologist' in the nation considering West Virginia men's basketball a First Four-level team at the worst, the Mountaineers found themselves the very first team on the outside looking in once the NCAA Tournament field was announced.
The Mountaineers missing The Big Dance for the second consecutive season came as quite a shock to most fans and basketball analysts -- let's take a look at exactly how WVU found themselves missing out on Sunday.
The DeVries Factor
Perhaps the most infuriating reason handed out for why WVU ended up as the first team left out came from the mouth of the Selection Committee Chair Bubba Cunningham -- who cited the loss of the team's star forward Tucker DeVries.
"The last four teams that were out, it was a tough call," Cunningham said. "The first team out was West Virginia. They had an outstanding year and unfortunately, knowing Tucker DeVries was hurt...player availability is something that we talk about quite a bit."
This will likely light a fire underneath any WVU or Big 12 fan that sees it, as they understand just how much of a cop-out that logic is -- this is because DeVries has been sidelined due to injury since December 10th. He only played in 8 of the team's 32 games this season. And while a pair of the team's resume-building wins -- Gonzaga and Arizona -- came with DeVries, two other significant wins over Kansas and Iowa State came without him.
Brand Matters
There's a classic argument that often comes along with debates over team's getting left out of the college sports postseason -- at least in revenue sports -- that contends that some teams are chosen before others simply because of the brand recognition, fanbase, and history of their program. And it's hard to argue that might not be the case here.
One of the final teams to make the tournament field was North Carolina. The Tar Heels are a basketball blue blood, and widely considered one of the biggest brands and biggest fanbases in the sport. The Tar Heels also happened to be left out of the field by most bracketology predictions, presuming that they didn't have quite enough good wins to make the field.
That's because while the Tar Heels finished 22-13 overall compared to WVU's 19-13 overall, they also found themselves just 1-12 against Quad 1 competition compared to West Virginia's 6-10 record against Quad 1 opponents. The Tar Heels had also dropped one game to a lower-level Quad 3 opponent, while WVU went undefeated against all opponents on their schedule lower than Quad 2.
How much Cunningham played a role in the decision is also in the air -- he is the school's athletic director, and happened to find himself chairing the committee. But it'd be hard to imagine the appeal of UNC over WVU in the tournament based on brand didn't play a role in the committee's decision.
NET Ranking Blues
One legitimate reason WVU likely could have been snubbed is due to NET Rankings, which is the main evaluation rankings system used to determine tournament teams based upon evaluation of a variety of result and schedule based factors.
The Mountaineers found themselves sitting at 51st overall in the NET Rankings on Selection Sunday -- UNC was ranked 36th in the NET rankings. Meanwhile the other final three teams in the field were either ranked above West Virginia or rather close to the Mountaineers -- Texas was at 39th, Xavier was at 45th, and San Diego State was at 52nd.
And while the Aztecs made it in over WVU with a lower NET Ranking, they do own a victory over No. 1-seed Houston, who the Mountaineers lost to twice this season.