No. 19 WVU women's basketball saw a clear path to their first regular season Big 12 Championship in over a decade dashed with a disappointing 59-50 loss top No. 12 TCU last weekend. Now, if the Mountaineers are hoping for a conference title, they're going to need some assistance over the final weeks of the regular season.
But that doesn't change the fact that WVU still has three games remaining on their regular season slate, and they cannot afford to walllow in the sorrow of that defeat.
"Still in a decent spot, but we don't control it. And that is the disappointing part, you always want to control it if you can. Unfortunately we don't do that at this point, and we're going to need a little help for a Big 12 title," head coach Mark Kellogg said earlier this week.
"But there's still plenty on the line from seedings to double-byes to NCAA Tournament implications. So we'll keep moving forward. We're still in a good place and we've worked really hard to put ourselves in that position."
The Mountaineers will welcome a 21-7 Oklahoma State team that's currently fifth in the Big 12 to the Hope Coliseum this week, before back-to-back games against losing opponents to close the slate in UCF and Cincinnati.
Then, the Mountaineers will likely have opportunities for marquee wins in the Big 12 Tournament as well. The ultimate goal? Climbing into one of the Top 16 seeds in the tournament (1-4 seeds), which would earn the chance to host a home NCAA Tournament game.
"There's still a lot going on, a lot to play for. We just have to keep winning, and we need to find quality wins. Obviously Oklahoma State coming here will be a big-time quality opponent," Kellogg said. "I think we've put ourselves in a pretty good shot. Obviously we gave a couple of those away that we would had liked to have and that might have changed the whole dynamic of this."
"But I think we're right there on that 4/5 seed line, if we can do something here late I think it gives us a chance in the NCAA Tournament to get a home game, but I think we've probably got to do something pretty special here to finish."