It's Monday afternoon, and the college basketball world is still shocked at West Virginia men's basketball getting snubbed from the NCAA Tournament
Of the 111 bracket predictions within the bracket matrix, West Virginia was featured in all 111 brackets. Seemingly no one within the college basketball world thought that WVU would be left on the outside looking in, but sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. Despite having six Quad 1 wins, including wins over Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas, and Iowa State, West Virginia is the first team left out of the field.
West Virginia being left out of the NCAA Tournament field did not make sense to seemingly anyone. In particular, former NBA star and college basketball analyst Wally Szczerbiak of CBS Sports did not mince words in his evaluation of North Carolina being the last team in the field and WVU being the first team left out.
“How did North Carolina get in? 1-12 in Quad 1," Szczerbiak said. "Metrics, what? Like really? Non-conference strength of schedule, what does that mean? They lost every game in the non-conference. What does that mean? They were losing by 20, losing by 30. Then they got into conference play and you think they’re gonna roll through the ACC, well there were 3 teams that rolled through the ACC and North Carolina wasn’t one of them.”
"According to the system that we have in place, how did they get in this field? If I’m on teams like West Virginia, Boise State, Indiana, maybe Ohio State, I’m looking at my resume saying, I beat some really good teams in Quad 1 and I was left out, and that team had 1 Quad 1 win and 12 losses? That doesn’t make any sense.”
"How did they get in this field?"@wallyball, @Roy_Meets_World, and @CWalkerSports discussed UNC's Tournament berth. pic.twitter.com/GpggC0RV2C
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 16, 2025