Cover Photo by Jeremiah Howell, DA
MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Despite a late-season collapse, the West Virginia Mountaineers are still very much in position to play in the NCAA Tournament next month. In fact, according to most analysts and experts closely following the Mountaineers’ chances, West Virginia is currently in the tournament if it were to take place today.
In its last eight games, the Mountaineers have only beaten Cincinnati on the road on February 2nd and at home against Utah on February 8th. However, West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries believes his team is still in good position to participate in March Madness. ¨We have to finish this season off with some wins obviously, but we have the components and the makeup of a team that belongs in the NCAA Tournament,” DeVries said.
¨We still have to do our part and win some games. Every team has something they hang their hats on and I feel that we have enough components that we have a team that can make the NCAA Tournament and go win some games. We’re late in the year and it´s the down the stretch run. We understand that none of that matters. It doesn’t matter what I think or anybody else thinks, we just have to keep winning games.”
ESPN´s Neil Paine, author of Bubble Watch, has the Mountaineers with a 64% chance of making the tournament, despite the recent struggles. “West Virginia appears to be trending in the wrong direction. Saturday’s loss at Baylor means the Mountaineers have dropped six of their past eight games and haven’t won consecutive games since the calendar flipped to 2025. Still, West Virginia stands eighth among Big 12 teams in the NET on the strength of its five wins against the BPI top 50, and the conference is tracking for somewhere between seven and nine tourney teams. That’s the positive. However, if Darian DeVries’ team doesn’t right the ship soon, the Mountaineers could be in danger of finding themselves on the wrong side of the bubble.”
West Virginia has a huge home game tomorrow night against the Cincinnati Bearcats at 7:00PM (ESPN2) before a really tough game on the road in Lubbock, Texas against the #9 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders. Despite West Virginia´s late-season struggles, if they can win out at home and get a game or two on the road, the Mountaineers will be in very good position to play in the NCAA Tournament next month. Like Coach DeVries said, West Virginia just has to win some games.
