MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — The West Virginia Mountaineers were absolutely snubbed yesterday when the NCAA Selection Committee did not include them in the field for the NCAA Tournament. West Virginia, who finished the season with a 19-13 record and had a far better record against Quad 1 teams than several teams that made the tournament, ẁere unfortunately left on the outside looking in.
Late last night, West Virginia declined an invitiation to play in the NIT, a secondary postseason tournament for teams who did not make the NCAA Tournament. It was earlier thought that the Mountaineers would accept an invite to the new postseason tournament The Crown. However, it now appears that West Virginia will also decline that invitation and their season is over.
This could potentially be very bad news for the Mountaineers and could signal the end of the Darian DeVries Era in Morgantown. Although West Virginia certainly sees itself as an NCAA Tournament team, the winner of The Crown tournament was set to receive $500,000, which would be split among all players on the team. Instead, they’re now reportedly passing up on that opportunity, which leaves many to believe that head coach Darian DeVries could be headed to become the next head coach for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa recently fired their head coach and DeVries, an Iowa native, is considered to be the top target and early favorite to take over their program.
