MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — The very first NET rankings were released in college basketball and the West Virginia Mountaineers ranked lower than anyone could have even imagined. West Virginia, who has started the season 3-4 and is currently in last place in the Big 12 Conference, checked in at 209th out of 362 teams in the nation.
According to NCAA.com, NET is “a result-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents, particularly away from home, as well as an adjusted net efficiency rating. The adjusted efficiency is a team’s net efficiency, adjusted for strength of opponent and location (home/away/neutral) across all games played.”
With bad losses to Monmouth and SMU, it has really hurt West Virginia’s early ranking. When West Virginia interim head coach Josh Eilert found out about the team’s ranking, he said it made him feel sick.
“I almost threw up when I saw it,” Eilert said on The Josh Eilert Show earlier tonight. “The rankings are a bit skewed early on in the season and I wish they would bring those things out so early. We have a bunch of great opportunities ahead with how tough the Big 12 is, so I hate the NET sometimes. Some of of these teams play a a bunch of really bad teams to get a high ranking, but it will settle itself out as the season goes on.”
The Mountaineers are back in action on Wednesday, December 6, at home in the Backyard Brawl against the Pitt Panthers. It will be a “black out” with West Virginia wearing all black jerseys. The game tips at 9:00PM.
🚨 FIRST NET RANKINGS 🚨
1. Houston
2. BYU
3. Arizona
4. Creighton
5. Purdue
6. Baylor
7. Colorado State
8. Princeton
9. UConn
10. MarquetteThe NET Rankings are used by the Selection Committee and updated daily:
👉 https://t.co/WcAiGNRwth pic.twitter.com/l1dzZBHpxi— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 4, 2023
