While the West Virginia Mountaineers have been listed comfortably in the NCAA Tournament in recent weeks, their stock is starting to dip after some recent struggles.
On Monday, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi included the Mountaineers on the last four byes section of the bubble as the field’s 61st-ranked team.
After starting off 9-2 in the non-conference schedule, West Virginia kicked off league play with some impressive wins. They jumped into the AP Top 25 with wins over No. 7 Kansas and Oklahoma State. Since then, they’ve fallen off the wagon a bit, losing eight of their next 12 games, three of which were against teams projected to miss the NCAA Tournament.
The Mountaineers have received some incredible production from senior guard Javon Small, who continues to cement himself deep in the race for Big 12 Player of the Year, averaging 18.6 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.3 rebounds per game. Outside of small, however, West Virginia lacks much help, with no other athletes on the roster scoring in double figures.
West Virginia is joined by three other Big 12 teams on the bubble, including BYU (No. 64), Kansas State (No. 75), and Cincinnati (No. 77)
With six games remaining, Darian DeVries‘ squad cannot afford many more losses as the group continues to nose down each bracketology update. They take on just two tournament teams in their final six, No. 9 Texas Tech and BYU, as well as Cincinnati, TCU, Utah, and UCF.
