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West Virginia was projected into the NCAA Tournament in all 111 brackets on the BracketMatrix.
But in the end the Mountaineers weren’t included in the only one that matters.
The Selection Committee had the Mountaineers as the first team out of the field. A shocking result given West Virginia’s overall resume and body of work combined with where the team was slotted.
The 19-13 Mountaineers weren’t just projected into the field, they were a solid No. 10 seed according to those 111 brackets but weren’t included in the Big Dance. It’s the first time that a team has been a consensus selection in the BracketMatrix projections and didn’t eventually make the field.
West Virginia was 6-10 in quadrant one games on the season and was 4-3 in quadrant two games. That was a combined total of 10-13 in those contests and a perfect 9-0 in quadrant three or four games.
Those six quadrant one wins, including four coming after Tucker DeVries was lost for the season, compares favorably to the last four teams in the field.
"Obviously we are extremely shocked, saddened and disappointed with not being selected for the NCAA Tournament. We strongly believe that we have a resume that is worthy of an NCAA Tournament team," head coach Darian DeVries said.
The Mountaineers were just one of 30 teams to record six or more quadrant one wins this season and even more impressive five of those were either road games or neutral site contests.
Texas, San Diego State, Xavier and North Carolina were the last four teams to get into the field. The Longhorns were 7-10 in quadrant one games, but the other three teams had fewer combined (5) than the Mountaineers had by themselves this season. North Carolina was 1-12 in those games, Xavier was 1-9 and San Diego State was 3-6 over the course of the year.
Not to mention North Carolina and San Diego State each had a quadrant three loss. So the Mountaineers not only played a more difficult schedule than those three teams but didn’t suffer any bad losses in the process.
Still, the overall net rankings were in order No. 36 North Carolina, No. 39 Texas, No. 45 Xavier, No. 51 West Virginia and No. 52 San Diego State.
“I can’t comprehend this team being left out. Our resume was better than several teams in the field and it’s a terrible travesty that we weren’t included,” Athletic Director Wren Baker said.
The reasoning here is confusing especially with DeVries injury being mentioned as a potential bulletin point by Committee Head Bubba Cunningham when that happened just eight games into the season. The Mountaineers won four more quadrant one games after that.
It’s a frustrating and disappointing result for a West Virginia senior class that had the ultimate goal of playing in the Big Dance. It’s sad that we won’t get to see Javon Small competing in the field and this shocking result is one that quite literally nobody saw coming outside the most pessimistic of fans.
In the end it’s just a reinforcement that nobody ever truly knows what the committee will do until it’s done and even with the best information sometimes things can slip through the cracks. West Virginia still accomplished a lot this season, but the end is going to leave a bad taste.
It’s unfortunate that West Virginia had made history for the wrong reasons.
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