Post by elp525 on Feb 23, 2011 8:41:42 GMT -5
February 22, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - Bob Huggins was talking last week about the NCAA tournament, what it takes to get there and where his West Virginia basketball team stood at the time.
The bottom line? The Mountaineers were in pretty good shape, but they still needed to win some games.
Heading into Thursday night's rematch at No. 4 Pitt and then with three regular-season games remaining after that, little has changed. The Mountaineers still need to win some games.
If Huggins' formula is right, a 2-2 split should more than do the trick.
"If you win 10 games in this league you're going to get in. Nothing else really matters,'' Huggins said. "Ten wins assures you of getting into the NCAA tournament. You can talk about anything else you want to talk about, but if you win 10 games in this league, you're in.''
That's probably true. It certainly seems true in West Virginia's case given a couple of other variables. As of Tuesday the Mountaineers were No. 22 in the RPI, and they had the fourth-best strength of schedule rating in the country.
But with four games remaining before the Big East tournament, the Mountaineers (17-9, 8-6 Big East) are still two games short of those 10 wins that Huggins maintains is the ultimate threshold for entry into the tournament by a Big East team.
The strength of schedule variable isn't going anywhere, not with three of the four remaining games against teams in the Top 25 of both the polls and the RPI. And the RPI rating isn't going to slip much, if at all, if the Mountaineers continue to hold serve.
That means winning games, no matter who the opponent or where.
"We can't concern ourselves with anything other than just playing each game and trying to win,'' said point guard Joe Mazzulla. "Do that and everything else takes care of itself.
Following Thursday's late-night (9 p.m. tip on ESPN) game at Pitt (24-3, 12-2), West Virginia finishes the regular season with a Sunday noon game at Rutgers (13-13, 4-10 before Tuesday's late game against Louisville), then home games next week against No. 13 Connecticut (20-6, 8-6) on Wednesday and No. 16 Louisville (20-7, 9-5 before Tuesday night) on Saturday.
Perhaps just as significant as boosting its NCAA tournament stock in the final four games is improving WVU's standing in the Big East. The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league with Connecticut and Cincinnati. But the room for movement is tremendous.
West Virginia is just one game ahead of 11th-place Marquette, so a handful of losses could send the Mountaineers reeling. But on the flip side WVU is also just a game out of fourth place in the loss column and only two games out of second. West Virginia also owns tiebreakers against two of the top three teams in the current standings (Notre Dame and Georgetown), but loses a tiebreaker to No. 11 Marquette.
In other words, the Mountaineers could still very realistically finish in the top four and earn a two-round bye in the Big East tournament, in fifth through eighth and earn a one-round bye or in ninth or lower and have to play in the opening round on Tuesday, March 8 at Madison Square Garden.
Trying to predict where West Virginia might finish - even if one were able to predict WVU's record in the remaining four games - is next to impossible because of the 28 Big East games remaining, all but three involve teams still realistically fighting for byes, and 15 are between those teams.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
"We can't concern ourselves with anything other than just playing each game and trying to win,'' said point guard Joe Mazzulla. "Do that and everything else takes care of itself.
Following Thursday's late-night (9 p.m. tip on ESPN) game at Pitt (24-3, 12-2), West Virginia finishes the regular season with a Sunday noon game at Rutgers (13-13, 4-10 before Tuesday's late game against Louisville), then home games next week against No. 13 Connecticut (20-6, 8-6) on Wednesday and No. 16 Louisville (20-7, 9-5 before Tuesday night) on Saturday.
Perhaps just as significant as boosting its NCAA tournament stock in the final four games is improving WVU's standing in the Big East. The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league with Connecticut and Cincinnati. But the room for movement is tremendous.
West Virginia is just one game ahead of 11th-place Marquette, so a handful of losses could send the Mountaineers reeling. But on the flip side WVU is also just a game out of fourth place in the loss column and only two games out of second. West Virginia also owns tiebreakers against two of the top three teams in the current standings (Notre Dame and Georgetown), but loses a tiebreaker to No. 11 Marquette.
In other words, the Mountaineers could still very realistically finish in the top four and earn a two-round bye in the Big East tournament, in fifth through eighth and earn a one-round bye or in ninth or lower and have to play in the opening round on Tuesday, March 8 at Madison Square Garden.
Trying to predict where West Virginia might finish - even if one were able to predict WVU's record in the remaining four games - is next to impossible because of the 28 Big East games remaining, all but three involve teams still realistically fighting for byes, and 15 are between those teams.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - Bob Huggins was talking last week about the NCAA tournament, what it takes to get there and where his West Virginia basketball team stood at the time.
The bottom line? The Mountaineers were in pretty good shape, but they still needed to win some games.
Heading into Thursday night's rematch at No. 4 Pitt and then with three regular-season games remaining after that, little has changed. The Mountaineers still need to win some games.
If Huggins' formula is right, a 2-2 split should more than do the trick.
"If you win 10 games in this league you're going to get in. Nothing else really matters,'' Huggins said. "Ten wins assures you of getting into the NCAA tournament. You can talk about anything else you want to talk about, but if you win 10 games in this league, you're in.''
That's probably true. It certainly seems true in West Virginia's case given a couple of other variables. As of Tuesday the Mountaineers were No. 22 in the RPI, and they had the fourth-best strength of schedule rating in the country.
But with four games remaining before the Big East tournament, the Mountaineers (17-9, 8-6 Big East) are still two games short of those 10 wins that Huggins maintains is the ultimate threshold for entry into the tournament by a Big East team.
The strength of schedule variable isn't going anywhere, not with three of the four remaining games against teams in the Top 25 of both the polls and the RPI. And the RPI rating isn't going to slip much, if at all, if the Mountaineers continue to hold serve.
That means winning games, no matter who the opponent or where.
"We can't concern ourselves with anything other than just playing each game and trying to win,'' said point guard Joe Mazzulla. "Do that and everything else takes care of itself.
Following Thursday's late-night (9 p.m. tip on ESPN) game at Pitt (24-3, 12-2), West Virginia finishes the regular season with a Sunday noon game at Rutgers (13-13, 4-10 before Tuesday's late game against Louisville), then home games next week against No. 13 Connecticut (20-6, 8-6) on Wednesday and No. 16 Louisville (20-7, 9-5 before Tuesday night) on Saturday.
Perhaps just as significant as boosting its NCAA tournament stock in the final four games is improving WVU's standing in the Big East. The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league with Connecticut and Cincinnati. But the room for movement is tremendous.
West Virginia is just one game ahead of 11th-place Marquette, so a handful of losses could send the Mountaineers reeling. But on the flip side WVU is also just a game out of fourth place in the loss column and only two games out of second. West Virginia also owns tiebreakers against two of the top three teams in the current standings (Notre Dame and Georgetown), but loses a tiebreaker to No. 11 Marquette.
In other words, the Mountaineers could still very realistically finish in the top four and earn a two-round bye in the Big East tournament, in fifth through eighth and earn a one-round bye or in ninth or lower and have to play in the opening round on Tuesday, March 8 at Madison Square Garden.
Trying to predict where West Virginia might finish - even if one were able to predict WVU's record in the remaining four games - is next to impossible because of the 28 Big East games remaining, all but three involve teams still realistically fighting for byes, and 15 are between those teams.
Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
"We can't concern ourselves with anything other than just playing each game and trying to win,'' said point guard Joe Mazzulla. "Do that and everything else takes care of itself.
Following Thursday's late-night (9 p.m. tip on ESPN) game at Pitt (24-3, 12-2), West Virginia finishes the regular season with a Sunday noon game at Rutgers (13-13, 4-10 before Tuesday's late game against Louisville), then home games next week against No. 13 Connecticut (20-6, 8-6) on Wednesday and No. 16 Louisville (20-7, 9-5 before Tuesday night) on Saturday.
Perhaps just as significant as boosting its NCAA tournament stock in the final four games is improving WVU's standing in the Big East. The Mountaineers are now in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league with Connecticut and Cincinnati. But the room for movement is tremendous.
West Virginia is just one game ahead of 11th-place Marquette, so a handful of losses could send the Mountaineers reeling. But on the flip side WVU is also just a game out of fourth place in the loss column and only two games out of second. West Virginia also owns tiebreakers against two of the top three teams in the current standings (Notre Dame and Georgetown), but loses a tiebreaker to No. 11 Marquette.
In other words, the Mountaineers could still very realistically finish in the top four and earn a two-round bye in the Big East tournament, in fifth through eighth and earn a one-round bye or in ninth or lower and have to play in the opening round on Tuesday, March 8 at Madison Square Garden.
Trying to predict where West Virginia might finish - even if one were able to predict WVU's record in the remaining four games - is next to impossible because of the 28 Big East games remaining, all but three involve teams still realistically fighting for byes, and 15 are between those teams.
