Yes, West Virginia Can Still Fight Its Way to the NCAA Tournament — Here’s How

A second straight home loss for West Virginia put another dent in their chances of making the NCAA Tournament, although it was to the 13th-ranked team in the country. It did not, however, completely burst the Mountaineers' bubble, believe it or not.

How so? Well, there are still at least eight opportunities left for WVU to make a statement, with four of those games currently pegged to be Quad 1 matchups. Because they already have nine losses, they have very little wiggle room. They can't take a bad loss, aka the Utah game, and they have to win enough games for those Quad 1 results to even matter.

The analytics still have West Virginia in range of being considered for the tournament, with the three most accurate ranking systems placing the Mountaineers in the low 60s after the loss to Texas Tech.

West Virginia's updated resume

NET Ranking: 63

KenPom Ranking: 62

Evan Miya Ranking: 61

Quad 1: 2-6
Quad 2: 3-3
Quad 3: 2-0
Quad 4: 8-0

What WVU needs to root for is for Xavier to start winning games. As of this morning's NET Ranking, they sit at No. 100. That means if they drop one more spot, that loss will move back to a Quad 3 loss for WVU. They have St. John's on deck, but after that, there are some winnable games left on their schedule. Right now, that's the only loss that could really come back to haunt the Mountaineers.

The rest of the schedule

at No. 44 UCF (Quad 1)

vs. No. 126 Utah (Quad 3)

at No. 53 TCU (Quad 1)

at No. 66 Oklahoma State (Quad 1)

vs. No. 18 BYU (Quad 1)

at No. 91 Kansas State (Quad 2)

vs. No. 44 UCF (Quad 2)

Four of the next five games are Q1 matchups. If they take care of business against Utah, win two or three of the Quad 1 games (I know, a BIG ask), and close out the season completing the sweep against Kansas State and beating UCF at home, they'll give themselves a chance. The odds are slim, but they're not completely out of it just yet.