West Virginia’s men will not be among the 68 schools in the NCAA Tournament, but the Mountaineers were the last team scratched, according to tournament committee chairman Bubba Cunningham.
That will be no consolation to West Virginia players, coaches and fans, however.
WVU (19-13) finished in a tie for seventh place with Baylor in the Big 12 with a 10-10 record. Baylor, chosen for the tournament as a No. 9 seed, defeated WVU, 74-71, in overtime in Waco, Texas, on Feb 15. The Mountaineers ended their season Wednesday with a 67-60 loss to Colorado (14-20, 3-17) in the Big 12 Tournament.
But to its credit, West Virginia beat four teams in the NCAA field that are seeded No. 8 or higher: No. 3 Iowa State, No. 4 Arizona, No. 7 Kansas and No. 8 Gonzaga. Only the Iowa State game was in Morgantown, W.Va.
“Obviously, we are extremely shocked, saddened and disappointed,” coach Darian DeVries said in a statement released by the university Sunday night. “We strongly believe that we have a resume that is worthy of an NCAA Tournament team. I am incredibly proud of this team and what they accomplished. They poured their hearts into this season and put all their collective efforts into making the NCAA Tournament, and I believe they did that.”
The Mountaineers played most of the season without Tucker DeVries, a 6-foot-7 guard who was averaging 14.9 points and 4.9 rebounds when he suffered an upper-body injury. The son of coach DeVries, he played in only eight games before having season-ending shoulder surgery.
WVU was 6-2 with DeVries and 13-11 without him. Overall, the Mountaineers compiled 6-10 and 4-2 records against Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents, respectively.
The 86-62 loss to Pitt at Petersen Events Center on Nov. 15 may have been one of the games that hurt West Virginia’s cause. The Panthers are ranked No. 61 in the NCAA NET rankings, but a WVU victory that night would have been in the Quad 1 column.
Cunningham, the athletic director at North Carolina, said keeping out West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio State and Boise State was “a tough call.”
“We had a lot of conversations about those teams,” he said Sunday night on CBS. “That’s the hardest part of being on the committee is having to draw that line. (West Virginia) had an outstanding year. Unfortunately … Tucker DeVries was hurt, and player availability is something that we talk about quite a bit.”
