Where the WVU men and women hoops teams stand re the NCAA tourney

One of the fun sports within sports is following your team’s NCAA tournament chances and possible seedings.
Our course, WVU Mountaineer fans following the men know the score. West Virginia has become the very definition of a “bubble team” and is hanging in projections by the proverbial thread.
As of Tuesday morning, bracketologist Joe Lunardi had WVU as a 10 seed playing 7 seed Louisville in Cleveland in the first round and as one of the “last four byes” teams, along with Texas, BYU and Vanderbilt.
On CBS Sports, Jerry Palm had WVU as a “First Four” team, aka an 11 seed, in the Midwest playing Arkansas before the first round.
Austin Curtright of USA Today had Kansas State, TCU and WVU as “bubble teams.”
The Mountaineers play in the rugged Big 12, which isn’t as brutal as recent years, but you might have missed the NCAA tournament selection committee’s top 16 seeds unveiled the other day. The Big 12 still had Houston at No. 8, Iowa State at No. 9, Arizona at No. 12, Texas Tech at No. 13 and Kansas at No. 15.
The 15-10 Mountaineers have an absolute must-win home game on Wednesday against Cincinnati.
So WVU fans are on the edge of their seats regarding the men. But regarding the women’s team? We’re more comfy cozy.
The Mountaineer women weren’t among the Top 16 teams named by that tournament committee rankings over the weekend, but then whipped one of those named teams, No. 12 and 3 seed Kansas State, by 70-57 on Monday on a nationally televised President’s Day game.
Coach Mark Kellogg’s team moved up to No. 17 in the latest Associated Press poll at 20-5.
And the latest is ESPN’s Charlie Crème Tuesday morning had WVU as a 5 seed and playing 12 seed James Madison in Knoxville in the first round.
Fun stuff.
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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.