HARTFORD, Conn. - If there is a human element to the NCAA's tournament selection process, West Virginia managed to appeal to it Saturday afternoon. If there's such a thing as a feel-good loss, this was it, rallying from 17 points down and then losing in the final minutes to a team that is among the hottest, if not among the best, in the country.
HARTFORD, Conn. - If there is a human element to the NCAA's tournament selection process, West Virginia managed to appeal to it Saturday afternoon. If there's such a thing as a feel-good loss, this was it, rallying from 17 points down and then losing in the final minutes to a team that is among the hottest, if not among the best, in the country.
After watching the process for a lot of years, though, I'm not sure a human element exists.
We're talking about committee members watching their televisions and seeing beyond the winners and losers. That's easily the most important aspect, of course, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper.
The problem with this West Virginia team, however, is that when you look a little deeper, you're just as likely to see the warts as well as the hidden gems.
Sure, upon closer inspection of the Mountaineers' 20-9 record you will find excruciatingly narrow end-of-the-game losses to Tennessee, Georgetown and Pitt by a combined four points, along with a double-overtime loss to Oklahoma State. Now, too, you will find a rather magnificent second-half performance against Connecticut under the most difficult of circumstances - a 17-point deficit in front of a hostile crowd of more than 16,000 - that resulted in another close loss, this one 79-71.
Don't look too closely, though, because also appearing on a resume near you is this annoying fact: West Virginia tends not to concentrate on the task at hand all the time. And if anyone wants to argue that the NCAA selection committee should take into account the Mountaineers' close losses to good teams while studying bubble teams, be aware that it also opens up the possibility of cross-examination of that glaring fault.
"This isn't a buzzer-beater loss. This isn't Pitt or Georgetown or Tennessee,'' West Virginia junior guard Alex Ruoff said, sitting and leaning back against a wall outside his team's dressing room after the loss to UConn. "But at the same time, we're still doing the same things to put ourselves in this position. Look at the first half against Tennessee. We were terrible in the first half against Tennessee and lost by two points. It's the same mistakes.
"It's frustrating because we're losing on the same mistakes, myself included. We need to learn from it. Coming out in the first half and not being assertive, like coach is saying ... It happened in the Villanova game and we're not learning. Guys need to hold themselves accountable, look at the game films and see what they're doing. We're better than some of the teams we're losing to. We're just losing on bad plays and mental mistakes.''
So just where does West Virginia stand in relation to the NCAA tournament? Coach Bob Huggins actually said Saturday that he isn't all that worried because he likes a lot of the things his team has accomplished this season and figures the committee will, too. It also helps that this just seems to be one of those years when a lot of bubble teams appear pretty mediocre.
"I saw the other day where somebody was making a case for a team and used as an example a win over Ohio University,'' Huggins said.
He didn't follow that up. He didn't have to. Ohio was 18-9 going into the weekend and had the fourth-best record in the MAC. The Bobcats also had an unofficial RPI of 58. Nothing against OU, which I'm sure has a fine team, but this is a resume-building win?
But Huggins isn't exactly sleeping easy, either.
"We need to win two so I'd feel a lot more comfortable, but I think we're fine,'' said Huggins, whose team has regular-season games remaining with Pitt Monday and at St. John's Saturday. "I really do.''
HARTFORD, Conn. - If there is a human element to the NCAA's tournament selection process, West Virginia managed to appeal to it Saturday afternoon. If there's such a thing as a feel-good loss, this was it, rallying from 17 points down and then losing in the final minutes to a team that is among the hottest, if not among the best, in the country.
After watching the process for a lot of years, though, I'm not sure a human element exists.
We're talking about committee members watching their televisions and seeing beyond the winners and losers. That's easily the most important aspect, of course, but sometimes you have to look a little deeper.
The problem with this West Virginia team, however, is that when you look a little deeper, you're just as likely to see the warts as well as the hidden gems.
Sure, upon closer inspection of the Mountaineers' 20-9 record you will find excruciatingly narrow end-of-the-game losses to Tennessee, Georgetown and Pitt by a combined four points, along with a double-overtime loss to Oklahoma State. Now, too, you will find a rather magnificent second-half performance against Connecticut under the most difficult of circumstances - a 17-point deficit in front of a hostile crowd of more than 16,000 - that resulted in another close loss, this one 79-71.
Don't look too closely, though, because also appearing on a resume near you is this annoying fact: West Virginia tends not to concentrate on the task at hand all the time. And if anyone wants to argue that the NCAA selection committee should take into account the Mountaineers' close losses to good teams while studying bubble teams, be aware that it also opens up the possibility of cross-examination of that glaring fault.
"This isn't a buzzer-beater loss. This isn't Pitt or Georgetown or Tennessee,'' West Virginia junior guard Alex Ruoff said, sitting and leaning back against a wall outside his team's dressing room after the loss to UConn. "But at the same time, we're still doing the same things to put ourselves in this position. Look at the first half against Tennessee. We were terrible in the first half against Tennessee and lost by two points. It's the same mistakes.
"It's frustrating because we're losing on the same mistakes, myself included. We need to learn from it. Coming out in the first half and not being assertive, like coach is saying ... It happened in the Villanova game and we're not learning. Guys need to hold themselves accountable, look at the game films and see what they're doing. We're better than some of the teams we're losing to. We're just losing on bad plays and mental mistakes.''
So just where does West Virginia stand in relation to the NCAA tournament? Coach Bob Huggins actually said Saturday that he isn't all that worried because he likes a lot of the things his team has accomplished this season and figures the committee will, too. It also helps that this just seems to be one of those years when a lot of bubble teams appear pretty mediocre.
"I saw the other day where somebody was making a case for a team and used as an example a win over Ohio University,'' Huggins said.
He didn't follow that up. He didn't have to. Ohio was 18-9 going into the weekend and had the fourth-best record in the MAC. The Bobcats also had an unofficial RPI of 58. Nothing against OU, which I'm sure has a fine team, but this is a resume-building win?
But Huggins isn't exactly sleeping easy, either.
"We need to win two so I'd feel a lot more comfortable, but I think we're fine,'' said Huggins, whose team has regular-season games remaining with Pitt Monday and at St. John's Saturday. "I really do.''
But realistically, West Virginia's resume this season is almost identical to last year, when the Mountaineers didn't make the tournament. Most significant is the lack of wins over teams at the top of the Big East. There has been one - Marquette. There have also been no non-conference wins along the lines of last season's upset of UCLA, only the narrow losses.
I hate the term "signature win'' because it's just something somebody on ESPN or someplace made up and has suddenly become part of the lexicon. But there is a certain reality to the need by bubble teams for a win or two against someone better than them.
"Yeah, but I think any win in the Big East is kind of a signature win,'' said WVU forward Joe Alexander, whose signature on Saturday was a 32-point, 10-rebound monster of a game against Connecticut. "A lot of teams in a lot of conferences would love to get one win in the Big East. We have [nine] of them. Plus, we lost to the No. 1 team in the country [Tennessee] by one point.''
Well, actually it was by two, a 74-72 loss the day after Thanksgiving on a neutral court in Newark, N.J. But the point is still the same. So, too, is the reality, which is that it was still a loss.
If nothing else, the Mountaineers seem to be getting what the problem is. Playing 80 percent of the time isn't going to cut it. Ninety or 95 percent isn't likely to get the job done, either.
The trouble is, time is running out. West Virginia was No. 36 in the RPI before the weekend. The Mountaineers were 2-6 against teams in the Top 50 (beating No. 15 Marquette and No. 49 Syracuse), 3-2 against Top 100 teams and 14-0 against the schools with RPIs in triple digits. Last year the numbers were eerily similar (2-7 vs. Top 50, 3-1 vs. Top 100, 16-1 vs. No. 101-up) with one exception. WVU's overall RPI was just 57th.
The hunch here is that the difference is not in West Virginia's resume but in others around the country. The Mountaineers have a better chance of getting in simply because the competition for spots isn't as good.
Then again, none of this really matters until after the 4,325 conference tournaments are played in the coming weeks. Those are what determine exactly how many at-large spots are open by how many of the favorites get through. A large number of upsets means more regular-season winners are thrown into the at-large pool. If there are precious few upsets, the pool of at-large teams remains smaller and thus increases the chances of bubble teams getting in.
In other words, root for Drake. And Butler. And even Memphis and a few others. Those teams are going. Period. And if they lose in their conference tournaments they're going to eat up at-large berths.
Oh, and better root for West Virginia to begin learning its lessons.
"You learn something every time you play, but I think even though we lost we got a little more confidence that we can play with anybody in the country, even on the road,'' Alexander said. "I think all of us always knew that, but look at this. If we'd played the first half like we played the second half we would have beaten a really good team on the road. We're that close.''
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickm...@aol.com.
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