Sports - Mountaineer Status 02/20

After losing 3 of 4 WV (losses vs Pitt, at Louisville, and at Syracuse and only beating St. John's at home) looked very shaky, now WV has won 3 of 4 (wins vs Providence, Villanova, and ND with a loss at Pitt) and looks in solid shape. WV has 3 road games before hosting weakling DePaul and then powerhouse Louisville. Those three road games are not monsters (Rutgers, Cincy, South Florida), but they are Big East road games. WV is 2-4 on the road in Big East, losing its last three. So these are not gimmes. Still, if WV can manage a 3-2 record over the last 5 games, they would finish 10-8 in the Big East. This may be good enough for a 5 or 6 seed, the neighborhood that WV seems to be when they make the tourney in recent years. If they were to somehow run the table and put in a solid Big East showing, they could jump as high as a 3. The RPI is extremely strong. The losses are quality losses. What the resume lacks are high quality wins. A home against Villanova will probably go down as their best wins while road wins that seemed huge at that time against Georgetown and Ohio St. have lost their luster. It is a team that has handled inferior teams and been handled by superior teams. So, while I generally would think there would be a slip up somewhere during three straight road Big East games no matter which teams they faced, perhaps they will win them all since none of those teams have the talent level of the Mountaineers. That is the good news. The bad news is that I still don't see a magical tourney run for this team. Their weaknesses are exposed against better teams. They will need a favorable draw.