WVU no longer the underdog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) – West Virginia’s second straight NCAA tournament appearance will have a similar start with none of the feel-good storylines from last year. The Mountaineers (20-10), seeded sixth in the Atlanta Region, play a Missouri Valley Conference foe for the second consecutive season, this time No. 11 Southern Illinois, which got the conference’s automatic bid by winning its postseason tournament.
Friday’s first-round game at The Palace in Auburn Hills, Mich., is again within driving distance for West Virginia fans.
And WVU will keep company for the second straight year with a Big East team it played in the league’s postseason tournament – Pittsburgh also was assigned to Auburn Hills, as Boston College was last year in Cleveland.
But nearly everything else has changed. West Virginia’s darling status has been dashed by five losses in its last seven games and a first-round exit from the Big East tournament. It will no longer be the underdog, having beaten five ranked teams this season.
The momentum WVU had last season, having advanced to the Big East title game, now belongs to its opponent, a winner of four straight.
And, according to the team, none of it matters.
“That’s way overrated,” West Virginia coach John Beilein said Tuesday. “Momentum can change so quickly. One injury, one missed shot, a missed dunk, technical. Momentum is too changeable for me to put much stock in it.”
That might be wise. It took a blocked shot and the resulting dunk with two seconds left for West Virginia to beat Creighton, another MVC team, 63-61 in the first round last season.
“You can’t overlook a team like this,” center Kevin Pittsnogle said. “We know how good they are, how good the conference is. They got four bids, just as many as the ACC.”
Indeed, Southern Illinois actually has far more NCAA experience than West Virginia.
The Salukis (22-10) have been in the past five tournaments, using a dogged defensive style that has held foes to just 52.3 points per game, the fourth-lowest in NCAA Division I. They also rank 39th in field goal percentage and steals per game.
SIU has also held foes to 4.4 3-pointers per game, meaning they statistically defend the perimeter better than any of WVU’s NCAA foes last season.
West Virginia, which ranks second nationally with 10.1 3-pointers per game, is in its second consecutive NCAA tournament for the first time since 1986-87. It will try to advance to the second round two straight years for the first time since 1959-60, when Jerry West led them to the national title game.
“We don’t want a deja vu,” Pittsnogle said. “We want to go further than we did last season.”
That will be difficult because of another change. Last season WVU did not play a regular season conference or tournament champion in the NCAAs.
This season the Mountaineers face SIU, then could play No. 3 Iowa, the Big Ten tournament champ. After that could come No. 2 Texas, the Big 12 regular-season champion which beat West Virginia 76-75 this season.
If WVU can win three games, overall No. 1 seed Duke would likely be waiting in Atlanta.
“You don’t expect easy games this time of the year,” Patrick Beilein said. “This is what you work for all fall and winter, why you practice. You have to get to every loose ball, dive for everything. Every possession could be your last.”