DeVries Believes WVU Has ‘Enough Components’ of NCAA Tournament Team
WVU basketball is an NCAA Tournament team, there is no doubt in Darian DeVries’s mind about that.
“As you watch other teams, as coaches you can go ‘that’s a really good team, that’s a tournament team,’” DeVries said Tuesday, “and I feel like we have one.”
The Mountaineers (15-10, 6-8 Big 12) have been firmly in the tournament picture for much of their first season under DeVries, but six losses over their last eight games have dropped West Virginia onto the bubble.
Even so, DeVries’s belief that his team is worthy of playing in March has not wavered.
“We have to finish this season off with some wins obviously, but we have the components and the makeup of a team that belongs in the NCAA Tournament,” he said.
WVU did not enter the season projected to be included in many tournament projections, with DeVries in his first year and a roster full of transfers. Signature top-10 wins over Gonzaga, Kansas and Iowa State quickly elevated the Mountaineers up the seed line and made March Madness seem like a certainty.
However, the grind of the Big 12 schedule has chipped away at that over the last month, but the Mountaineers still boast one of the best resumes in the country, especially of any team on the bubble right now.
“We still have to do our part and win some games,” DeVries said. “Every team has something they hang their hats on and I feel that we have enough components that we have a team that can make the NCAA Tournament and go win some games.”
The Mountaineers have six games left in the regular season to make their case for March, beginning with Cincinnati in the Coliseum on Wednesday at 7 p.m. (ESPN2). WVU then gets a crack at No. 9 Texas Tech before closing the year with four Big 12 rematches.
DeVries knows the only way to make it to the tournament is by winning some of those contests.
“We’re late in the year, down that stretch run,” DeVries said. “We understand that none of that matters. It doesn’t matter what I think or anybody else thinks, we have to keep winning games.”
For a related story, WVU basketball maintains KenPom ranking despite winless week.
