The calendar is about to flip to March, which means it’s going to be tournament and championship for many college sports. WVU fans have plenty of reasons to look forward to the madness that is college sports in March.
In men’s basketball, WVU stumbled after arguably its biggest win of the season against Iowa State. They posted a 3-6 record in the next nine games moved WVU from comfortably in the NCAA tournament to on the bubble. They are likely still on the right side of the bubble, but they have much less margin for error now. If they win the games they should, and don’t look too bad in the losses, the Mountaineers will hear their name called on Selection Sunday. If you need to know “how many wins does WVU need?”, the answer is something like 19 is a lock, 18 is probably ok (but be nervous), 17 is probably trouble.
The women’s team, on the other hand, is still comfortably in the tournament (ESPN Bracketology has Mountaineers as a 5-seed). Their resume had been missing a signature win, but they got just that with a solid 70-57 win over top 15 Kansas State. Ideally, they can end up climbing to a 4-seed and get to host opening rounds for the NCAA tournament. (My petty dream matchup: WVU gets to host a opening rounds and one of the teams that comes to Morgantown is Minnesota, which has former WVU one-and-done coach Dawn Piltzuweit. The Coliseum would be rocking.)
A couple of WVU teams will be competing in Big 12 Championships this coming weekend. The Indoor Track and Field team heads to Lubbock, TX, for Friday and Saturday competition. Meanwhile, the swimming and diving teams are out in Federal Way, Washington, for their conference championships.
The wrestling team wrapped up its regular season hosting Arizona State, and by honoring their most successful wrestler ever, 3x NCAA Champ Greg Jones. They are now prepping for the Big 12 Championships on March 8-9, in Tulsa.
The gymnastics team cracked the 195 point barrier on the road at BYU. That is the second time they have topped that score this year, and the first on the road. They are currently #50 in the national rankings, which is their best so far this season. They need to climb up to 36 or better to qualify for NCAA Regionals. The good news is that the way qualifying scores are calculated, the early season stumbles can end up not counting (it is pretty much based off a team’s six highest scores). They have several meets left between now and the Big 12 Championships on March 22, so they have plenty of chances to boost their ranking. They are still a young team gaining experience, so their improvement curve is more than you typically see during a gymnastics season, so that top 36 is still possible, as long as they keep improving.
The baseball team started its season as well as possible, gaining a three game sweep over Jacksonville (it was scheduled for four games, but the final one was rained out). Steve Sabins is the first WVU coach in over 100 years to begin his career 3-0.
And Spring Football practice has started. This will be an interesting spring, as a the players and nearly all-new coaching staff get to know one another. It will wrap up on April 5, with a Gold-Blue Spring “Showcase.” We aren’t exactly sure what that will entail, but WVU promises more information as we get closer to that date.
