West Virginia coach Bob Huggins disagrees with a call during Saturday's game against Baylor at the WVU Coliseum. The Bears are one of six nationally ranked teams left on WVU's regular season schedule.
	All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo

West Virginia dropped five spots in this week’s Associated Press top 25 poll to 21^st, sharing that spot with Oklahoma State.

 

The Mountaineers also fell to No. 20 in this week’s USA Today Coaches’ Poll.

 

Six Big 12 teams are ranked in this week’s two basketball polls: No. 8 Kansas, No. 14 Iowa State, No. 16 Baylor, No. 17 Oklahoma and No. 21 WVU and Oklahoma State in the AP poll, and No. 9 Kansas, No. 14 Iowa State, No. 16 Baylor, No. 17 Oklahoma, No. 20 WVU and No. 24 Oklahoma State in the coaches’ poll.

 

Texas is also getting votes in both polls.

 

For West Virginia, this week marks the 18^th consecutive one that the Mountaineers have been in the national rankings dating back to November 26. West Virginia spent 38 straight weeks in the top 25 during the 2010 campaign when the Mountaineers reached the Final Four that season.

 

If West Virginia is going to remain in the polls this year then it is going to have to earn it. Following Wednesday night’s game against Kansas State at the Coliseum, six of West Virginia’s final seven regular season opponents are in this week’s top 25. And the one that’s not, Texas, beat West Virginia 77-50 in Austin back on January 17.

 

Here is what West Virginia has left after the K-State game on Wednesday night …

 

Feb. 14, at No. 14 Iowa State

Feb. 16, No. 9 Kansas

Feb. 21, at No. 21 Oklahoma State

Feb. 24, Texas

Feb. 28, at No. 16 Baylor

Mar. 3, at No. 9 Kansas

Mar. 7, No. 21 Oklahoma State

 

Back in 2011 when West Virginia was in the Big East, the Mountaineers faced something similar with seven of their final nine regular season games coming against ranked teams. Thrown in there, however, were a couple of games against DePaul and Rutgers.

 

I don’t see a DePaul or a Rutgers left this year for the Mountaineers, unfortunately.

 

In order for West Virginia to add it its 2015 win total, it is going to have to play well from here on out.

 

That is clear.

 

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The Big 12 continues to rank No. 1 in both the RPI and the Sagarin Ratings with seven teams ranked among the top 37 schools in the country, according to this week's Big 12 release. The next closest conference has five teams rated that highly.

 

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As of February 9, the Big 12 has all 10 of its members with at least a .500 record or better. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard of a conference having all of its teams with at least a .500 record this late in a season.

 

That is impressive.

 

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The Big 12 is 25-16 against the rest of the Big 5 this year (ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12 and SEC) and the conference also has the nation’s highest non-conference winning percentage at .827. Now, the real test will come in the NCAA tournament because the Big 12 is probably going to get 70 percent of its teams in this year’s national tournament.