Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
The Gauntlet Has Begun For No. 2 West Virginia
January 10, 2018 12:29 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - If you are West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, you get the feeling it's almost like you are about to take a late-morning drive through Dealey Plaza in an open motorcade.
That's because his No. 2-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers are now in everyone's gun sights. We saw that Tuesday night when Baylor turned what should have been an entertaining, up-and-down game into a mud wrestling match.
WVU barely came out of that one standing, 57-54. And these were two teams averaging in the 80s before tipoff!
"Another typical Big 12 game - great teams, great players, great atmosphere," Baylor coach Scott Drew said afterward.
Looking ahead, the parade route gets even more treacherous for West Virginia.
There is eighth-ranked Texas Tech in Lubbock looming on Saturday. Two days later, Kansas comes to town for Big Monday, which means West Virginia has to fly back across the country and start prepping for the team seeking its 14th straight Big 12 championship.
Then it's Texas, followed by another long road trip to TCU.
Kentucky arrives in Morgantown for a Big 12/SEC Challenge game at the Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 27, followed by a road game at Iowa State.
Then, it's back home for K-State, followed by a road game everyone will be watching at Oklahoma, and then a pair of home games against Oklahoma State and TCU in early February.
The middle of February features back-to-back road games at Kansas and Baylor, followed by two home games in a four-day span against Iowa State and Tech Tech.
The regular season concludes in Austin, Texas on Saturday, March 3.
Where is the breather?
Kentucky?
The Wildcats are in the unusual position of having three losses already this year and are ranked 21st in this week's AP poll, but they are coming off a 74-73 victory over fading Texas A&M and have won four out of their last five.
The word coming out of Lexington is that John Calipari is finally getting all of those first-round NBA Draft picks to play as a team.
Yeah, some breather.
Of West Virginia's remaining 15 games, just three come against teams with an RPI in the 100s - 110 Iowa State and 101 Kansas State.
That's it.
No team near West Virginia in this week's AP poll faces anything remotely close to the gauntlet the Mountaineers have in front of them.
Top-ranked Villanova can look forward to a pair of games coming up against No. 174 Georgetown, plus 162 DePaul and 118 Connecticut.
Third-ranked Virginia?
The Cavs have 109 NC State up next, followed by 189 Georgia Tech and 121 Wake Forest. Later in the year, Virginia faces 189 Georgia Tech and 149 Pitt in back-to-back games.
Compared to everyone else around them in the rankings, Michigan State has a walk in the park to Selection Sunday. Of the Spartans' remaining 14 regular season games, 10 are against teams with RPIs of 100 or worse, including 184 Rutgers coming up and 172 Iowa on the road in early February.
Fifth-ranked Purdue plays that same Big Ten schedule, with Iowa showing up in 11 days and a road trip to Rutgers looming in early February.
Co-No. 5 Xavier has a tougher journey, but the Musketeers do have two left against Georgetown and a road game at DePaul.
Sixth-ranked Wichita State has a JV game coming up against 7-8 East Carolina tomorrow night and two left against No. 100 Tulsa, plus one at 119 Memphis and another against 118 Connecticut in a four-day stretch.
And then there is seventh-ranked Duke with college basketball's top RPI heading into tonight's game at Pitt. After the Panthers, it's Wake Forest followed by a rematch against Pitt, another game against the Demon Deacons and a Feb. 11 date against 8-7 Georgia Tech.
The Blue Devils likely won't be No. 1 in the RPI after they win all of those games.
West Virginia is clearly in uncharted waters. The Mountaineers have been ranked this high in the past - some 60 years ago when the first etchings of Jerry West's statue were being made.
Back then, WVU was able to hold its lofty position in the polls at either No. 1 or 2 because it played a Southern Conference schedule that didn't feature a single ranked team. Once West Virginia got past fifth-ranked Kentucky and top-ranked North Carolina in the 1957 Kentucky Invitational, just a loss to an unranked, 18-7 Duke team in Durham kept WVU from achieving regular-season perfection.
In 1960, West Virginia hung around No. 2 until losing by 20 to third-ranked California in Los Angeles, and then slipped to No. 5 when William & Mary upset the Mountaineers in Norfolk, Virginia, to end an NCAA-record, 44-game conference winning streak.
Jeff Cohen was a really good player, but the 15-11 Tribe were nowhere near what West Virginia is facing in today's Big 12 - not to mention the travel that the current Mountaineers must endure.
"It's the hardest league I've ever coached in," Huggins has said repeatedly.
Yes, it's tough for everybody in the Big 12, but those other nine teams don't have the added travel component the Mountaineers have. Clarksburg's airport is nice, but it's not Morgantown, which means another hour each way on a bus for the players and coaches.
What West Virginia is encountering the rest of the way is unprecedented and daunting, for sure. But Huggins has also said repeatedly that he never looks in the rearview mirror.
That's good, because what's in front of his basketball team is going to require all of its attention, and then some.
At the very least, they should be ready to duck.
That's because his No. 2-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers are now in everyone's gun sights. We saw that Tuesday night when Baylor turned what should have been an entertaining, up-and-down game into a mud wrestling match.
WVU barely came out of that one standing, 57-54. And these were two teams averaging in the 80s before tipoff!
"Another typical Big 12 game - great teams, great players, great atmosphere," Baylor coach Scott Drew said afterward.
Looking ahead, the parade route gets even more treacherous for West Virginia.
There is eighth-ranked Texas Tech in Lubbock looming on Saturday. Two days later, Kansas comes to town for Big Monday, which means West Virginia has to fly back across the country and start prepping for the team seeking its 14th straight Big 12 championship.
Then it's Texas, followed by another long road trip to TCU.
Kentucky arrives in Morgantown for a Big 12/SEC Challenge game at the Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 27, followed by a road game at Iowa State.
Then, it's back home for K-State, followed by a road game everyone will be watching at Oklahoma, and then a pair of home games against Oklahoma State and TCU in early February.
The middle of February features back-to-back road games at Kansas and Baylor, followed by two home games in a four-day span against Iowa State and Tech Tech.
The regular season concludes in Austin, Texas on Saturday, March 3.
Where is the breather?
Kentucky?
The Wildcats are in the unusual position of having three losses already this year and are ranked 21st in this week's AP poll, but they are coming off a 74-73 victory over fading Texas A&M and have won four out of their last five.
The word coming out of Lexington is that John Calipari is finally getting all of those first-round NBA Draft picks to play as a team.
Yeah, some breather.
Of West Virginia's remaining 15 games, just three come against teams with an RPI in the 100s - 110 Iowa State and 101 Kansas State.
That's it.
No team near West Virginia in this week's AP poll faces anything remotely close to the gauntlet the Mountaineers have in front of them.
Top-ranked Villanova can look forward to a pair of games coming up against No. 174 Georgetown, plus 162 DePaul and 118 Connecticut.
Third-ranked Virginia?
The Cavs have 109 NC State up next, followed by 189 Georgia Tech and 121 Wake Forest. Later in the year, Virginia faces 189 Georgia Tech and 149 Pitt in back-to-back games.
Compared to everyone else around them in the rankings, Michigan State has a walk in the park to Selection Sunday. Of the Spartans' remaining 14 regular season games, 10 are against teams with RPIs of 100 or worse, including 184 Rutgers coming up and 172 Iowa on the road in early February.
Fifth-ranked Purdue plays that same Big Ten schedule, with Iowa showing up in 11 days and a road trip to Rutgers looming in early February.
Co-No. 5 Xavier has a tougher journey, but the Musketeers do have two left against Georgetown and a road game at DePaul.
Sixth-ranked Wichita State has a JV game coming up against 7-8 East Carolina tomorrow night and two left against No. 100 Tulsa, plus one at 119 Memphis and another against 118 Connecticut in a four-day stretch.
And then there is seventh-ranked Duke with college basketball's top RPI heading into tonight's game at Pitt. After the Panthers, it's Wake Forest followed by a rematch against Pitt, another game against the Demon Deacons and a Feb. 11 date against 8-7 Georgia Tech.
The Blue Devils likely won't be No. 1 in the RPI after they win all of those games.
West Virginia is clearly in uncharted waters. The Mountaineers have been ranked this high in the past - some 60 years ago when the first etchings of Jerry West's statue were being made.
Back then, WVU was able to hold its lofty position in the polls at either No. 1 or 2 because it played a Southern Conference schedule that didn't feature a single ranked team. Once West Virginia got past fifth-ranked Kentucky and top-ranked North Carolina in the 1957 Kentucky Invitational, just a loss to an unranked, 18-7 Duke team in Durham kept WVU from achieving regular-season perfection.
In 1960, West Virginia hung around No. 2 until losing by 20 to third-ranked California in Los Angeles, and then slipped to No. 5 when William & Mary upset the Mountaineers in Norfolk, Virginia, to end an NCAA-record, 44-game conference winning streak.
Jeff Cohen was a really good player, but the 15-11 Tribe were nowhere near what West Virginia is facing in today's Big 12 - not to mention the travel that the current Mountaineers must endure.
"It's the hardest league I've ever coached in," Huggins has said repeatedly.
Yes, it's tough for everybody in the Big 12, but those other nine teams don't have the added travel component the Mountaineers have. Clarksburg's airport is nice, but it's not Morgantown, which means another hour each way on a bus for the players and coaches.
What West Virginia is encountering the rest of the way is unprecedented and daunting, for sure. But Huggins has also said repeatedly that he never looks in the rearview mirror.
That's good, because what's in front of his basketball team is going to require all of its attention, and then some.
At the very least, they should be ready to duck.
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