KANSAS CITY – This year's NCAA Tournament "bubble watch" does not include West Virginia, but the Mountaineers' Wednesday night Big 12 Tournament opponent, Oklahoma, is currently on those bubble lists.
 
Actually, the 19-12 Sooners are probably on the inside looking out despite their 68-53 loss at Kansas State last Saturday to conclude the regular season. 
 
OU has four Quad 1 victories and is 15-2 in Quad 2 and 3 wins with no games against Quad 4 teams. 
 
Therefore, on the basis of this, ESPN.com has Oklahoma as an eight or nine seed in its latest bracket projection, which should give the Sooners more than enough wiggle room to return to the Big Dance regardless of what happens here in Kansas City tomorrow night.
 
West Virginia, meanwhile, is looking to keep its season alive for as long as possible in hopes of getting its young players some more seasoning in meaningful games.
 
"I'm excited," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said following Tuesday's practice at the Sprint Center. "We're going to play more games, and we're going to get to go to Spain and have practices and games over there so hopefully we're ready to go when next season rolls around."
 
In a span of just 12 months, the 12-19 Mountaineers have gone from being an annual Big 12 championship game contender and NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 participant over the last three seasons under Huggins to a program that is today undergoing some extensive renovating.
 
The remodeling process acelerated a couple of weeks ago when forwards Esa Ahmad and Wesley Harris were dismissed from the team on Feb. 11, and it continued earlier this month when second leading scorer Beetle Bolden, who hasn't played since the Tennessee loss on Jan. 26, announced his decision to transfer.
 
Of course, there is also preseason All-Big 12 forward Sagaba Konate, who has not been on the floor since a Dec. 8 victory over Pitt. The junior with pro basketball aspirations is still around supporting his teammates from the bench instead of being on the floor while his injured knee continues to heal.
 
Those were four guys Huggins was counting on the last time he was in this building before the start of the season this past fall at Big 12 media day. 
 
"We lost our whole front line," Huggins explained. "We lost one of the best shot blockers in America. We lost one of the better defenders in the league and another one was a 1,000-point scorer. I don't care who you are that's going to affect you.
 
"You can't plan for what happened," Huggins added. "We've all got problems, but we've got to be better than our problems and that takes work."
 
Consequently, Huggins is now turning to junior forward Lamont West to help try and provide some veteran leadership to a starting lineup that includes three freshmen and a junior college transfer.
 
The freshmen - Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews Jr. and Jordan McCabe - have shown tremendous potential, as has junior guard Jermaine Haley.
 
Culver has produced eight double-doubles in just 21 college basketball games and could be the first Mountaineer player since All-Big East forward Kevin Jones in 2012 to finish the season averaging a double-double in points and rebounds.
 
The Youngstown, Ohio, resident is West Virginia's top scorer among available players, averaging 12.1 points per game. 
 
"I'm just barely scratching the surface of what I can do," Culver admitted Tuesday. 
 
McCabe was once averaging just 2.7 points per game before seeing his minutes increase significantly following a home loss to Kansas State on Feb. 18.
 
Since then he's averaging 17.4 points and is shooting 45 percent from 3-point distance in the five games he's been WVU's starting point guard.
 
Matthews Jr. earned his first start in a blowout loss to Kansas on Feb. 16 and has been in the starting lineup for the last seven games. He scored nine points in a home loss to Kansas State, grabbed 10 rebounds in a road defeat at Oklahoma and produced a season-high 13 points in 25 minutes in last Saturday's loss at Oklahoma State.
 
And Haley, perhaps West Virginia's most dependable offensive threat over the last two weeks of the regular season, has seen his scoring average nearly double from 3.9 to 6.2 points in a five-game span against Baylor, TCU, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Oklahoma State.
 
He scored 23 against the Sooners 10 days ago and produced a season-high 28 points in WVU's surprisingly easy 90-75 victory over Iowa State on March 6. Haley made 13-of-20 shots in that game - mostly on drives to the basket where he is using his 6-foot-7 frame to great advantage.
 

Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs preview Wednesday's matchup against Oklahoma in this Big 12 Championship Report, presented by United Bank. pic.twitter.com/JDUQnFR787

— WVU Basketball (@WVUhoops) March 12, 2019

These five guys – West, Haley, Culver, Matthews and McCabe - could be the same five guys we see out on the floor the majority of the time next year.
 
Beyond them, the other guys here in Kansas City this week are also underclassmen who desperately need more court time playing together.
 
"We have a young team and the more time that we get to be around each other the better our product will be next year," Culver predicted. "If we keep working hard and sticking to our guns – it may not look like it right now – but we're going to be alright."
 
"We're close," Huggins added. "We're close to thinking we can play with anybody. We just can't make the mistakes that we're making at the end of games. I think that comes with experience."
 
And to get experience these guys need to play more games – as many games as possible together to put them in a position where they are back on those NCAA Tournament bubble lists, just like the Sooners. 
 
"The challenge now is to fill the holes that we need to fill," Huggins said. "We need some toughness. Aside from Derek, we need somebody who has a 'you're-not going-to-score-on-me attitude. You're not going to get this rebound.' We don't have enough of that.
 
"Now, I think we've got some guys that can develop into that, but in the meantime let's go win anyway."
 
Tipoff for Wednesday night's West Virginia-Oklahoma game is approximately 9 p.m. EST following No. 8 seed TCU and No. 9 seed Oklahoma State facing off at 7 p.m.
 
ESPNU will televise both games nationally.
 




Briefly: Huggins said Tuesday that freshman guard Trey Doomes got hit in the mouth during practice but should be okay to play tomorrow night. "He's alright," Huggins noted. "It's not going to keep him from playing."
 
Meanwhile, he said walk-on freshman guard Taevon Horton is still out with a head injury and did not make the trip to Kansas City this week.