KANSAS CITY – Postseason play begins on Wednesday afternoon for the West Virginia University men's basketball team at T-Mobile Center in downtown Kansas City.

The Mountaineers will face the 16^th-seeded Colorado Buffaloes, which upset ninth-seeded TCU 69-67 in the second game of today's first-round session.

Cincinnati topped 12^th-seeded Oklahoma State in Tuesday's first game.

Colorado (13-19) used 18 points from senior forward Andrej Jakimovski and 16 from senior guard Julian Hammond III to defeat the Horned Frogs for a second time in as many games. The Buffaloes knocked off TCU 76-56 in Boulder last Saturday to conclude the regular season.

Colorado, which has won four of its last eight games, was victorious today despite giving up 22 offensive rebounds and turning the ball over 15 times against the Horned Frogs. The Buffaloes were nine-of-22 from 3-point distance and made 18 of 24 from the free throw line.

Colorado's ability to switch everything defensively likely contributed to TCU shooting just 37.9% for the game.

The Mountaineers defeated Colorado 78-70 in Boulder back on Jan. 12 in the only meeting this year between the two schools. Guard Javon Small scored a game-high 26 and Joseph Yesufu came off the bench to contribute 18, while Hammond tallied 23 for the Buffaloes.

"We let some get away in January, and West Virginia was one of them," CU coach Tad Boyle said following today's victory.

West Virginia, predicted to finish 13^th in the Big 12 preseason media poll, tied Baylor for seventh place in the regular season with a 10-10 record and is seeded eighth in this year's Big 12 Tournament.

Tomorrow will be the 12^th appearance for the Mountaineers here in Kansas City where they own an 11-12 record in conference tournament action. West Virginia has advanced to the championship game three times, most recently in 2018.

Coach Darian DeVries' Mountaineers concluded regular season play last Saturday evening at the WVU Coliseum with their 72-65 victory over UCF.

The win came in uneven fashion as West Virginia led by as many as 27 points in the first half before watching its lead get whittled down to a one-possession game when freshman Jonathan Powell made his big 3 with 1:10 left.
Fifteen of the Mountaineers' 24 second-half shot attempts came from behind the 3-point arc, and as a result, they shot just 29.2% after intermission.

WVU finished the regular season on a strong note by winning three of its last four and four of its last six contests.

As of Tuesday morning, West Virginia (19-12) remains solidly in every NCAA Tournament bracket projection, including a No. 9 seeding in Joe Lunardi's most recent bracket revealed on ESPN.com.

CBS Sports college basketball expert Jerry Palm continues to list the Mountaineers as a 10-seed.

West Virginia's 46 NCAA NET Ranking is bolstered by a very strong schedule that includes six Quad 1 wins (five away from home) and 21 of its 31 regular season games versus Quad 1 and Quad 2 opponents, the most of any Big 12 team.

Of the teams currently on Lunardi's bubble, two of his last four teams in the tournament, Oklahoma and Ohio State, both have six Quad 1 wins and the only bubble team approaching that number is Texas with its five Quad 1 victories. 
Just Dayton has at least three Quad 1 wins among the remaining bubble teams.

Wednesday's game will tip off at 3 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+ (Jon Sciambi, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden).

Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn begins at 2 p.m. ET on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.

Wednesday's winner will face Big 12 regular season champion and top-seeded Houston on Thursday afternoon at 3 p.m.