MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia secured somewhat of a statement win Saturday, as the Mountaineers pummeled visiting Oklahoma by 32 points. While the Sooners are struggling, very few games in the Big 12 Conference have been decided by that wide a margin this year.
Following WVU’s dominant victory over Oklahoma, West Virginia (14-9, 3-7 Big 12) received voting consideration for the AP Top 25 for the second-straight week. Bob Huggins’ group received five votes in the latest poll.
Six Big 12 teams appear in the Top 20 of the ranking. WVU is the only team in the conference outside of the AP Poll that received votes this week.
Despite the 3-7 record in conference play, the computers are still in favor of the Mountaineers.
West Virginia currently sits 14th in the KenPom ratings, three spots above nationally ranked TCU, and five spots ahead of Wednesday’s opponent No. 11 Iowa State. The Mountaineers have the fourth-highest KenPom rating of any team in the Big 12.
WVU is ranked 20th in the latest NET Rankings. The Mountaineers were inside the Top 10 in the metric earlier this year, but have kept a strong footing in the NET all year long. West Virginia has the sixth-best NET placement among Big 12 teams, and is currently eight spots below the Cyclones.
According to the NET, all nine of WVU’s losses this season have come against Quad 1 opponents. WVU has five Quad 1 wins, and is 9-0 against Quad 2-4 teams.
The Mountaineers also rank 20th in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index (BPI). West Virginia has moved up five spots in the metric following its win over Oklahoma. ESPN’s BPI shows that, as of Monday, WVU has the seventh-hardest remaining schedule of any team in the country.
Six of West Virginia’s final eight games will be played against teams currently ranked inside the AP Top 25.
West Virginia was among the “Last Four In” teams in Joe Lunardi’s NCAA Tournament Bracketology projections on Friday. He will release new projections this week.