Bracketology 2023: Pittsburgh, West Virginia among Wednesday's winners

Bracketology 2023: Pittsburgh, West Virginia among Wednesday’s biggest winners

Jan 21, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers guard Nelly Cummings (0) brings the ball up court against the Florida State Seminoles during the second half at the Petersen Events Center. The Seminoles won 71-64. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports /

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West Virginia super-senior Kedrian Johnson /

West Virginia Mountaineers

The theme of West Virginia’s season has been the question of how many losses can they get in the regular season. Because the magic number is 15. No team has even gotten an at-large bid with 16 and midway through the Big 12 season, they looked to be on their way to 15.

However, the Mountaineers won 3 of its final 4 games of the regular season to remain at 13. Those victories included at Iowa State and against Kansas State, two Quad 1 wins that enhanced an already impressive resume. The metrics for this team are elite everywhere else, including a top-25 NET ranking and six Quad 1 wins.

WVU got another Quad 2 win on Wednesday, beating Texas Tech in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. The final score was 78-62, led by 20 points from Kedrian Johnson. A loss wouldn’t have put the Red Raiders on the cutline but losing to a team that didn’t have its head coach would’ve been a very bad look and potentially have them in the Dayton (First 4) range.

It didn’t look pretty for the Mountaineers at times but thanks to some heroic efforts from Erik Stevenson, they managed to get enough wins in Big 12 play to have an NCAA Tournament-caliber resume. A win over top-seed Kansas in the quarterfinals could have them propelled to an 8-seed on Thursday now.

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