MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia, on the strength of winning 16 of its last 17 games, entered the AP women’s basketball poll at No. 18 on Monday.
The Mountaineers’ first appearance in the rankings comes after last Wednesday’s 73-59 upset at then-No. 13 Iowa State. Mike Carey joked following the victory in Ames that maybe it’s advantageous for his team not to be ranked.
“We won 13 in a row and couldn’t get top 25, and then we go beat Oklahoma state and can’t get top 25. Lose to Baylor, which was No. 6 at the time, and then come here and beat the No. 13 team and probably still won’t get top 25,” he said. “Hopefully some people start taking notice that we’re pretty good, and that the Big 12’s pretty good. It’s not like we’re playing bad teams.”
West Virginia (16-2, 5-1 Big 12) also defeated Oklahoma 77-63 at home Saturday, pulling into a first-place tie with Oklahoma State atop the conference.
The Mountaineers play two league games on the road this week, visiting Texas Tech on Wednesday before facing Texas on Saturday.