MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — During the 48 hours since Stephen F. Austin surfaced as the first-round opponent, West Virginia has heard about the Lumberjacks’ extensive winning streak and their upset potential.
“You’re gonna hear it regardless,” said guard Tarik Phillips. “We just have to use it as motivation.”
The media members projecting West Virginia into the Elite Eight deserve equal time, but the Mountaineers have a blind-spot for flattery. They’ve ridden the disrespect wave—some of it actual, some contrived—to a No. 3 seed, the program’s second-highest since the NCAA began designating seeds.
West Virginia (26-8) vs. Stephen F. Austin (27-5)
• NCAA tournament first round
• Friday, 7 p.m., CBS
• Barclays Center, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Nobody likes us but the people in this state and the alumni,” said forward Devin Williams. “We’re always getting the short end of the stick.”
Within this year’s bracket, Stephen F. Austin could be the team claiming disrespect. After 20 consecutive wins and a perfect run through the Southland Conference, the Lumberjacks were dealt a 14th seed, two spots lower than the past two seasons when they also scorched through their league.
Among the lower-RPI teams seeded above SFA are Syracuse (10), Northern Iowa (11), Hawaii (13) and Iona (13). Even within the cluster of 14 seeds, the Lumberjacks were positioned lowest despite having the strongest profile.
“This is our best team we’ve had in three years,” said coach Brad Underwood. “I’m disappointed in our seed, I thought we should be higher than that. But I realize we didn’t have a real strong leg to stand on from the nonconference.”
Four times in the nonleague portion SFA played top-100 opponents and four times it lost, including a particularly thorough 97-55 beating at Baylor. Plus there was the biggest outlier of all—a 60-59 neutral-court loss to Tulane, which finished 12-22 with a 230 RPI.
Still, Underwood’s team hasn’t been beaten in 78 days, and only twice has it won by fewer than 11 points. Defensively, they overplay the passing lanes in the halfcourt and extend a full-court zone press. It doesn’t approach the hyper-frenzied trapping style of Press Virginia, yet Stephen F. Austin actually forces more turnovers.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of turning them over than they turn us over,” said Phillip. “We can’t let them throw the first punch.”