MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If there was any suspense as to whether West Virginia would be included in the NCAA Tournament, it was removed early into Sunday’s selection show.
The Mountaineers, a No. 9 seed, were among the first teams announced in the field and will face No. 8 Maryland in a border battle at 12:15 p.m. Thursday at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala.
“They weren’t jumping up and down, but they’re excited,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “I never had any doubt that we would play in the tournament. I thought we were getting better and better.“
The winner of the matchup between West Virginia (19-14) and the Terrapins (21-12) will play again Saturday. That would likely be a second-round affair against top seed Alabama, which opens the NCAA Tournament against the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game between No. 16 seeds Southeastern Missouri State and Texas A&M Corpus-Christi.
West Virginia felt it was safely in the NCAA Tournament after wrapping up the regular season by defeating Kansas State for an 18th win, including its seventh in Big 12 Conference play. Having received a No. 9 seed, it appears that was the case.
“I’m good with it. We wanted to win more games, but we had some things happen,” Huggins said, before later adding, “we were a team capable of winning another five or six games.”
Thursday’s first-round affair between Maryland and West Virginia marks the first meeting between the two teams since the Mountaineers’ won a second-round NCAA Tournament matchup in 2015 in Columbus. West Virginia and Maryland last met in the regular season in December 2003, and the aforementioned two games mark the only times the two schools have battled since 1993.
The victory over the Terrapins in the most recent meeting came when West Virginia was known for its full court defensive pressure.
“As I recall, they struggled with our pressure,” Huggins said. “We probably shoot the ball better now than what that team did. It can’t have the ability to have that kind of pressure, but this team has gotten better and better defensively as the season has gone on.”
Maryland is under the direction of head coach Kevin Willard, who’s in his first season with the Terrapins after he held that title for the previous 12 at Seton Hall. Willard, who was also head coach at Iona for three seasons, led the Pirates to seven 20-plus win seasons and five NCAA Tournament berths.
In his first two seasons at Seton Hall, Willard went against West Virginia twice, losing the first matchup and winning the second.
This season marks the first in Maryland history that the Terrapins qualified for the NCAA Tournament with a first-year head coach.
Maryland was projected to finish 10th in the Big Ten, but earned the No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
“I haven’t watched them very much. I haven’t hardly watched them at all,” Huggins said. “I had too many other people to watch. I’ll have a much better idea here in a day or two.”
The Terrapins and Mountaineers share one common opponent — No. 1 seed Purdue. West Virginia lost to the Boilermakers in a neutral site matchup, while Maryland split two regular season meetings with the Big Ten champion, falling by three points on the road and winning by 14 at home.
Maryland won 16 of 17 home games this season, including all 10 within league play.
Six-foot-1 left-handed guard Jahmir Young leads Maryland with an average of 16.1 points. Hakim Hart, a 6-8 wing, follows at 11.5, while a pair of front court players — Donta Scott (11.5) and Julian Reese (11.2) — also averaging double-figure scoring.
Young’s 104 assists are a team high and Hart adds 84. Reese is the top rebounder with an average of 7.3, while his 38 blocks are a team best.
Having defeated UAB at Legacy Arena in December 2021, the Mountaineers have experience at the venue where they’ll face Maryland.
Seven Big 12 teams are in the NCAA Tournament. In addition to the Mountaineers, they are: Kansas, Texas, Kansas State, Baylor, Iowa State and TCU. Oklahoma State was the first team left out, preventing an eighth Big 12 team from being in.
The other No. 9 seeds are Auburn, Illinois and Florida Atlantic.
On West Virginia’s roster, only guards Kedrian Johnson and Joe Toussaint and forward Emmitt Matthews Jr. have past NCAA Tournament experience, and Toussaint’s came at Iowa. Thursday’s game will mark the first time the Mountaineers’ top two scorers, guard Erik Stevenson and forward Tre Mitchell, have played on this stage.
“We have a lot of guys that have played a lot of ball that have never played in the NCAA Tournament,” Huggins said. “Erik, because of the COVID year [when Stevenson was at Wichita State], is a guy who’s never played in the NCAA Tournament. To a large degree, that helped drive the charge we had toward the end of the year.”