There were concerns about the postseason fate of West Virginia’s women’s basketball team after its last-second 62-61 loss to Oklahoma State in a quarterfinal round matchup in last week’s Big 12 Conference Tournament.
All of that went away on Sunday night when the Mountaineers (19-11) saw their name included in the NCAA Tournament field as the No. 10 seed in the Greenville 1 Region. That allows for a first-round matchup against No. 7 seed Arizona in a game that’ll air on ESPN and tip at noon Friday inside the XFINITY Center in College Park, Md.
WVU head coach Dawn Plitzuweit sees this as a good test for her team, and she knows Arizona (21-9) will be hungry with a chance to rewrite the story for the end of its season after losing three straight.
“[Arizona] is good on both ends of the floor. They are efficient offensively,” Plitzuweit said. “They attack and shoot well. They have great size and defend at a high level by turning teams over and making life difficult around the rim.”
One of the Wildcats’ top contributors is former Mountaineer Esmery Martinez. She left WVU after head coach Mike Carey announced his retirement at the end of last season, and Martinez has played a vital role for the Wildcats. She leads the team in rebounds and is third in scoring.
“Her ability to rebound, her size and length. She can score it,” Pliezuweit said in regards to what stands out about Martinez. “She does a lot of things well. Overall, she is a competitive young lady and is a complete player. Esmery can can play in different positions and impact in different ways.”
Plitzuweit and her team felt they had pieced together a strong resume for the NCAA Tournament after finishing the regular season winners of three straight.
Still, at 60th in the latest women’s basketball NET rankings, seventh best among Big 12 teams, questions swirled as to whether the Mountaineers would be included in the NCAA Tournament field, particularly after letting potentially winnable games slip away at Texas Tech and then against the Cowgirls in the conference tournament.
“I believe our young ladies deserved to be in from before the Big 12 Tournament,” Plitzuweit said. “They earned that right for a team tied for fourth in the Big 12. You look at the quality of our wins and then compare our resumes to other teams on the bubble. All of it appears that we are in a good spot.”
Friday will mark the fourth time Plitzuweit, in her first season at WVU, has coached in the NCAA Tournament. She became the first West Virginia women’s coach to lead a team to this event during their first season.
“You have to be gritty, tough, and competitive,” Plitzuweit noted. “Ultimately, I think Arizona and our team are tough defensively. We both try to turn our opponents over and then push in transition. It will be a fun matchup. We talk about controlling what we can control — controlling the ball on one end and taking good shots. We need to work on getting offensive rebounds, which is not our strength. It is a strength of theirs. Defensively, we must make it uncomfortable, whatever that means, and we are still trying to figure that out.”
Last season, in what marked her final campaign at South Dakota, Plitzuweit helped guide the Coyotes to a third berth in the NCAA Tournament during her tenure, and they reached the Sweet 16, providing Plitzuweit with her first two victories in NCAA Tournament play.
It has not been a full year since Plitzuweit became the sixth WVU women’s head coach, and she’s grateful to see her squad in its coveted postseason event
“When you start at a new program, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Plitzuweit mentioned. “You are trying to learn the players and their tendencies. We can do things in practice all we want, but when the lights are on, then it is different. You know players are going to play comfortably, then how are we as coaches trying to modify what you do to who they are naturally?
“You don’t know their hunger, ability to fight through challenges, and how resilient they will be. We have learned all those things throughout the year and continued battling, progressing, and getting better.”
Senior guard Madisen Smith has been used in a more featured role this season, and she has thrived of late, averaging 24 points and shooting 56 percent over the last four games.
Now Smith gets the chance to finish a successful college career in the NCAA Tournament, though Plitzuweit hopes to see that career make it through this weekend.
“In Maddy’s scenario, she started the season in a different role than in the past, and she did a great job of accepting the challenge,” Plitzuweit said. “The challenging part is that when you are not a young lady that was a primary scorer in the past, then to become a primary scorer. You have to have that desire. When that player wants to have that responsibility, things can take off. I think she is someone from the beginning and has had that mentality throughout. We needed that from her to her credit, and she has brought that and played well.”
The winner of the matchup between the Mountaineers and Wildcats will advance to play the winner of No. 2 Maryland or No. 15 Holy Cross, which meet at 2:30 p.m. Friday. That game will be held Sunday.