West Virginia’s terrible March Madness snub makes even less sense after NCAA’s explanation

West Virginia men’s basketball’s season was a story of persevering through adversity. The Mountaineers’ bottomed out last year after the sudden resignation of head coach Bob Huggins following a DUI arrest. West Virginia struggled through a season that saw them finish 4-14 in the Big 12 and 9-23 overall. They headed into the offseason knowing they needed a new head coach and a totally new roster.

West Virginia landed on Drake coach Darren DeVries, and he immediately brought a star player with him in his son Tucker DeVries. The Mountaineers’ transfer portal haul kept coming, and it included Oklahoma State guard Javon Small, Illinois big Amani Hansberry, Washington State guard Joseph Yesufu, and UIC big Toby Okani, among others.

West Virginia looked really good at the start of the season, ratting off neutral floor wins over Gonzaga and Arizona. Sadly, Tucker DeVries went down with a season-ending injury in late Nov. After missing their best player for a few weeks, the Mountaineers somehow did what was once impossible and went into Kansas and defeated the Jayhawks at Phog Allen Fieldhouse.

WVU was only average for the rest of conference play after that, earning a great win over Iowa State at home, dropping a couple winnable games, and finishing conference play with a 10-10 record. Even after dropping their Big 12 tournament opener to a bad Colorado team, West Virginia felt like a safe bet to make the NCAA tournament field as an at-large team.

It didn’t happen. The Mountaineers were shockingly left off the bracket, and are largely considered the 2025 men’s NCAA tournament’s biggest snub. North Carolina got into the tournament with an even worse resume, and none of it makes any sense until you remember UNC AD Bubba Cunningham is a chair on the NCAA selection committee.

Every single bracketologist had West Virginia in the field, according to the Bracket Matrix.

Cunningham’s explanation for why West Virginia was left out makes the decision even more unsatisfying. Cunningham cited DeVries’ injury as the reason the Mountaineers were left off the bracket, which is wild considering it happened in Nov. West Virginia beat Kansas on the road and Iowa State at home without DeVries, which is better than anything UNC did this year.

Too bad WVU’s AD isn’t on the Selection Committee, or there might have been a different outcome. Listen to Cunningham’s comments on why the Mountaineers were left off here.

There’s a lot of talk lately about expanding the NCAA tournament from 68 teams. This is a terrible idea! The NCAA tournament is almost perfect, and there’s only one way to make it better.

Let’s replace the selection committee with a team of dedicated bracketologist. That way, no one has a financial interest in setting the bracket. We don’t need more teams in the NCAA tournament. We need a better selection committee. West Virginia getting left out is proof of that.