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How Does Arizona State Loss Impact WVU? Updated Look at the NCAA NET Rankings

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Jan 22, 2025 10:29 AM ET

Bumps in the road happen in college basketball. You're rarely going to go through an entire season avoiding the "bad loss," and on Tuesday night, West Virginia collected its first of the kind, falling to Arizona State 65-57.

Thankfully for Darian DeVries, the Mountaineers already have four ranked wins under the belt, including three over top-10 opponents, two of whom were ranked inside the top three. That's why a loss to a team like Arizona State, which was ranked 64th in the NCAA's NET Rankings coming into the game, doesn't hurt them nearly as bad when you have the resume WVU has.

Following the loss, West Virginia dropped from 30th to 36th in the NET. The selection committee uses a number of different things to construct the tournament teams and seeding, but if this provides a good ballpark as to where a team could be seeded come March. With there being sixteen teams in four regions, this puts the Mountaineers in the range of an eight or nine seed.

With thirteen games remaining in conference play and the Big 12 conference tournament, WVU will have plenty of opportunities to continue stacking quality wins, particularly Quad I wins. That said, they can't afford to have many results like last night where they come out on the wrong side versus a team that is unlikely to make the 68-team field.

This Saturday, West Virginia will make the trip to the Little Apple to take on Kansas State, who is currently 7-10 on the year. The Wildcats play Baylor tonight in Waco, and there's a good chance they fall to 7-11. Regardless of what they do tonight, WVU is going to be facing a group that's desperate to win. If they come out flat again, they will have completely wasted this "break" in the schedule and enter its matchup with Houston at 13-6 (4-4) instead of a 15-4 (6-2) mark.