Well, WVU basketball is finally in that dreaded territory they’ve been able to avoid most of the season. West Virginia is now firmly on the bubble.

On Friday, Joe Lunardi released his latest update for his protected NCAA Tournament field and finally placed the Mountaineers on the bubble. Lunardi now has WVU among his “Last Four Byes” with the likes of Oklahoma, Vanderbilt and Texas. This comes after having West Virginia as a No. 9 seed prior to Tuesday’s 73-69 home loss to BYU.

West Virginia can no longer feel comfortable when it comes to making the NCAA Tournament. WVU currently sits at 15-9 (6-7, Big 12) and has failed to win back-to-back games since early January.

But WVU’s case is also an interesting one. On one hand, the Mountaineers have remained off the bubble and firmly inside the tournament picture for months, appearing most recently as a No. 9 seed in the East hours before tip-off against BYU, a team who entered the game on the bubble. The bad losses have yet to cancel out the big wins to this point, granted have moved them further down seed line wise. But obviously, that can’t last forever if this team continues its current slide.

WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose

It’s also worth noting, few teams on the bubble have a resume like West Virginia. WVU has three top 10 wins and four ranked wins on their resume. Those victories just can’t be denied and still may likely bump them in if the committee is deciding between a bubble team or West Virginia. WVU did also pick up two of those three top 10 wins without Tucker DeVries, who was officially designated as out for the season last week even though he hasn’t played since Dec. 10.

So while the bad losses may catch up to WVU and certainly are reason for serious concern, it’s still possible national projection experts like Joe Lunardi keep Darian DeVries’ team as part of the NCAA Tournament field. At the very least, it would make sense to place the Mountaineers on the bubble before taking them out all together.

With all of that said, WVU still likely needs a few more wins at minimum to get in, and it’s clear no matchup guarantees a win for this team the way they have been playing in recent weeks.

For a related story, vote in our poll on if WVU basketball will end up making the NCAA Tournament.