Stevenson Weighs In On Big 12’s Strength
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MORGANTOWN -- The business at hand is tough enough in the Big 12, especially for West Virginia as it gets down its final five regular season games needing to at least win two of three home games to have a chance to reach the NCAA Tournament.
It isn't that the Mountaineers aren't a team as talented as most of the teams who will make the tournament, it's just that they have wound up being the wrong team in the wrong place … the wrong place being in the Big 12, which is a meat grinder of a conference that is unmatched in America.
The subject of strength of conferences came up while talking with the Mountaineers' always-interesting guard, Erik Stevenson, about Saturday's noon meeting at the Coliseum with Texas Tech.
Stevenson noted that he would be interested to see the Big 12 next season after four new schools enter.
"I think some coming in here are going to want to go back to their old leagues," Stevenson said.
Coming in, of course, are Houston, Cincinnati, Central Florida and BYU.
Houston right now is one of the nation's top two or three teams, and Stevenson says he believes "they will compete for sure" but that the other schools might be taking off a bigger bite than they can swallow.
It was brought up to Stevenson that it really wasn't surprising that the last-place team in the Big 12, Oklahoma, beat the No. 1 team in the nation, Alabama, by 24 points on the Tide's home floor two weeks ago.
"It doesn't surprise me because I played against the last-place team in this league," Stevenson said. "This league is legit."
That seemed to light the fuse for Stevenson, who talks in the same manner in which he plays it, full speed ahead.
"Take Pitt," he continued. "They're leading the ACC right now. We'd go in the ACC and win it by five games."
That is not an idle boast.
WVU went to Pitt for the second game of this season and blew the Panthers out by 25 points on their home floor.
"There's no question about it," Stevenson said. "There's nobody in their league that could play in our league."
That obviously is a strong statement, but it may not be an exaggeration. There is only one ACC team in the Top 10, and that is Virginia. Miami is the only other ACC team in the Top 20.
Pitt? The league leader isn't in the top 25, instead listed among those also getting votes, so even Virginia's schedule has to be suspect compared to schools in the Big 12, which has three top-10 teams and six top-25 teams.
Whether WVU would be five games in front may be arguable, but there is no arguing that the Big 12 rules college basketball at the moment.
"It's just crazy, you take Texas Tech, us, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and we'd probably be in the top four in any other league," Stevenson went on, stopping for a moment to think and then adding, other than maybe the SEC. "The SEC is top-heavy. The Big Ten is top-heavy, too, but those teams would probably be in the top half."
The shame of it is that WVU isn't in those leagues and it hasn't really had a chance to gel as it should against such high-level competition, being a team made up of newcomers who needed more of an adjustment period.
"It's been fun," Stevenson said. "I wish personally and as a team we all were clicking at the same time just to see how good we could be."
Stevenson hopes they can grasp onto that as they play Texas Tech and Oklahoma State at home, go to Kansas and Iowa State -- two top-25 road games -- and then finish at home against Kansas State.
"It's not over," Stevenson said. "We've got a couple of games we have to win at home. Then we get into the dance, and once you get into the dance, you have a number next to your name (a seed). The record goes out the window then."
Stevenson has believed all year that this team was better than it played, and that has not rubbed off, even if the Mountaineers are now 15-11 and still have work to do to qualify for the NCAAs, an experience he's never had in his long collegiate career.
"I've been saying to a couple of guys on the team, I just hope we get in the tournament and play someone who is not in our league," Stevenson said. "We've played pretty well against teams not in our league. I feel really confident about us playing any team in any other league just because the style of play is different.
"Like I said, the Big 12 is just one of those leagues."
There is, of course, more to the Big 12's prominence than just the coaching factor that Stevenson mentioned and that coach Bob Huggins always refers to.
The Big 12 has talent and a physical style of play that intimidates other conferences' teams.
"Comparing it to the SEC, which in my opinion is probably the second-most skilled and athletic league, the SEC is just full of athletes. It's above the rim, it's fast, it's up and down. I wouldn't say it's the most skilled league. The Big 12 is. The Big 12 has athletes, shooters, skill guys, and if you put all that all together with a coach that knows how to coach … there's all types of talent in this league and athleticism and brains and guys with an ability to win and home environments."