Congratulations (I guess) to the West Virginia Slugfesteers

Congratulations for Huggie-Bear and the West Virgina Defendeers for making it to the Final Four. Coincidence perhaps, but the last time West Virginia made the Final Four in the 50s, they also had a West in their line-up!

Statistically this was an impossible game for Kentucky to win, it's one thing to have a bad free throw day, it's another to have both a bad free-throw and a bad three-point day.

Needless to say, we hope Baylor beats Duke tomorrow, but if Duke makes it to the Final Four, we will be heavily supporting anyone-but-Duke.

Bob Thuggins outpunks the Pitt Slugfestors

"Take that", Bob Huggins fans would say to his critics. He took over a "wine and cheese" team in the Big East and he has managed to make the most out of their talent level. And not only that, he managed to stone and dethrone the Pitt Panthers, the team that terrorized everyone in the Big East.

Granted, his team lost to them twice during the regular season, but this was a single-elimination game, and the Pitt Panthers were simply not competitive. And it just goes to show, that when they are not allowed to out-muscle the other team, and they have to beat them purely with basketball plays, well, Pitt is just not that good.

Another group of fans celebrating the result of this game, for a different reason, are PitinoVille fans. Pitt bounced the Cardinals out of the Big East tournament that last few years, so without Pitt in the way, the sky is the limit for Louisville ;-)

Louisville at West Virginia

The "ESPN All Stars" were there for the last regular season "Gameday". Jerry West was there. Senior Night was there. The Big East regular season championship was there. Disappointment was there too though, as Louisville managed to hold on and hold off and keep the Mountaineers just far enough away for them to win the game.

Sadly for senior Alex Ruoff this was the worse type of a senior night, one that you would only wish upon a Dookie and no one else :(

T-Will willed Louisville into the game in the first half, with critical three-pointers and dunks. However, the Cardinals showed why they will likely not make it to the Final Four. Inside game is suspect on offense, the perimeter is too three-point-heavy, point-guard play is just not Final-Four caliber, and things like that. But when you have a super-versatile player like T-Will, and a pure-talent that randomly turns on and off in Earl Clark.

West Virginia, which we are for ever in debt to for beating Duke in the 2008 NCAA tournament, has a good chance of making it in the second round of the NCAAs assuming they can get a favorable matchup. Likewise, they could sneak into the Sweet-16 if the opponent is right.

Sweet 16 Preview and Predictions, Day 1

You can get a two hour preview of the NCAA Tourney games on CSTV, today at 2pm pacific (5pm eastern), but you can also get a preview right here. For all the TV stuff, be sure to check our March Madness TV listings.


West Virginia vs Xavier
The first wave of games tips off with a good old rivarly, Bob Huggins vs Xavier. As you may recall, Huggins was the head coach at Cincy, and they had an annual intense rivarly game every year. We now love West Virginia even more, after they beat up the Dookies, and we are planning a blogging celebration for them later today :) And because of that we want West Virgina to win and move along. But Xavier, just like Texas, is one of those crazy teams that can beat anyone and can lose to almost anyone. They already showed early tournament onions by making comebacks against Georgia and Purdue.

But ultimately we think the combination of outside shooting, Joe Alexander, and Bob Huggins toughness will get the Threepointers over the top and send the Musketeers home. And the X-men will have to worry some more, as their head coach may be poached by one of the BCS schools. Indiana is not the only major program looking for a head coach, and the impressive success of Herb Sendek at Arizona State may tempt other Pac-10 schools to go after one of his former assistants. We are talking potentially Oregon, California or USC. But let's leave that for the coaching carousel discussion :)


North Carolina vs Washington State
In the other game, North Carolina will face Washington State. This is the ultimate contrast in style, although the young singer is not a ...dick like his dad, he lets his team run when they have the advantage. We've said all along that Washington State, just like Wisconsin, are operating in a narrow band. They usually beat the teams they are supposed to beat, and lose to the teams they are supposed to lose to.

If you don't think so, be sure to check Washington State's record, courtesy of Ken Pom RPI. They are 0-5 against Sweet 16 teams (UCLA, Stanford), but they beat up NCAA teams that lost in the first week (Baylor, Zags, USC, Oregon). Arizona is an exception because when they had their full complement they were playing like a Sweet 16 team. But injuries and such derailed them. But that's a story for another day.

Ultimately we think that UNC will overmatch Wazoo. Derrick Low may give them some headaches, as neither Lawson or Q are ideally suited to guard him. Kyle Weaver on the other hand will have his hands full having to deal with Ellington on defense and Ginyard and Green on offense. Hansbrough will probably be limited by the Wazoo interior play and defensive scheme, but the combination of Lawson and Green/Ellington, and possibly Deon Thompson's bank shots will be the difference.


Louisville vs Tennessee
This is a game we have a hard time getting a read on. Both teams are deep, both press and run and gun. We would have preferred that this was a Final Four game instead of a Sweet 16 game.

But let's consider Tennessee's history in the NCAA tourney in the Bruce Pearl era and Pitino's history. That does not look favorable for Tennessee, but one could have easily made the same argument for Texas A&M vs Louisville last year at Rupp Arena, and Billy Clyde Gillispie pulled out a tough win at his future home court beating Pitino on his former home court. Or to use Pitino-speak, his former home cot :)

But there's something else that goes against Tennessee: Consider how they did not only in past NCAA tourneys under Bruce Pearl, but also in other tourneys. This year they got blown out by Texas in a pre-season tourney in New Jersey. Last year they lost to Butler in the pre-season NIT. They haven't done well in the SEC tourney either.

Obviously the three point shot can be a determining factor and if there is a big difference in the shots made, we think that the team with that advantage will probably win the game.

Other than Lofton - if he is having a wild shooting game - we don't see any potential matchup advantages for the Vols.

Ultimately we think that Padgett and T-Will will be able to make up for the potential shortcomings of the Cardinals guards crumbling under the Vols pressure, and Derrick Caracter and Earl Clark will be too much for the Vols big men to handle. Louisville will win, we predict, but it could be a very close game.


Western Kentucky vs UCLA
We badly want Western Kentucky to win, but we are afraid that UCLA will be too much. Duke West has been getting a series of "friendly" calls by the zebras, not just the highly visible controversial calls, but also the multiple fouls per possession the UCLA wrestling-forwards commit on screens on offense and double teams on defense.

We have enough material now to convict Ben Howland of ruining the game of basketball. You have two of the fastest guards in the country in Collison and Westbrook, and the most smartest (LOL) big man in Kevin Love, and yet you try to win the games in a slugfest, the same way a desperate low-major coach of a 300+ RRI team is clinging on to dear life. For crimes against basketball, Ben Howland, you have been convicted to lose in the Elite 8, and never make it to the Final Four again :)


Friday's Games
We will be posting our preview and predictions for the four day two games later today! Update! The time is Later! Here is the preview and predictions for day two of the Sweet 16 (Friday).

Bubble face-off: Arizona vs West Virginia

Let's take two teams with contrasting records and square them off in this Bubble Face-Off. In the left corner Arizona and its KenPom RPI record. In the right corner, West Virginia and its KenPOM RPI record.

	Arizona	West Virginia
Record	17-13	22-9
Overall SOS	2	55
Overall RPI	29	32
Best Wins	@USC, Washington State (twice)	@Providence, Marquette, Pitt
Best Losses	@Kansas (OT), @Memphis	Tennessee (N), Oklahoma (2OT)
OOC SOS/RPI	7/5	134/39
Top 50	5-7	3-7
Top 100+	7-2	15-1 (cupcake city!)

Georgetown at West Virginia

If Wiki needed an example of a Big East slugfest game, I have this to nominate! But don't let the slugfest fool you, this was a hard fought game.

And this is a game that showcased why I have Georgetown in such a high regard. They play down to the competition, but after the last TV time-out, the cape is off, and the Super-Hoyas emerge: Super-Hoya Jessie Sapp hit an "onions" three, and Super-Hoya's son Patrick Ewing blocked a potentially game winning shot by the Hugginseers to seal and steal a conference road game.

Huggins should be in consideration for Coach of the Year. If anyone needed any evidence that Bog Thuggins belongs to the Basketball Hall of Fame, his work at West Virginia is a great example. You have to be a great basketball coach to be able to take a team designed to play Beilein-ball and turn it into the best it can be.

Roy Hibbert is a breath of fresh air in that he's a very unconventional seven footer with basketball skills. One possession he looks like a lumbering seven footer, in another possession he looks like he understands the game as if he was a fifty year old ball coach.

West Virginia at Louisville

Pitino vs Huggins! 500 vs 600! A former Conference USA rivarly! Did the game live up to its billing? Nope! Did defense win? Yes, the buckets were not easy to make. Did anyone get injured from Louisville? Nope!

This was an almost must-win game for Louisville and a nice-to-have road win for Cincy West Virginia.

But Louisville had a rather comfortable night against the "Beileineers", with a four-pack of servicable forwards at Pitino's disposal. And it was indeed the two coming off the bench (Padget and Earl Clark) who had the biggest impact on the game. T-Will did good without scoring, and Edgar Sosa made it clear that Pitino needs to recruit point guards for 2008-2009 and beyond.

Despite the Huggins-bias from the ESPN play by play guy, Huggins was caught by the cameras smiling and laughing at the zebras multiple times. Silly play by play clones! Stop repeating non-sensically whatever crapola you remember from watching Sportscenter ;-)

And speaking of crapola, will someone please teach ESPN's Karl Ravech how to count the commercial breaks during the half time show so he can actually tell when the second half is about to start and when they are coming back for another half-time show segment. It's really not that hard to count: Let's teach Karl: One, Two, Three!

As you can see there's not much to say about the game! :)

West Virginia vs Auburn

FireJeffLebo.com? Does that website exist? :) Not because they were blown out, but four years into his tenure and he still has trouble filling up his roster and he is still playing small ball - not by choice. His team was playing a home-neutral game, just two hours away from home, "hosting" Bob Thuggins and the Beilein Offenders who became Defenders after Huggins stumbled into town.

West Virginia grabbed the reigns (no horses hurt during this phrase) and never looked back. It looked like a glorified Thugineers practice, with all sorts of dunks, three pointers, back-cuts, back-doors, open-doors in the key, and such. Joe Alexander stole the show with his versatility (please don't mention that Woody H. movie) and Alex Ruoff with his "shootability".

It is amazing when you stop and think at what Bob Huggins was able to do in just two seasons. He single-handedly brought back Kansas State back to life, he recruited potentially the #1 NBA Draft pick (okay, he recruited Delonte Hill who brought Beasley with him), and he made them relevant. Then he takes off, takes over Beilein-ball, a team that plays about as diametrically opposed to Thuggins-ball as possible, he turns them into rebounders and defenders, and he is able to adapt and use the Beilein offense principles.

If you set aside the off-court issues, can you not make a case for Bob Huggins at least in the College Basketball Hall of Fame?

More on this game from the Mountaineer Sports Network and Razorback network.

PS> I forgot to mention that some of Jimmy Dykes's comments on the Jimmy V event seemed a bit out of phase as if he was in a different dimension that last few years. Then again we are talking Dog and Pony show specialist Jimmy Dykes :)

Tennessee vs West Virginia

The second game of the StubHub Legends Classic on Versus with Dennis Miller sports "funnies" during the commercial breaks promised to be an exciting game, the fiery Bruce Pearl vs the fiery Bob Huggins! Wow, it looked good on paper! But the games are not played on paper. So it was quite disappointing that the first 30 minutes of the game were a whistlefest instead. But...

... the last ten minutes made up for it a bit, with a more open and exciting game developing. In that game we saw a hybrid Huggins, with trademark John Beilein backdoors, three point showers, and 1-3-1 zone being employed. It will be interesting to see how long Huggins can stay with his players shooting threes like there's no tomorrow. There is certainly talent on the team, but how fast can Beilein-ball become Huggins-ball, and how well can Huggins and his players adapt to a temporary hybrid style of play? I must confess that I was impressed with how they handle it in this game, although obviously they didn't get the W, but they gave the Vols all they could handle. And who knows, he may like it and adapt it into his system! (*cough* *cough*)

While there was no Dane Bradshaw (author of Vertical Leap: Inside the Rise of Tennessee Basketball), Bruce Pearl has waves and waves of players to come off the bench, including his own son, and the now slimmer 7-footer Brian Williams (not of NBC News). Obviously Lofton is the star who appears to be going through a slump (for his standards/expectations), just like Ramar Smith. Of couse part of the "slump" is the clueless play by play and highlight announcers who think a player's performance is judged by looking at the box score and if it's under 20 points for a star, well, he must be struggling.



With so many cable, satellite and internet outlets broadcasting college basketball games, it must be a bull market for basketball analysts. Which perhaps explains why Versus picked former Ohio State coach Jim O'Brien as the basketball analyst for the Legends Classic.