Post by elp525 on Mar 13, 2011 9:34:11 GMT -5
March 12, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - A year ago, West Virginia entered the NCAA tournament on the highest of highs - fresh off the school's first-ever Big East championship, ranked No. 7 in the country and squarely on everyone's radar.
This season? Well, not so much.
The truth is, though, that's a product not of the way the Mountaineers have been playing of late, but how they played in just one game - Wednesday's 67-61 loss to Marquette in the second round of the Big East tournament.
On the whole, West Virginia appears to be entering the NCAA tournament playing as well as it has all season. No, the Mountaineers aren't up to what they were this time a year ago, but the fact is this team isn't as good as that one.
The question heading into the tournament that will be bracketed and announced today is how that most recent performance will affect WVU's seed and, more significantly, whether the Mountaineers can bounce back from it by the time the event begins around the country Thursday.
The first part will be known shortly after 6 p.m. when the brackets are revealed.
As for the second, well, it was just one game.
"I still feel we can beat anybody in the country,'' said junior guard Truck Bryant. "But we have to play the way we can play.''
The fact of the matter is that over the course of the past three weeks West Virginia played as well as it played all season. Beginning on Feb. 19, the Mountaineers went 4-1 to finish the regular season, starting with a 72-58 win over now-No. 4 Notre Dame, the only loss the Irish suffered in 13 games between Jan. 16 and Friday night's overtime loss to Louisville in the Big East tourney semifinals.
After a loss at No. 3 Pitt, West Virginia won on the road at Rutgers, then beat No. 21 Connecticut and No. 14 Louisville back to back. The Cardinals had won four in a row and had just beaten Pitt. The Huskies were about to go on their unprecedented run (four wins in four days) into Saturday night's Big East finals.
So, to recap, at the end of the regular season WVU beat a potential No. 1 or 2 seed (Notre Dame) and both of the Big East tournament finalists (Louisville and UConn).
Yes, the loss to Marquette took away some of that luster, but does it dramatically alter where this team stands going into the NCAA tournament?
"By the time we play again, [the Marquette loss] will definitely be out of our system,'' forward Cam Thoroughman said. "It doesn't change anything except that it lets us know again that we have to play every single day, every single play.
"We can still do the same things. I'm still very confident in this team.''
How the loss to Marquette will play with the tournament selection committee is, of course, anyone's guess. According to the so-called bracket experts, West Virginia had climbed as high as a No. 4 or 5 seed with the big push at the end of the regular season. Those same experts now generally have the Mountaineers as a No. 6 or 7 seed.
WVU's RPI slipped a few notches with the loss, but by the time all the games are completed today West Virginia will still be in the Top 25 and perhaps inside the Top 20.
Heading into Saturday night's games, two of the foremost predictors of the tournament field had widely varied forecasts for West Virginia, playing as a No. 6 or 7 seed and against different teams in different regions.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi had WVU playing St. Mary's in Tampa, Fla., with a potential second-round matchup against No. 3 seed Florida. That was in the West Regional, where he had Notre Dame and Texas as the top two seeds.
Jerry Palm, meanwhile, had a WVU-Gonzaga matchup in Tucson, Ariz., with a potential second-round game against No. 2 seed San Diego State. That was also in the West Regional, where he also had Notre Dame as the top seed.
But just a word of warning: Even those predictions changed dramatically during the day on Saturday. By 6 p.m. today West Virginia could be anywhere from a No. 5 to a No. 8 seed playing in any of the eight first-round sites and in any of the four regions.
The four NCAA regionals this year are in Newark, N.J. (East), New Orleans (Southeast), San Antonio (Southwest) and Anaheim, Calif. (West). For West Virginia, the closest first- and second-round sites are in Cleveland, Washington and Charlotte, N.C. The other early sites are Tampa, Chicago, Denver, Tulsa, Okla., and Tucson.
The games in Washington, Tampa, Denver and Tucson are Thursday-Saturday games. The others are Friday-Sunday matchups.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - A year ago, West Virginia entered the NCAA tournament on the highest of highs - fresh off the school's first-ever Big East championship, ranked No. 7 in the country and squarely on everyone's radar.
This season? Well, not so much.
The truth is, though, that's a product not of the way the Mountaineers have been playing of late, but how they played in just one game - Wednesday's 67-61 loss to Marquette in the second round of the Big East tournament.
On the whole, West Virginia appears to be entering the NCAA tournament playing as well as it has all season. No, the Mountaineers aren't up to what they were this time a year ago, but the fact is this team isn't as good as that one.
The question heading into the tournament that will be bracketed and announced today is how that most recent performance will affect WVU's seed and, more significantly, whether the Mountaineers can bounce back from it by the time the event begins around the country Thursday.
The first part will be known shortly after 6 p.m. when the brackets are revealed.
As for the second, well, it was just one game.
"I still feel we can beat anybody in the country,'' said junior guard Truck Bryant. "But we have to play the way we can play.''
The fact of the matter is that over the course of the past three weeks West Virginia played as well as it played all season. Beginning on Feb. 19, the Mountaineers went 4-1 to finish the regular season, starting with a 72-58 win over now-No. 4 Notre Dame, the only loss the Irish suffered in 13 games between Jan. 16 and Friday night's overtime loss to Louisville in the Big East tourney semifinals.
After a loss at No. 3 Pitt, West Virginia won on the road at Rutgers, then beat No. 21 Connecticut and No. 14 Louisville back to back. The Cardinals had won four in a row and had just beaten Pitt. The Huskies were about to go on their unprecedented run (four wins in four days) into Saturday night's Big East finals.
So, to recap, at the end of the regular season WVU beat a potential No. 1 or 2 seed (Notre Dame) and both of the Big East tournament finalists (Louisville and UConn).
Yes, the loss to Marquette took away some of that luster, but does it dramatically alter where this team stands going into the NCAA tournament?
"By the time we play again, [the Marquette loss] will definitely be out of our system,'' forward Cam Thoroughman said. "It doesn't change anything except that it lets us know again that we have to play every single day, every single play.
"We can still do the same things. I'm still very confident in this team.''
How the loss to Marquette will play with the tournament selection committee is, of course, anyone's guess. According to the so-called bracket experts, West Virginia had climbed as high as a No. 4 or 5 seed with the big push at the end of the regular season. Those same experts now generally have the Mountaineers as a No. 6 or 7 seed.
WVU's RPI slipped a few notches with the loss, but by the time all the games are completed today West Virginia will still be in the Top 25 and perhaps inside the Top 20.
Heading into Saturday night's games, two of the foremost predictors of the tournament field had widely varied forecasts for West Virginia, playing as a No. 6 or 7 seed and against different teams in different regions.
ESPN's Joe Lunardi had WVU playing St. Mary's in Tampa, Fla., with a potential second-round matchup against No. 3 seed Florida. That was in the West Regional, where he had Notre Dame and Texas as the top two seeds.
Jerry Palm, meanwhile, had a WVU-Gonzaga matchup in Tucson, Ariz., with a potential second-round game against No. 2 seed San Diego State. That was also in the West Regional, where he also had Notre Dame as the top seed.
But just a word of warning: Even those predictions changed dramatically during the day on Saturday. By 6 p.m. today West Virginia could be anywhere from a No. 5 to a No. 8 seed playing in any of the eight first-round sites and in any of the four regions.
The four NCAA regionals this year are in Newark, N.J. (East), New Orleans (Southeast), San Antonio (Southwest) and Anaheim, Calif. (West). For West Virginia, the closest first- and second-round sites are in Cleveland, Washington and Charlotte, N.C. The other early sites are Tampa, Chicago, Denver, Tulsa, Okla., and Tucson.
The games in Washington, Tampa, Denver and Tucson are Thursday-Saturday games. The others are Friday-Sunday matchups.
