College Basketball Stats by StatSheet.com

Students, if you’re reading this, you should be heading out to the Coliseum right now and waiting for hours to get that coveted lower-level seat. That area will be the best seat in the house as the West Virginia Mountaineers are in yet another MUST-WIN battle. This time it will be in front of a nationwide ESPN Big Monday audience. The 175th meeting of the BBall Backyard Brawl will take place in front of a packed Gold Rush crowd at the WVU Coliseum. The tipoff is at 7pmE.

Instead of wasting this space to describe the last Backyard Brawl at the Pete let me tell you what is at stake tonight. According to realtimerpi.com, the Mountaineers are ranked 42nd. They went down seven spots after the defeat against UCONN. We cannot afford another loss like that especially to Pitt. If the Mountaineers win tonight their RPI may jump back up to the mid- to even low-30s. Who knows? Coach Huggs, the self-proclaimed RPI guru, states that WVU will need to win two more games to lock up an NCAA berth. If WVU beats Pitt, followed by a win over St. John’s at MSG on Saturday, this would give the Mountaineers 21 Division I wins with an 11-7 conference record. With the Cuse and Nova longshots to make the Big Dance, West Virginia will have a good enough resume to be in the Field of 65.

Also, if Marquette loses to the Cuse on Saturday, the Mountaineers would be the fifth seed in the Big East Tournament due to their win over Marquette in early January. WVU could face either DePaul or Providence in the first round, which could be a cinch victory. On the other hand, a loss to Pittsburgh might take WVU to ninth place and we would have to deal with Cincy or Nova in the first round then face either Georgetown or Louisville in the second round. Not good odds of winning there. Simply put, the NCAA Tournament berth rests squarely on tonight’s game.

Expect an evenly matched game. The one thing Pitt will gain in this rematch is point guard LeVance Fields. He came back six weeks after he injured his foot against Dayton. He has committed only one turnover in the past three games. The Mountaineers have lost four straight to the Panthers with the last victory just over two years ago at the Coliseum. If you recall, that was Senior Day for one of the greatest classes in Mountaineer basketball history. J.D Collins, Jo Herber, Kevin Pittsnogle, Patrick Beilein, and Mike Gansey.

As I close this preview I have a message for each and every fan who will attend this game tonight.

Pitt has broken our hearts at least four times this school year. I don’t care to describe it in detail, but I can tell you that players on the basketball team won’t let this be the fifth. They need fan support though. Don’t let Pitt come to our house and beat us on our court. Make some noise as WVU runs out onto the court to the synths of Europe’s the final countdown and when Darris Nichols and Jaime Smalligan walk down the court in honor of Senior Night. Cheer from the opening tipoff to every three-point shot by The Rainmaker and every positive possession….even at halftime, to the laugh out loud cheers of a 400-lb. man doing violent sexual thrusts in the tune of YMCA, with every last vital possession, and finally to the sound of the musket when West Virginia defeats Pitt while thousands of students rush to the center of the court to the tune of John Denver’s Country Roads. Finally, if you students have a spare couch BURN IT!

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!