What will be even sweeter is if we get by the Musketeers of Xavier in Phoenix, Arizona.  From there it’s on to the Elite Eight and the chance to beat UCLA for the 3rd consecutive season.  That will take us all the way to San Antonio.  It will not be an easy task obviously as the private Jesuit Catholic school from Cincinnati is looking for an Elite Eight appearance of their own.  Coach Huggs is familiar with Xavier as his former coaching stop Cincinnati and Xavier are known to be bitter rivals.  Hopefully, that will be the push WVU needs tonight.  The reason for Xavier’s success has been strong team chemistry with the fact that five players average over 10 points a game to go along with their stingy defense.

That chemistry pushed 3rd seed Xavier from a double-digit deficit midway through the 2nd half to beat Georgia in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament.  It was that same chemistry that held off a young but extremely fast and athletic Purdue bunch in the 2nd round.  West Virginia must find a way to break that chemistry if they have a shot of winning this expected close game.  WVU must put a lock on three talented seniors.

• Drew Lavender - The speedy 5-7 point guard from Buckeye country was figured to be too short to play Big 10 basketball.  He has proven all of them wrong.  He averages 11 points with a solid 4.4 assists per game.  He leads all players at 86.8% in a team in which 4 regulars are shooting 83 percent or above.
• Josh Duncan- The team’s best shooter inside and out Duncan averages just over 12 points a game.  Duncan at 6-9 can post up and rebound which may affect the lack of a good post defense for Eers.  He can also drain the three with ease at a team best 41.8 percent.
• Stanley Burrell - The 6-3 fiery leader from Indy is the rush of energy matched by none other on that team.  Burrell can also dish the ball with ease averaging 3.8 assists a game.

These three seniors can’t do it alone.  The rest of this fabolous rotation also features Derrick Brown who leads the team in field goal percentage (60.2%), C.J. Anderson whose quick in and around the hoop, B.J Raymond who is the team’s best three-point maker (79 all season), and finally Jason Love a true post-up beast off the bench at 6-9 255 with a 5.4 rebounds in only 17 minutes per game. 

Xavier and West Virginia average around 63 points a game in scoring defense.  Both teams can hit the three with relative ease as well as handing the ball with minimal mistakes.  What may decide this game are the free throw shooting and the rebounding battle.  As I said earlier four Xavier players shoot above 83 percent from the foul line.  While WVU struggled at the line earlier in the year they have improved greatly due to the fact that Alexander is on the line more often than others.  

Beginning with the DePaul game, a game they had to win, the Mountaineers have shot 74% from the line.  At the same time, Alexander went to line 73 times making them 85 percent of the time.  Alexander needs to relax and have a huge game.  Xavier has a higher rebound margin than the Eers due to the post presence.  WVU must prevent that which they have failed to do against the likes of Louisville, Georgetown, and Oklahoma.

What an awesome game this is gonna be.  The Mountaineers playing nearby the site of the greatest victory in WVU football history.  Let’s make this a sweep and lay claim Saturday to have the greatest victory in WVU basketball history.  Good luck tonight and LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!