There were a lot of issues complicating this game even before tipoff. First of all, the second most hated man in West Virginia, Doug Gottlieb, picked West Virginia to win. That’s literally the kiss of death for us. Next, Coach K and their so-called star players Greg Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson, and McDonald’s All-American freshman Kyle Singler came down with the flu this morning. Good players seem to always rise to the occasion when they’re sick (Anyone remember MJ vs. Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals?) Lastly, the one and only Ed Hightower was the main official in today’s game. The odds were definitely stacked against us. When West Virginia was down 14-4 (thanks to some questionable calls against Wellington Smith not to mention Paulus draining a couple of treys) it looked like it was gonna be a long afternoon. When Coach Huggs chewed out Hightower and got called for the T, our prospects for a win started to look even worse.

ENTER JOE MAZZULLA Read the rest »

Well, I only wish the Mountaineers were 40 minutes away from going to Phoenix against the 15 seed Belmont Bruins. Thanks to Gerald Henderson that didn’t happen so now the Eers must play 40 minutes of solid basketball against ESPN darlings the Duke Blue Devils. The good thing about West Virginia is that they play well when everyone’s against them. Look at how WVU did against overrated UCONN in the Big East Tournament for their signature win to lock up the NCAA Tournament berth. Coach Huggs and the people’s assistant Billy Hahn have had the Mountaineers play the best basketball of the year–all the while strutting their junk in ESPN’s faces. Anyone see Coach Huggs bringing down ESPN’s resident idiot Doug Gottlieb Friday afternoon? PURE GOLD! Now let’s focus on the Dookies. Read the rest »

Leave it to senior Darris Nichols, junior Alex Ruoff, and sophomore Da’Sean Butler to make the crunch-time buckets when needed as WVU pulled away from the Arizona Wildcats 75-65 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Verizon Center. They will now face the Duke Blue Devils who barely got by the Belmont Bruins earlier today. The Rainmaker lead all Eers with 21 points on five treys plus the dunk at the end when his fingers barely touched the rim to put the exclamation point on the victory. Butler scored 19 points on 9 of 13 shooting mostly on put-backs. Nichols overcame foul trouble in the first half to score 14 points as did Alexander. Their efforts combined were 72 of the Eers 75 points. Read the rest »

Thursday night at the Verizon Center in the nation’s capitol will be an exciting night for the Mountaineer Nation.  With thousands expecting to make their way in a sea of Old Gold and Blue the Mountaineers will make this venue as uncomfortable as possible for the Wildcats.  How will the Wildcats handle the Mountaineers?  Can they slow down or even stop Joe Alexander from scoring 30?  How much do we really know about the Pac 10 and the Arizona Wildcats? Read the rest »

VEGAS BABY!!!

OK Mountaineer fans, I’m asking for your help!

I’m headed to Vegas for the first and second round of the tournament and I need your input on who to “bet on” while I’m gambling 100% legally in Las Vegas. Suck it PA fuzz!

Anyway, I was thinking that if I get enough of a LOCK on a game by the comments on this post, I’ll put money on it and let everyone know how it all goes. Fo Sho I’m betting WVU in the first round VS. Arizona, that’s a LOCK!

So if you have a strong opinion about a game on Thursday, Friday or early Saturday, let me know via this post and leave me a comment and I’ll hook it up in Vegas! I’ll also start a thread on the Message Board, so you can leave a message there for me if you feel strongly about a game. Thanks Mountie fans!!!

This also leads me to my next topic:

NEW Prize for the winner of the WVMountaineerSports.com Tournament Bracket Challenge Extravaganza Spectacular!

Thanks to MommaEer, I can now offer the winner of the Bracket Challenge a WVU Travel Pillow. I got one for my birthday and it’s awesome. Taking it on the plane to Vegas with me. (the one pictured isn’t exactly what it looks like, but it’s close, where the hell did MommaEer get this thing???)

So now the winner gets the WVU Travel Pillow and the choice of one of the featured DVDs. I would like to note that the DVDs are courtesy of iJackSports.com, the best place to buy any of your college or pro DVDs.. check them out!

Wish me luck and - Lets GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Mountaineers!!!!

The Top 20 ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team, who limped through the end of regular season losing 4 of the last 8 games after a torrid 20-3 start found out this evening who they will face, where and when.

And the news wasn’t good at all.

They will play in the Spokane bracket as the 5th seed where they will face Mountain West tournament champion New Mexico AT THEIR HOME COURT. Are you kidding me? West Virginia has struggled to dominate on the road, despite a 7-4 record, with losses to Pitt, UCONN, Indiana, and Syracuse.

If they somehow get by them they will likely play SEC stalwart Vanderbilt. This is a really really really tough task in their attempt to score their second Sweet 16 showing in school history. If they do accomplish that, however, they will face the Maryland Terrapins at the Spokane Arena. Stanford is also in this bracket so if they can somehow get to the Final Four they’ll likely have to get through them to go all the way to Tampa.

I will breakdown the interesting matchup between the Eers and the Lobos but for now let’s congratulate Coach Mike Carey and the West Virginia women’s basketball team for being in NCAA Tournament for the second straight year. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

The West Virginia Mountaineers basketball team has known for awhile that they would be in the NCAA Tournament. Still the big questions on the minds of Mountaineer Nation would be who would they face? When will we play them and where? The answer to those questions are as perfect a scenario as you can dream of.

The Mountaineers will play the overrated Arizona Wildcats in the first round on Thursday at the nation’s capitol. That’s only 4.5 hours away from Motown. If we get by the Wildcats then the Eers will play another overrated opponent in the Duke Blue Devils, a team that this year as been known to live by the three and die by the three. If we can get by them, then we’ll face either Xavier or Purdue or even Baylor in Phoenix, Arizona (where most alumni have made their way there to call home and the site where the WVU football team accomplished their greatest victory in school history). Finally, if we get by that then we’ll likely face UCLA for the right to head out to San Antonio for the Final Four to probably face Memphis. For all you Spring Breakers Tijauna and Cabo San Lucas are not far away so instead of Cancun just go there.

If Joe Alexander can step up the same way he did in the Big East Tournament there is no limit to where they can go. First things first, all you Maniacs head out to DC on your way home for Spring Break. We need a LARGE Mountaineer contingent over at the V. This would make a huge difference compared to the Cameron Crazies. Home court advantage will make all the difference just ask North Carolina. UPDATE: The tipoff has been set for the WVU-Arizona game. It will be approximately 9:40pm just after the completion of Duke-Belmont (Gotta put these Dookies on primetime ugh).

I will breakdown the first-round battle in the days ahead but for now let’s celebrate the accomplishments the Mountaineers have made this season yet not be satisfied since there’s a lot of unfinished business to be done. Good luck WVU in the Big Dance and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

I can’t wait for this one, revenge is the name of the tournament for the Mountaineers and we have a big chip on our shoulder when it comes to G’town. How can we forget this:

My Predictions:
WVU over G’Town: 74 - 69
Pitt over Marquette: 69 - 67

I’m a little concerned that the guys will get burnt out before the big tournament next week, but honestly if we could win the Big East Title, that would be enough for me. Good luck tonight guys and Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOO…..

Much thanks go to our new superstar Joe Alexander. He had a career-high 34 point performance yesterday which  included a poster-worthy dunk over Stanley Robinson in the final minutes of the game to seal the Eers 78-72 win.

Tonight, at the world’s most famous arena, West Virginia and Georgetown will face off at 7pm. In the Hoyas victory over Villanova yesterday afternoon they tied the Big East Tourney record with 17 three-pointers (was Beilein coaching this team?). NOTE:  7′2″ Roy Hibbert did not score a single point in that game.

Another interesting stat to consider, the Hoyas have not lost in the Big East Tournament whenever they were the number 1 seed. They’ve won all 13 games. If the Mountaineers pull off another upset they face the winner of Pittsburgh-Marquette.

Wouldn’t it be awesome if the Big East Championship features the Backyard Brawl? It could happen. Win or lose tonight we are 100% in the Big Dance thanks in large part to Joe Alexander’s stellar play and Joe Mazzulla’s drive to the hoop to force OT last Saturday. We’ve made loudmouth Doug Gottlieb look like a fool and I love every moment of it. Let’s win another one and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

Ok I thouhgt I would try this since I took a looooong lunch and have my fingers crossed going into the last 7 minutes of the game vs. UCONN.

7:45 4th Quarter: Smalligan fouled out after a nice dunk.

Missed a simple ass layup, too much time left and now we just went down and gave them a 3 point opportunity. 63-55.

7:16 - Mazzulla back in the game… thank god. Speed baby!

7:08 - God damn, yet another foul… I’ve never seen so many fouls. 22 in the 2nd half. I think this might be the same crew that reffed the Pitt/WVU game on the 3rd.

6:48 - Alexander is hitting his free throws.. 8 out of 9.. er… 9 out of 10. SWEET.

6:32 - AIR BALL….. AIR BALL …. AIR BALL UCONN just chucked one.

6:22 - Up by 12, we have to make sure we can keep up the momentum. Good grief another foul. Slow the game down, burn the clock.

5:25 - Good chance to see how WVU and Huggins will manage the clock. A walk by Mazzulla, but used some of the clock. Up by 11.

4:38 - Alexander just doesn’t miss that turnaround jumper. He’s at 29 points with 4 minutest to go. The new Pittsnogle maybe???

4:22 - UCONN coach looking desperate. Love it. Just play smart ball and we got this one and on to the 3rd round and a rematch against G’town. Ruoff stepped out of bounds.. WTF???

3:41 - They are calling fouls left and right, can’t lose our concentration. It looks like they are playing too safe, speed it up a bit throw down some easy 2’s

3:00 - Sweet offensive rebound by Alexander. burnin the clock!! (and timeouts)

2:24 - HOT DAMN>>>.. another O Rebound…

2:02 - Ruoff fouled out and they got a 3 point chance… damn… this will make it a 4 point game.. come on guys don’t blow this….GOod he missed it.. 5 points game

1:27 - They ran the clock down again and got the O Rebound!! then the foul… nice.. fighting like crazy.

1:00 - OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHH no he didn’t!!!!!  Alexander just smacked it down! 10 point lead. Damn!  GAME OVER!!!!!

:14… another SLAM DUNK BABY!!!! game over!!!

Great performance by the Mounties. Don’t get burnt out guys and take it to the Big Dance!!

LETSSS GOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!!!