For the fourth and final time this season the West Virginia men’s and women’s basketball team will play a doubleheader at the WVU Coliseum. The 13th-ranked women’s team will play sharp-shooting Villanova while the men’s team will take the nightcap as they play the Providence Friars in a rematch from earlier in the month.

The tipoff for the ladies will be at 4pm while the men will go at it at 7pm in front of an expected sellout crowd. After these games, there will only be one home game left for each (is it near the end of the regular season already?) So show your support for both the women and the men.

The West Virginia Mountaineers beat the Friars 77-65 back on Febraury 2nd. As you recall, the Friars jumped out to a 12-point lead and it appeared all hopes for having a decent season were lost until Cam Thoroughman came along. His full court intensity shocked the Mounties in a good way as they outscored the Friars 53-29 in the final 26 minutes of the game. If I were Coach Huggs, I would start Cam in place of Smalligan, or at the very least, be one of the first subs off the bench.

West Virginia is currently tied for seventh with good old Pitt at 7-6 in the Big East. While they are three games behind UCONN and Notre Dame for one of the Big East four first round byes they are about 3 and a half games ahead of 4-10 Providence and St. John’s for the dreadful 13th spot.

For Providence this is a must-win game for them. They are just as good as anyone if their three’s fall and Geoff McDermott gets himself a double-double. To prevent that, WVU must give Providence a steady dose of in-your-face zone defense plus dictate an even tempo.

A win would certainly steady themselves in the upper 30s in the RPI in anticipation of another huge road contests next week with DePaul and UConn. A loss would proved to be disastrous and that may be a telling sign that the Villanova contest got the best of them. We’ll find out tonight if the Mountaineers will come to play in front of a raucous crowd just like last Sunday.

The women’s team will be without a very important player tomorrow.

Senior LaQuita Owens was suspended from the team indefinitely due to an unspecified violation of team rules. Senior Meg Bulger, who missed three games with a left knee that has been under the knife twice, will step in place of Owens. She’s been known to have some rough games shooting-wise. That cannot happen if WVU is to keep place with UCONN and Notre Dame as being on the top echelon of the Big East standings. With a 10-2 conference record, West Virginia only has to win two more conference games to be assured of a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament two weeks from now. They are two games ahead of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh for the bye spot. The Mountaineers have beaten both teams so far this season.

Aside from the Owens mess they cannot overlook these Wildcats. Despite a 5-8 conference record they certainly have the shooters to pull off an upset. West Virginia has given up 27 treys in the past two games so Coach Mike Carey better make the necessary zone adjustments today or else Nova may reach that number alone.

The Wildcats lead the nation in three-pointers made with 10.5. They are also ninth in the nation with a 38.9 three-point shooting percentage. There are FOUR Villanova players shooting over 40 percent from three-point race. They are led by Laura Kurz and Lisa Kurcic. Kurz only attempted 104 threes but would’ve been sixth in the nation if she made enough treys to be eligible. Not only can they shoot but they can handle the ball as well. They lead the nation in the fewest turnovers committed as well as being fourth in the nation in the assist-to-turnover margin. To make matters worse on Coach Carey Villanova shoots 75 percent from the line. West Virginia must be well-disciplined on the defense side of the court or else it’s gonna be a looooong afternoon for them. Essentially Nova lives and dies by the three. In Big East competition they are out-rebounded by a whopping deficit of 8.

So as you head up to Morgantown Saturday afternoon make sure you leave early enough to support the women’s team. Don’t let what happened last Saturday discourage you from coming out.  Good luck West Virginia and GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!