MORGANTOWN - It was an instance West Virginia's basketball team would probably like to forget, but it also serves as a lesson best to remember.

Late last January, the Mountaineers were feeling pretty good about themselves, having won five of six to move to 15-4. Then came a heartbreaking one-point loss at home to No. 9 Georgetown.

Instead of shaking off the loss and moving on, though, the Mountaineers seemed to dwell on it. Four days later, they hit rock bottom, falling 62-39 at home to Cincinnati, arguably one of the most embarrassing defeats in Bob Huggins' long coaching career.

Fast-forward almost 12 months. West Virginia won 11 of its first 13 games, climbed into the Top 25 for the first time in more than a year, then Tuesday lost another heartbreaker at home, this one 61-55 to No. 5 Connecticut.

"All I remember is how we mourned about Georgetown and then let Cincinnati happen,'' West Virginia senior Alex Ruoff said. "If there's anything we have to take out of that it's that we can't dwell on one game. This league is too tough to do that.''

Indeed, as the No. 25 Mountaineers (11-3, 1-1 Big East) prepare for Saturday's noon game at No. 18 Marquette (14-2, 3-0), it would behoove them to shake off what happened Tuesday night at the Coliseum.

But that's not something unique to West Virginia. In an 18-game Big East season in which more than half of every team's games will be played against one of the record nine league teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25, having a short memory is going to be crucial for everyone.

That goes for the top teams, like No. 1 Pitt, to bottom feeders like DePaul and South Florida and everyone in between.

"I think in order to have success [over the long haul] is the team that has the shortest memory,'' Marquette coach Buzz Williams said Thursday. "You can't win a game and think that because you won the previous game you're going to win the next game. And you can't lose a game and [not] get over the loss.''

Already there are great examples in the conference. Notre Dame lost Saturday at St. John's - one of the expected bottom feeders - and then bounced back to beat Georgetown. The Hoyas crushed then-No. 2 Connecticut on the road, then were themselves smashed at home by Pitt, which helped elevate the Panthers to No. 1.

Even Marquette has already found out how difficult things will be this season. The Golden Eagles won at Villanova, started league play 2-0 and had a 21-point lead at Rutgers Wednesday night before seeing the Scarlet Knights, another projected also-ran, cut the margin to just two in the final minute.

It was about 3 a.m. Thursday when Williams and his team arrived home from what turned out to be an 81-76 win, and already they had put that one behind them.

"We have a midnight-hour rule,'' Williams said, noting that beyond that time there is no more celebrating a win or mourning a loss. "After that you've got to get back and go to work.''

MORGANTOWN - It was an instance West Virginia's basketball team would probably like to forget, but it also serves as a lesson best to remember.

Late last January, the Mountaineers were feeling pretty good about themselves, having won five of six to move to 15-4. Then came a heartbreaking one-point loss at home to No. 9 Georgetown.

Instead of shaking off the loss and moving on, though, the Mountaineers seemed to dwell on it. Four days later, they hit rock bottom, falling 62-39 at home to Cincinnati, arguably one of the most embarrassing defeats in Bob Huggins' long coaching career.

Fast-forward almost 12 months. West Virginia won 11 of its first 13 games, climbed into the Top 25 for the first time in more than a year, then Tuesday lost another heartbreaker at home, this one 61-55 to No. 5 Connecticut.

"All I remember is how we mourned about Georgetown and then let Cincinnati happen,'' West Virginia senior Alex Ruoff said. "If there's anything we have to take out of that it's that we can't dwell on one game. This league is too tough to do that.''

Indeed, as the No. 25 Mountaineers (11-3, 1-1 Big East) prepare for Saturday's noon game at No. 18 Marquette (14-2, 3-0), it would behoove them to shake off what happened Tuesday night at the Coliseum.

But that's not something unique to West Virginia. In an 18-game Big East season in which more than half of every team's games will be played against one of the record nine league teams that are currently ranked in the Top 25, having a short memory is going to be crucial for everyone.

That goes for the top teams, like No. 1 Pitt, to bottom feeders like DePaul and South Florida and everyone in between.

"I think in order to have success [over the long haul] is the team that has the shortest memory,'' Marquette coach Buzz Williams said Thursday. "You can't win a game and think that because you won the previous game you're going to win the next game. And you can't lose a game and [not] get over the loss.''

Already there are great examples in the conference. Notre Dame lost Saturday at St. John's - one of the expected bottom feeders - and then bounced back to beat Georgetown. The Hoyas crushed then-No. 2 Connecticut on the road, then were themselves smashed at home by Pitt, which helped elevate the Panthers to No. 1.

Even Marquette has already found out how difficult things will be this season. The Golden Eagles won at Villanova, started league play 2-0 and had a 21-point lead at Rutgers Wednesday night before seeing the Scarlet Knights, another projected also-ran, cut the margin to just two in the final minute.

It was about 3 a.m. Thursday when Williams and his team arrived home from what turned out to be an 81-76 win, and already they had put that one behind them.

"We have a midnight-hour rule,'' Williams said, noting that beyond that time there is no more celebrating a win or mourning a loss. "After that you've got to get back and go to work.''

It seems to be a recurring theme among coaches around the league, who have quickly come to realize that even the best teams in the Big East are going to lose games and even the worst will win some.

Not that it's easy to identify which are at either of those extremes.

"I don't see a team that's not a good basketball team,'' Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun said. "I may see a team that doesn't necessarily have a great record, but I don't see a team that's not a good team in there. And if you're not playing well you're going to get beat.

"I think if you can keep it in the moment, that's going to be what you have to do. You can't allow what happened before to allow you to think you're better than you are, and you can't allow what happened before to defeat you and make you think, 'Well, here it comes again.' You have to stay in the moment.''

For West Virginia, staying in the moment is going to be crucial in the coming weeks. Games against UConn and Saturday's at Marquette are followed by the emotional game with Marshall Wednesday in Charleston. Then, after a home game with South Florida a week from Saturday, comes a stretch of nine games in which seven of the opponents are ranked and four are on the road.

But it could be worse. Notre Dame, for example, plays Seton Hall Saturday going for its 45th straight home win, but then the Irish have a five-game stretch of Louisville, Syracuse, Connecticut, Marquette and Pitt.

"I think the media tends to look at five or six games,'' Irish coach Mike Brey said. "But as a coach you look down there and see maybe 10 or 11 games like that.''

Indeed, after that five-game stretch and a game at Cincinnati, Notre Dame plays UCLA and Louisville again. That's seven ranked teams in an eight-game stretch, four of them in the Top 10.

"There are going to be nights in this league when you invest everything you have and play pretty well and still not win the game,'' Brey said.

Marquette, though, seems among the best prepared of the bunch for the long season, if for no other reason than first-year coach Williams inherited a three-man backcourt of players who are starting for the fourth year in a row - Dominic James, Jerel McNeal and Wesley Matthews. Yes, the Eagles have a dearth of size, but all that experience matters when it comes to having that valuable short memory.

"I think when you have mature kids that, for the most part, also happen to be good players, that message is probably more well received than when you're dealing with freshmen and sophomores,'' Williams said.

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.