MORGANTOWN - It was a year ago when Bob Huggins faced a similar state of affairs. Faced with a handful of days to practice for the next opponent, but not entirely sure who that opponent might be, the West Virginia coach made an educated guess.
MORGANTOWN - It was a year ago when Bob Huggins faced a similar state of affairs. Faced with a handful of days to practice for the next opponent, but not entirely sure who that opponent might be, the West Virginia coach made an educated guess.
He crammed the Mountaineers for two days on all things Notre Dame, which was the highest-seeded team his squad might face in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Then, roughly 22 hours before putting all that work to practice, the Irish lost to Cincinnati.
"That was really intelligent, wasn't it?'' Huggins asked Monday.
This time around, West Virginia doesn't have a bye into the quarterfinals. But with a first-round bye in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, the Mountaineers aren't sure of their next opponent. WVU is the sixth seed and plays late Wednesday night against either Marquette or Providence.
Those two teams meet in tonight's late game (approximately 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU), with the winner advancing to play West Virginia. Marquette (18-13) is the No. 11 seed and Providence (15-16) No. 14.
If Huggins was to make another educated guess this time around, chances are he would gamble on preparing for Marquette. If he's gambling, though, he's not saying.
"At the end of the day, everything's going to come down to a ball screen anyway,'' Huggins said. "So we're going to work on guarding ball screens.''
That's probably the wise choice.
Still, it would be an upset of sorts if West Virginia's first-round opponent is not Marquette. The simple fact is that the Golden Eagles might be playing for something this week that none of the other 15 league teams face.
MORGANTOWN - It was a year ago when Bob Huggins faced a similar state of affairs. Faced with a handful of days to practice for the next opponent, but not entirely sure who that opponent might be, the West Virginia coach made an educated guess.
He crammed the Mountaineers for two days on all things Notre Dame, which was the highest-seeded team his squad might face in the quarterfinals of the Big East tournament. Then, roughly 22 hours before putting all that work to practice, the Irish lost to Cincinnati.
"That was really intelligent, wasn't it?'' Huggins asked Monday.
This time around, West Virginia doesn't have a bye into the quarterfinals. But with a first-round bye in the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden, the Mountaineers aren't sure of their next opponent. WVU is the sixth seed and plays late Wednesday night against either Marquette or Providence.
Those two teams meet in tonight's late game (approximately 9:30 p.m. on ESPNU), with the winner advancing to play West Virginia. Marquette (18-13) is the No. 11 seed and Providence (15-16) No. 14.
If Huggins was to make another educated guess this time around, chances are he would gamble on preparing for Marquette. If he's gambling, though, he's not saying.
"At the end of the day, everything's going to come down to a ball screen anyway,'' Huggins said. "So we're going to work on guarding ball screens.''
That's probably the wise choice.
Still, it would be an upset of sorts if West Virginia's first-round opponent is not Marquette. The simple fact is that the Golden Eagles might be playing for something this week that none of the other 15 league teams face.
In a league where at least 10 NCAA tournament berths seem etched in stone and five other teams are the longest of long shots - the bottom five teams in the conference would need to win five games and the tournament championship in five days to earn the automatic berth - Marquette seems squarely on the bubble. A good performance this week might be necessary to earn one of the 68 bids.
Huggins disagrees, maintaining that the Golden Eagles have already punched a ticket, but the cold facts are that Marquette is but No. 68 in the latest RPI (the Big East's top 10 teams are all in the top 32), did not have a winning record in the league (9-9) and is 5-7 in its last dozen games.
Even Huggins seems to back off his stance that Marquette is already in when asked if he might be playing a team that is rather desperate.
"I don't think they're near desperation,'' Huggins said. "Don't forget, to play us they need to beat a good Providence team. That gives them another win and I think squarely puts them in the NCAA tournament.''
Regardless of whether Marquette feels it deserves a bid or not, if the Golden Eagles do make it past Providence and into a second-round game with West Virginia they will no doubt adopt the attitude that they need to make a statement with another win. From that standpoint, perhaps Marquette is the worst draw in the tournament.
"Yeah, but we have things to play for in the tournament, too,'' said West Virginia forward Cam Thoroughman. "We're going in with the idea of making our seed [in the NCAA tournament better]. I know a win would be important to Marquette or Providence, but it's important to us, too.''
BRIEFLY: The tournament, in which West Virginia is the defending champion, begins with four first-round games today, beginning with Connecticut playing DePaul at noon. After that are Seton Hall-Rutgers and Villanova-South Florida before the Marquette-Providence nightcap. ... In addition to West Virginia, St. John's, Cincinnati and Georgetown jump into play Wednesday against the Tuesday winners, then top seeds Pitt, Notre Dame, Louisville and Syracuse open play with the Thursday quarterfinals against the Wednesday winners.Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.
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