Basketblog Poll

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Connecticut	2
2	Pittsburgh	1
3	North Carolina	1
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Louisville
6	Memphis
7	Kansas	8
8	Michigan St.
9	Duke	5
10	Villanova
11	Wake Forest
12	Marquette	5
13	Louisiana St.	3
14	Gonzaga	3
15	Arizona St.	3
16	Clemson	3
17	Missouri	8
18	Purdue
19	Washington	1
20	Xavier	3
21	UCLA
22	Butler
23	Florida St.
24	Illinois	3
25	Utah
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Texas (#19), West Virginia (#22), California (#24), Arizona (#25).

Well That Sucked

I don't know how you lose to a team that gets three technical fouls called on it. Is Truck Bryant the new Jamie Smalligan? Plays the first couple minutes of the game and doesn't get back in. Maybe Truck wasn't the answer, but we needed some penetration last night to open up the shots for us and we didn't get it.

Everything Bobby Knight said last night was true. Poor shot selection, not enough passes, "that's not the guy you want shooting the ball". Very true.

We still could have won the game, though. Maybe more on this later. Maybe not. Grrrr!

Around the Big East Blogs

When we're too tired to do any real writing, we link up. And sadly, we haven't been linking to our friends and enemies too much lately. Shameful, but true.

As we get closer to the draft, you probably start wondering what happened to your favorite Mountaineer. Well, there's a blog for that, Eers in the Pros.

Luke Harangody gets the treatment over at the Wire on WMITC.

Mike Casazza is all over the possibilities of what Huggins might wear to the Cincinnati game tomorrow.

Orange 44 is talking about this game called Lacrosse.

If you haven't been hip to the Homoerotic ways of Eric Devendorf, you've been missing out.

LeBron floats an air biscuit, and Three Idiots have the video.

Pitt Blather is taking it better than I would.

Bleed Scarlet reporting that Rutgers will have co-offensive and co-defensive coordinators next year, and slips in a 30 Rock quote.

Fat White Guy is heading across the pond. Hopefully he won't be putting down the blog.

Marquette vs. UConn live chat is happening right now.

With the white-out and that line above, I'm reminded the Marquette has a tough road the last week of the regular season.

Cracked Sidewalks has a preview of the UConn game.

Friar Blog is happy happy happy happy. I would be too.

I Bleed Blue and White is kind of happy, too.

Mick Cronin Motivational Speaker

This was a bad idea to begin with and worse considering how nice the folks have been to Huggins. Apologies.

Basketblog Poll

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Pittsburgh	3
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Connecticut	2
4	North Carolina	2
5	Louisville
6	Memphis
7	Marquette	2
8	Michigan St.
9	Missouri	4
10	Villanova	2
11	Wake Forest	4
12	Arizona St.	1
13	Clemson	3
14	Duke	3
15	Kansas	1
16	Louisiana St.	5
17	Gonzaga	2
18	Purdue	2
19	Texas	3
20	Washington	2
21	Illinois	5
22	West Virginia	2
23	Xavier	8
24	California
25	Arizona
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Syracuse (#23), Butler (#25).

Spreading the Wealth to Beat Rutgers

Rather than Da'Sean Butler or Alex Ruoff doing all the scoring this time, West Virginia had to rely on some unfamiliar faces to get some points. The game started off with West Virginia scoring like they were playing the Washington Generals. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 21-4 early lead. But when Rutgers switched to an odd three man-two zone defense, WVU went cold.

Some point in the second half folks like Dee Proby, Wellington Smith, and Kevin Jones found a soft spot in the Knights defense and started knocking down jumpers.

Rutgers got close a couple times but never took the lead back. The final ended up being 74-56 after the last two minutes of fouling by Rutgers and free throws by West Virginia. You hear coaches talk all the time about every game being "big." Most of the time, I throw that out the window as coach speak. But today and the rest of the regular season every game is going to be big for this team as they position themselves for a high seed in the Big East tournament. As well as a high seed in the NCAA tournament.

Next up is a trip to Cincinnati and a big night for Huggins. I don't want to take anything away from that, but I'm still going to work on the "punch Mick Cronin in the face" t-shirt.

Photo from BGN

Bully Game Goes Well For West Virginia

If you were tuning into the WVU-ND game to see offensive precision, you probably like the first five minutes of the game. After that, it got personal.

West Virginia came out flat and Notre Dame made nifty cuts to the basket and hit threes like they were layups. Honestly, they were hot the whole first half. But at least the Mountaineers made them work for baskets after the opening five minutes.

It got physical and the refs seemed to be good with the heavy contact. Fouls were called, but a lot more weren't. That's the hardest thing about the Big East. It's always physical, but the manic shifts in the way the games are called can leave you guessing about your plan of attack.

I hate that someone threw anything on to the court. It was just a candy bar, but still not what you want to be known for and an unacceptable act on top of that. Even when their goon slams our goon.

The win puts the Mountaineers in a tie with three other teams for the six spot in the conference. Three road games up for WVU before finishing out the season at home. This game was important because the Mountaineers need some momentum going into the tournament. There's been a lot of ups and downs through this tough stretch of the schedule. Getting a little consistency at the right time can go a long way. We know this.