Keeping Hope Alive

Here you see one of Alex Ruoff's two blocks to compliment his 23 points scored against the Bearcats in the Coliseum, and with Saturdays 79-65 win over Cinci, the Mountaineers closed out the regular season at home and in style. We sorely needed that win to keep us somewhere near the bubble. Many commentators apparently think a first round win in the Big East Tourney will put us in the dance. This is probably pretty sound reasoning, but I need more. A good show in this conference tournament means a lot. In your authors not so humble opinion, the Big East Conference is head and shoulders above most others. Only the ACC and PAC-10 are arguably close. The Big East is home to five top 25 teams and eight teams with more than twenty wins. Going into Sunday afternoon, the PAC-10 and ACC both presently house four top 25s, and five 20+ winners. Certainly commendable, but the Big East IS college basketball this year.

Big-10- you lose, OSU looked like shit against Michigan yesterday. Sorry Big-12, Kansas is the only team I fear there. SEC powerhouse Florida continues to drop games- LSU and Tennessee among others before closing out UK today.

I guess my point is, with a good show in the Big East conference tournament, which is the strongest warm-up available for the big dance- our beloved Mountaineers will be primed for a good showing. I am anxious to watch this young Beilein team exceed expectations again this year. I would also like another crack at Pitt- but that is a given. In sum- I would rather not think about NIT possibilities. With yesterdays win we kept hope alive. I can't wait to see how shit turns out now.

Oh yeah, and FYI- the Yanks downed the Bucs yesterday 4-3 in a spring game. Eldred hit his second of the spring, but Posadas HR was enough to get the Bronx Bombers through. Despite both teams pitching the kitchen sink for an inning, it should be encouraging to tummysticks that Pittsburgh stayed close to the only team stronger than Toronto and Boston in the AL East.