Know Thy Foe

Tonight in the NIT Final, the Mountaineers take on Clemson. The Tigers entered post season play with a 21-10 record. That's 21-10 after starting 17-0, so they went 4-10 down the stretch beginning with their loss to Maryland on January 13th. Apparently planning to create some rivalry with WVU fans, Clemson lost twice (freaking twice!) to Maryland. Clemson also had two losses to a Duke team inciting much praise from Billy Packer and penis love by Vitale. But hell, at least they beat the Polytechnical University of Virginia (a result foretold by the tribe of locals who worship Beamer's thing and predict events based upon the color thereof).

In a scheduling move with which some of us may be familiar, the Tigers boosted their early out of conference schedule with a few, well, rec league teams. During their impressive 17-0 stretch, the Tigers had big victories over Monmouth (12-18), Furman (15-16), the hippies of Appalachia State, the mighty Bucs of Southern Charleston (8-22), some Golden Golphers (9-22), perenial opener for WVU football, Wofford (10-20), Georgia Southern (15-16), Western Carolina (11-20), and Georgia State (11-20). Against teams with a full 5 players (and coincidentally winning records), the Tigers went 11-11 (er, 12-11 if you count the hippies).

They are led in scoring by the 6'5", 210 lb sophomore guard K.C. Rivers. Rivers has been building momentum in the NIT scoring 17, 12, 29, and 19, respectively, while shooting 49% from the field. They may also rely upon the 6'9" James May down on the blocks. Mays is the tema's second leading scoring averaging 12.5 points per game.

Clemson also employs the strategy occasionally adopted by the Mountaineers - just chuck it up and hope for the best. They were second in the ACC with 623 attempted 3s converting at 33.9%. (Compared to WVU's Big East leading 894 attempts and our lofty 36.7% conversion.)

According to one sports book, Clemson is favored by 1 with an over/under of 136. Expect another predominantly WVU crowd.

WVU rolls through NIT 2nd Round

The Mountaineers looked strong last night before a Coliseum crowd of just over 7,000 fans. Attendance was up from the Delaware State game on Tuesday, and all those in attendance were able to enjoy a masterful display by both Frank Young and his goatee. (The goat isn't quite as glorious as it was midseason after having been trimmed considerably.)

Young put up 31 in the 90-77 win over UMass, a career high for Frank the Tank. His six three-pointers brought him to a tie for the WVU record for 3s in a season with 101, set by Chris Leonard in 1992.

Joe Alexander showed signs of picking up- going to the basket well, but still struggling from long range, he scored 9 on four field goals and a free throw. Darris Nichols chipped in 14, and Butler broke double digits with 10.

The game could have run a little smoother had the officiating not been so eager, whistling 35 total fouls. I will say that most of the fouls they called needed to be. They weren't whistling what I would call ticky-tack girly fouls, but something is up when you reach the double-bonus with more than nine and a half left in the second half.

Minuteman guard James Life gained no friends last night with a little unnecessary taunting of the Tank, and some bumping-not-quite-shoving-as-I-try-to-run-by-you kind of bullshit. Seriously, if I were Frank Young and you clap like that getting in my face- and I weren't in the Coliseum but rather in say... Long Beach (NC), with PW and Lala and prison numbers, I might have made pub mix out of him. Life put up 20, 9 over his average, and did drive well to the hole. He played well despite coming off as a jackass. But who am I to judge?

Mountaineers play winner of Marist and the Wolfpack on Tuesday in Morgantown. See ya there.

NIT - Why does it hurt so bad?

It officially took 3 days and a smashing of Delaware State to recover from my shame. Ever since WVU finished 4-4 down the stretch, I suspected we would be left out of the big dance, so none of this came as a big surprised. But why did it hurt so bad? A few short years ago, we were grateful for an NIT birth, simply because there would be more opportunities to see our Mountaineers. Then, of course, things changed: Back-to-back sweet 16 appearances in 2005 and 2006. So yeah, this is a bit of a let down. But was it always so?

The NIT began in 1938, one year prior to the NCAA Invitational Tournament. That year, the NIT field was filled with modern day powerhouses (record entering tournament): Bradley (18-1), Colorado (14-5), Long Island (23-3), NYU (15-6), Oklahoma A&M (24-2) and Temple (20-2). Temple went on to win in a knee-biter over future Supreme Court Justine Byron White and his Buffs 60-36. I think that was the first year the Owls were coached by John Chaney. But then again, coaches weren't allowed to talk to their players during games in 1938, so its pretty much irrelevant. The low score by the Buffs was attributed to two reasons: 1) the all night stripper rape the night before and 2) the fact the circumference of the ball was changed to 30 inches from the very specific "eh, anywhere between 29 1/2 and 30 1/4 inches is cool with us" rule.

Even though the NCAA began the "Big Dance" the following year, the NIT paralleled inner city elementary schools by continuing a separate but equal existence well into the 60s. Interestingly, a few of the exceptional teams actually played in both tournaments, i.e. CCNY and Kentucky. During that time period, WVU's first appearance came in 1942 where the Mountaineers went on to win the tournament upending Western Kentucky 47-45. During the next 3 years, '43-'46, the winners of the two tournaments met in a unofficial game in Madison Square Gardens to benefit the Red Cross, which by that time was busy patching holes in the Greatest Generation. The NCAA winner won all 3 games (Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma A&M, respectively).

West Virginia also participated in the NIT, while it was still relevant, in 1945 (lost first round to DePaul), 1946 (lost semi-final to Kentucky) and 1947 (lost in a semi-final nail biter to Utah). No appearances in the NIT during its relevancy by Pitt, Virginia Tech or Maryland. Pitt first showed up in college basketball postseason play in 1941 when it lost in the NCAA East Finals to Wisconsin 36-30. During the same time period (between 1938 and 1960), WVU also appeared in the NCAA tournament 6 times (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 when we finished runner-up and 1960) while Pitt showed up thrice (1941, 1957 and 1958). [All facts from Wikipedia and Infoplease.]

Eventually, money, corruption and ESPN came along. Increased field size and expanded television coverage began pushing the NCAA tournament to the forefront. Rumors exist that the NCAA also bullied invited teams into foregoing the NIT in favor of the NCAA Tournament. In 1974, a third national tournament, the Collegiate Commissioner's Association Tournament came along further diluting the NIT field. The CCAT, though, was as well conceived as the XFL, and died in just 2 years. Unfortunately, the damage had been done and the NIT has now been relegated to the tournament for 66th place.

But hell, at least we get to see our Mountaineers play a few more games, Alexander might find some shooting rythm, Patrick Beilein and Mike Gansy can film some more Lotto commercials and we can go on reporting on the basketball team. Afterall, we're facing the Sahara with a single Blue and Gold oasis between here and September 1st.

NIT '07- Path to Glory

Well, at least we nabbed a one seed. My own stab at the Mountaineers path through the bracket is as follows: (1) crush Del. State by double digits (2) top 'Bama by 4-6, yeah they beat UMass (3) squeak by OK State, sorry tummysticks- I think they will take the wolfpack, (4) on to Michigan, another close one (they will take Fla State, then Miss. State in a slight upset) Go Blue! (5) finally- we take the Orange in an all Big East NIT Championship.

Very little research went into this prediction, and naturally the Mountaineers win. This is how my NIT bracket looks, so if I am right I should be close to the winners circle.

The photo you see herein is a glorious pic I stole from EDSBS- it is very nice. Her friend closely resembles my trusty sidekick, only with longer hairs. Enjoy.