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Moving Forward, West Virginia Wins the Big East

West Virginia Coach Bob Huggins grew up in Midvale, Ohio, where he likes to say there’s “500 people, two stop lights and nine bars.” His favorite story about the hardscrabble attitude he developed there involves climbing into a local’s pickup truck with no rear-view mirrors.

Huggins asked why it was mirrorless, and the man responded: “I don’t back up. We’re going forward, son.”

Through a season riddled with inconsistency that showed hints of both brilliance and futility, West Virginia has kept pressing forward.

And after outlasting No. 8 seed Georgetown, 60-58, in the Big East championship on Saturday night, West Virginia may be driving toward the top line of the N.C.A.A. tournament.

Da’Sean Butler scored 20 points, including the game-winning lay-up with 4.2 seconds remaining. Butler drove into two Georgetown players and flipped up an ugly line drive that seemed to stop on the back rim and fall down the rim.

His foil all night, Georgetown’s dynamic guard Chris Wright, drove the length of the floor and bricked a wild lay-up attempt at the buzzer. Wright finished with a game-high 20 for Georgetown.

Butler’s efforts earned him the tournament’s Most Valuable Player award, as he led the Mountaineers to their first Big East tournament title.

With its inspired performance here, the question lingers: can a team that was seeded No. 4 in the Big East tournament be a No. 1 seed in the N.C.A.A. Tournament?

And while Georgetown failed to win the program’s eighth Big East tournament title, the Hoyas may have improved their stock more than any other team. By upsetting top-seeded Syracuse and blowing out No. 5 Marquette, Georgetown projects as high as a No. 3 seed in the N.C.A.A. tournament.

But on Saturday night, Georgetown ran into a toxic mix of New York swagger and Midvale muscle. All five West Virginia starters hail from the New York metropolitan area, and they all have the grit New York players are known for.

West Virginia’s man-to-man defense limited Georgetown to 4-of-16 shooting from 3-point range, a number that could also be attributed to fatigue from the Hoyas playing four consecutive nights here.

But the game got interesting with less than a minute remaining when Austin Freeman splashed home a 3-pointer over West Virginia’s 1-3-1 zone, which the Mountaineers used rarely on Saturday night. That tied the score at 56-56 and set the stage for a frenetic finish. It was first time Georgetown had tied or led in a taut second half.

With 27.6 seconds remaining and the score tied, Wright fouled West Virginia’s Joe Mazzulla.

Georgetown Coach John Thompson III screamed, “No, no,” after the foul. Wright pointed up to the shot clock, which had been turned off. Mazzulla calmly drained both free throws to give West Virginia a 58-56 lead.

Wright made up for his blunder with an acrobatic, hanging lay-up in traffic with 17 seconds that tied the score at 58-58.

That set the stage for Butler, who used this tournament as a showcase for his polished midrange game.

The question now is whether he’ll be showing that off for a No. 1 seed. After the Big East received three No. 1 seeds in last year’s N.C.A.A. tournament, the Mountaineers are making a compelling case to join Syracuse as a No. 1 seed this year.

In a bizarre three-day ride at Madison Square Garden that saw the top three seeds lose consecutively in the quarterfinals, No. 4 West Virginia slugged its way past the remaining competition and appear to be jelling at the right time.

The Mountaineers résumé includes eight victories over Top 50 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index. Their only questionable loss came at Connecticut on Feb. 22. That was also their last loss, and the Mountaineers will go into the N.C.A.A. tournament with six consecutive victories.

West Virginia is not the most aesthetic bunch. Mazzulla’s shoulder is so hurt he can barely shoot. Backup forward Cam Thoroughman, the Mountaineers’ enforcer, has a game so limited that Mazzulla teases him that his most impressive statistic is dribble hand-offs.

“It’s not really a style, all it is is effort,” Butler said. “You put the right effort out there, there’s no reason you can’t play. People might sit back and say that Joe Mazzulla, Cam Thoroughman and John Flowers aren’t the best shooters or the best ball handlers or whatever the case may be. But they’re out there and we win games.”

That was what happened Saturday night. Shuffling in substitutions for offense and defense after starter Wellington Smith fouled out, Huggins kept his team driving forward.

And as John Denver’s “Country Roads, Take Me Home” blared over the public address system, it provided a fitting moment.

With their mirrors removed from the regular season, West Virginia will move forward to the N.C.A.A. tournament.
[New York Times]

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