Big East Tournament Quarterfinals: West Virginia Mountaineers at Pitt Panthers

West Virginia Mountaineers (10-8, 22-10) at Pittsburgh Panthers (15-3, 28-3)

Big East Tournament - Quarterfinals
Thursday, March 12 - 7:00 PM EST on ESPN

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Preview

After the double-bye, the second-seeded Panthers begin their quest for back-to-back Big East Tournament titles by taking on seventh-seeded West Virginia.

Pitt has been very successful in the Big East Tournament recently, although many people tend to not realize that.

In the eight tournaments since 2001, Pitt has been in seven finals. They have, unfortunately, only won in two of those appearances, but their ability to get to the final game speaks wonders of the consistency of their program.

West Virginia has been less successful in the tournament—they reached the finals in 2005, but fell short against Syracuse.

This year's Mountaineers are a strong team that overcame one of the best big men in the Big East on Wednesday, defeating Notre Dame 74-62. They were led by senior guard Alex Ruoff with 25 points. Da'Sean Butler added 20, and Darryl Bryant scored 17.

West Virginia wasn't able to contain Luke Harangody, especially during the second half when he scored a majority of his points, and he had a game-high 27 points.

While this isn't far off from his average of 23.2, this leaves room for the Mountaineer-faithful to worry, given they are going up against DeJuan Blair on Thursday.

The Panthers rely less on their big man than the Irish do, but he still demands the same attention that Harangody does.

This will be the third meeting of these two teams this season. Pitt has won both games this season, and they will be looking to secure their hat trick.

West Virginia is on the bubble for the Big Dance once again, and a win over a potential one-seed would be a huge statement for their program.

By The Numbers

	Record	Conf	ATS	RPI	SOS	PF	PA
West Virginia	22-10	10-8	15-13	26	14	72.4	61.3
Pittsburgh	28-3	15-3	16-8-1	1	7	78.5	63.7

	FG%	D. FG%	3P%	D. 3P%	FT%	RPG	SPG	APG	TPG
West Virginia	43.1	41.9	32.5	29.7	68.5	41.6	7.0	15.1	12.0
Pittsburgh	48.5	41.0	35.9	33.7	67.2	43.1	7.2	18.2	12.0

Stat Leaders

	West Virginia	Pittsburgh
PPG	D. Butler - 17.1	S. Young - 18.8
	A. Ruoff - 15.7	D. Blair - 15.6
	D. Ebanks - 9.8	L. Fields - 10.9
RPG	D. Ebanks - 7.4	D. Blair - 12.4
APG	A. Ruoff - 3.4	L. Fields - 7.6
SPG	A. Ruoff - 1.7	J. Dixon - 1.5
BPG	W. Smith - 1.7	D. Blair - 1.0

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Prediction

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