West Virginia Mountaineers: How They Won the Big East

Bob Huggins doesn’t recruit basketball players.

He recruits tough guys who happen to play basketball. He did the same thing at Cincinnati with hard-nosed players like Danny Fortson and Steve Logan, and he’s doing it for the West Virginia Mountaineers if tonight’s rough and tumble play was any indication.

In the Big East tournament, especially tonight in the Mecca of college basketball arenas, that recruiting strategy served him and his program well. Guys like Wellington Smith, Devin Ebanks, and Kevin Jones bludgeoned a pretty athletic Georgetown team, grabbing 17 man-sized offensive boards to the Hoyas' six.

The Mountaineers also showed terrific mental toughness, hitting on 15 of 16 foul shots, each attempt bigger and more important than the next.

But when talking toughness, I’d be horribly remiss if I didn’t mention Da’Sean Butler, the toughest player, mentally and physically, I’ve seen in quite sometime.

Not only is the Butler asked to bang, board, and defend like some garbage man role-player you’ll find on most teams (you know this player, he’s usually wearing the sports goggles and two knee braces), but since Butler is the one player on WVU’s roster that can get his own shot consistently, he’s asked to do more than just dirty work.

For the Mountaineers, Butler has to stop opponents scoring runs with big shots. He’s asked to manufacture offense when the shot clock is running down.

Most importantly, especially recently, is that Butler is asked to win games in crunch time, which is exactly what he did in this tournament.

Twice.

Two walk-off homers that would make Mickey Mantle blush.

Tonight, Butler’s game winning driving layup with five seconds to go was fitting since the hard-nosed senior absorbed all kinds of contact before tear-dropping the game clincher.

If there’s a tougher player in college basketball than Da’Sean Butler, I’d like to see him. If he’s a better basketball player to boot, I’ll eat my hat.

As for the game specifics, as I mentioned, it wasn’t for the faint of heart. This will usually be the case in games involving these West Virginia Mountaineers, because not only are they recruited and coached to play physical, but their unique personnel group thrives on the defensive end. The reason West Virginia is unique defensively is that they don’t really have defined positions.

They basically start four big forwards and a single guard. Having these similarly-sized players allows the Mountaineers to switch on screens more than most teams, so every player on the floor is used to guarding on the perimeter as well jostling in the low post.

It’s also a reason that teams, like Georgetown, without really good back-to-the-basket threats will struggle against them. These types of teams can’t really punish the mismatches caused by multiple switches to the degree needed to be effective. It’s the main reason Georgetown struggled offensively until Austin Freeman warmed up.

Credit must also be given to the Hoyas for hanging around and making this an instant Big East classic.

Greg Monroe was limited by Wellington Smith, but Freeman and Chris Wright picked up the slack and fueled the late Hoya comeback bid with some hot shooting and clever ball handling.

Speaking of toughness, a tip of the cap to Chris Wright for hitting a big shot after his Fred Brown like brain cramp of intentionally fouling in a tie game with twenty seconds to go. It could have been a Chris Webber moment for the poor kid. It was good to see Wright bounce back with a big shot, even though Butler’s heroics trumped Wright’s running layup to tie the game and make amends.

So what does this game mean for both teams?

For the West Virginia Mountaineers it’s doubtful they earned a one-seed for their performance in the conference tournament, unless the Duke Blue Devils lose to Georgia Tech tomorrow. Either way, I think Duke and West Virginia end up in the same bracket regardless of what seed number you assign the team. It’s really six in one, half a dozen in the other. Strongest two and weakest one.

West Virginia going to Duke’s bracket means Ohio State probably ends up in the Syracuse bracket. Kentucky and Kansas are going to get the top two seeds, which is very important this year. It’s a huge advantage to avoid the the pseudo-ones (as I call them), West Virginia and Ohio State, because there’s a significant fall-off in talent after the Mountaineers and Buckeyes.

So, tomorrow’s selection show should be interesting and exciting, but nothing compared to the magic that went down tonight at Madison Square Garden. I had no rooting interest in the game, and I still had goosebumps when the final horn sounded.

It’s such a treat to watch basketball played to the point where each player has left everything he has out on the hardwood. That statement as it’s applied to West Virginia is certainly true, especially Mountaineer forward Kevin Jones.

Watching the 6′8″ man-mountain weep in Bob Huggins’ arms at midcourt as John Denver’s tribute to West Virginia, “Take Me Home, Country Roads”, played over the MSG’s public address system says it all as far as I’m concerned. That’s what the Madness is all about.

I guess even tough guys cry.

This article originally appeared on March To March

Follow Kevin Berger on Twitter: @MarchToMarch