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WVU tops Notre Dame for Big East title bid
March 13th, 2010NEW YORK — West Virginia didn’t need Da’Sean Butler to hit his sixth game-winning shot of the season Friday night in the semifinals of the Big East Tournament.
In fact, with the Mountaineers up two and in possession of the ball, Butler missed a fall-away 3-pointer giving Notre Dame a chance to win.
But Irish guard Tory Jackson missed a 3-pointer, which would’ve won the game, and the Mountaineers secured the rebound for the 53-51 victory over Notre Dame.
While Butler might not have hit the game-winner, the three-seeded Mountaineers needed 24 points from their senior leader to defeat the Fighting Irish, who topped Pitt the night before.
With the win, West Virginia advances to just its second Big East Championship game and will face Georgetown tonight at 9.
In the 2005 finals, the Mountaineers lost to Syracuse.
Georgetown has won seven Big East titles. The Hoyas were the lone team to win a title from the teams that made it to the semifinals.
Georgetown defeated Marquette, 80-57, earlier in the night to advance to the finals. West Virginia won the lone meeting between the schools this season, a 81-68 victory March 1 in Morgantown. Hoyas star Austin Freeman did not play in the game.
Outside of Butler, the Mountaineers were efficient from the floor, shooting 50 percent while holding Notre Dame to 35 percent shooting.
WVU had a 10-point lead in the second half, but the Irish came back with a 9-2 run led by Notre Dame guard Ben Hansbrough, who hit two 3-pointers to cut the Mountaineers’ lead to 48-45 with 3:32 to play.
Notre Dame sliced the lead to one after Jackson hit two free throws, but the Mountaineers scored four straight to bump the lead to five.
On the other end, Hansbrough hit an athletic reverse layup with 1:35 to pull the Irish within three.
After a timeout, WVU forward Wellington Smith missed a 3-pointer, but Butler grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He hit one of two.
Devin Ebanks fouled Hansbrough with 47.4 seconds to go, and he hit both free throws to make it 53-51. The scoring ended there.
WVU used a 1-3-1 defense for the majority of the first half and late in the second half to try to catch the Irish off guard. In the first half, it worked. Notre Dame shot just 34.8 percent. In the second half, it wasn’t as successful.
After jumping out to an early lead in the Mountaineers’ first game of the tournament, they struggled to get going against the Irish. Notre Dame jumped out to a five-point lead on a Jackson 3-pointer.
Butler didn’t take a shot in the first nine minutes, but he hit his first four shots during a 13-3 run to give the Mountaineers a 17-12 lead. The Irish went on a more than six minute drought while the Mountaineers took the lead.
After Hansbrough hit a 3-pointer, WVU jumped out to a six-point lead off of two Joe Mazzulla layups, forcing a timeout.
After the timeout, Notre Dame went on a 6-2 run to end the half to go into the locker room down 23-20.
WVU went the last 2:10 of the half without a point.
Hansbrough finished with a team-leading 17 points for the Irish.
Bring on the Hoyas
March 13th, 2010
WVU's Joe Mazzulla drives to the hoop on ND's
By Dave Hickman
NEW YORK – Da’Sean Butler’s last shot of this Big East tournament game didn’t turn out like the one the night before. No matter, the Mountaineers had an answer anyway.
Clinging to a slim lead over Notre Dame in the tournament semifinals Friday night, Butler couldn’t make the shot that would have clinched it with 11 seconds left, but West Virginia survived anyway to beat the Irish 53-51.
The win sends third-seeded and No. 7 West Virginia (26-6) into tonight’s 9 p.m. championship game against eighth-seeded and No. 22 Georgetown (23-9). The Hoyas beat Marquette in Friday’s earlier semifinal.
West Virginia beat Georgetown in the teams’ only meeting this season, winning 81-68 less than two weeks ago in Morgantown. That was the game that Georgetown’s leading scorer, Austin Freeman, missed before being diagnosed with diabetes. Freeman has since returned.
This will be West Virginia’s second appearance in the league championship game, five years after the Mountaineers lost to Syracuse. Georgetown has won seven titles.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak in the tournament semifinals for West Virginia, which lost to Syracuse in overtime last year and to Georgetown in 2008.
The victory also went a step further in solidifying West Virginia seed in the NCAA tournament that begins next week. Almost certainly the Mountaineers seem destined for a No. 2 seed and perhaps a No. 1 if other things fall right.
Notre Dame (23-11), the tournament’s seventh seed, saw a six-game winning streak snapped. The Irish had beaten WVU in their only regular-season meeting, winning 70-68 in South Bend.
Clinging to a 53-51 lead as the clock wound under 30 seconds, Butler tried to put the game away just as he had done a night before when he made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to beat Cincinnati. This time, though, his shot was short and Notre Dame had the ball with 11 seconds and a chance to tie or win.
Read More The Charleston Gazette
Butler’s shot saves WVU again
March 12th, 2010
West Virginia players jump on Da'Sean Butler's back in celebration of his last-second 3-point basket to defeat Cincinnati 54-51 in the Big East Tournament quarterfinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City Thursday night.
by Mike Casazza
NEW YORK – Da’Sean Butler’s fifth game-winning basket had banked in Thursday night before a euphoric and spoiled Madison Square Garden crowd.
West Virginia’s senior savior then skipped and roared and thumped his chest and said, in a matter of words, “I told you all.”
And while another winner shouldn’t have been much of a surprise, Butler had to back up to see the replay on the scoreboard and get another look at the shot that beat Cincinnati, 54-51.
“This one’s No. 1, man,” he said. “This is really good, especially here in this historic gymnasium. A lot of great players have played here, so for my team to pick up a win and for me to showcase what I can do, especially in the last second, that’s pretty cool. I enjoyed it.”
A turnover by Bearcats guard Dion Dixon with 3.1 seconds remaining gave Butler an opportunity teams need not give him. Having already beaten Cleveland State and Marquette at the buzzer and Louisville and Villanova in the closing seconds, Butler took the inbound pass from Devin Ebanks, floated left and shot over a defender to send the Mountaineers to the semifinal of the Big East Tournament for the third consecutive season.
“I was supposed to just catch the ball and get a couple dribbles inside the 3-point line,” Butler said. “But when I caught the ball, they pressed up on me and I kind of lost balance and by the time I squared up, I only had time to take one dribble instead of two or three. I took the dribble, put it up and it felt good. I saw it hit the glass and I said, ‘That’s fine. Winner.’”
Cincinnati freshman Lance Stephenson was guarding on the play.
“He called it,” Stephenson said. “He said, ‘Bank.’ I said, ‘What?’ and I looked and it went in.”
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
Big East Tourney Field Set
March 7th, 2010
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia’s 68-66 overtime victory at Villanova locked up a No. 3 seed for the Mountaineers in this year’s 2010 Big East Tournament, presented by New York Life, at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
West Virginia (24-6, 13-5) was one of four teams to earn double byes for the tournament, joining league regular season champion Syracuse (28-3, 15-3), second-seeded Pitt (24-7, 13-5) and fourth-seeded Villanova (24-6, 13-5).
The first of four opening round games on Tuesday, March 9, will pit ninth-seeded USF (19-11, 9-9) against 16th-seeded DePaul (8-22, 1-17) at noon on ESPN2. Twelfth-seeded Connecticut (17-14, 7-11) will face 13th-seeded St. John’s (16-14, 6-12) at 2 p.m. on ESPN2.
The evening games will pair 10th-seeded Seton Hall (18-11, 9-9) and 15th-seeded Providence (12-18, 4-14) at 7 p.m. on ESPNU, while the nightcap will have 11th-seeded Cincinnati (16-14, 7-11) battling 14th-seeded Rutgers (15-16, 5-13) at 9 p.m. on ESPNU.
Eighth-seeded Georgetown (20-9, 10-8) will play the USF-DePaul winner at noon Wednesday, March 10, on ESPN. Fifth-seeded Marquette (20-10, 11-7) will play the UConn-St. John’s winner at 2 p.m. on ESPN.
In Wednesday’s evening session, seventh-seeded Notre Dame (21-10, 10-8) will play the Seton Hall-Providence winner at 7 p.m. while sixth-seeded Louisville (20-11, 11-7) will face the Cincinnati-Rutgers winner at 9 p.m.
Thursday’s March 11 games will feature Syracuse playing the noon game, Villanova playing the 2 p.m. game with Pitt (7 p.m.) and West Virginia (9 p.m.) playing in the evening session.
All four games will be televised on ESPN.
The semifinals will take place on Friday, March 12, with the championship game being played Saturday, March 13, at 9 p.m.
The conference will announce its major award winners Tuesday afternoon in New York City.
Read More MSNsportsNET.Com — West Virginia University Mountaineers.
Butler leads West Virginia past Villanova
March 6th, 2010PHILADELPHIA — Da’Sean Butler scored 21 points, including the decisive basket with 5.8 seconds left in overtime, leading No. 10 West Virginia to a 68-66 victory over No. 9 Villanova today.
Butler grabbed 10 rebounds and finished 13 of 14 from the foul line for the Mountaineers (24-6, 13-5).
Butler’s winning drive came after the Mountaineers had taken possession with 26 seconds left when Villanova was forced into a 35-second shot clock violation.
Scottie Reynolds, who led the Wildcats (14-6, 13-5) with 17 points, had an open 3-point attempt from the corner but it bounced off the rim as the buzzer sounded.
West Virginia overcame its worst first half of the season with an impressive defensive performance, holding the conference’s highest-scoring team 18 points below its average.
Villanova forced overtime when Corey Fisher made his only 3-point attempt of the game with 7.7 seconds to play to make it 60-60. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was signaling wildly for a timeout but none of the officials saw it — it was pretty loud in the Wachovia Center — and the Mountaineers settled on a long 3-point attempt by Devin Ebanks that missed everything.
Wellington Smith had 15 points — 13 after halftime — for West Virginia. Ebanks had 12.
Fisher had 12 points for the Wildcats, who missed their season low for points by one despite playing an extra 5 minutes.
Villanova led, 29-16, at halftime, holding West Virginia to 24 percent shooting (6 of 25), including 2 of 12 on 3s. The Mountaineers also missed eight of 10 free throws, capping the poor shooting trifecta.
They started the second half with an 18-5 run to tie the game at 34 with 12:55 left. West Virginia matched its first-half point total 6:23 into the second.
Read More Pittsburgh Tribune
Butler’s legacy not only about basketball
March 4th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Monday night saw three seniors honored before the West Virginia-Georgetown game and then saluted after the first Big Monday win in three tries this season. Only one, however, was labeled “one of the greatest players to wear the Old Gold and Blue” and only one laughed.
In both instances, the only one was Da’Sean Butler, the senior from Newark, N.J., who’s a little weird in that his hunger for criticism is rivaled only by his aversion to compliments. Accusations of greatness make his stomach turn.
“I was like, ‘Well, if everybody thinks that about me, that’s cool,’ ” Butler said. “I just didn’t want to let it get in my head during the game or before the game started. I just kind of hurried and blocked it out real fast. I was like ‘All right, but I don’t want to hear that right now.’”
Fortunately for Butler he was in an emotional and victorious locker room following the game and unable to hear the praise from Georgetown Coach John Thompson III.
“From the outside looking in, it appears that he’s a leader when you see the way he talks to the players during timeouts and pulls them aside,” Thompson said. “His talent and his skill level is special.”
Butler’s place in history can be debated, so long as everyone agrees it’s near the top. He’ll finish third on the school’s all-time scoring list and needs just 64 points to reach 2,000 in his career and join Jerry West and Rod Hundley on that plateau. His 100 career double-digit scoring games are the most ever. He’ll finish in the top five all-time in 3-pointers and field goals made, top 10 in free throws made and top 15 in rebounds, steals and assists.
Those are all things that can be manipulated, though. He played in a time when freshmen were eligible, when there was a 3-point line and when the game was officiated differently. He is, by nature, going to rack up bigger numbers because of rules and longevity.
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
WVU victory is more than just a win
March 2nd, 2010
West Virginia's John Flowers, right, shoots over Georgetown's Greg Monroe
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Even before Monday night’s victory against No. 19 Georgetown, West Virginia had already accomplished a number of things that meant something to the 10th-ranked Mountaineers.
They were picked to finish second in the Big East preseason poll, higher than any preceding projection. The Associated Press ranked them in the preseason top 10 for the first time since 1952. November’s 76 Classic championship was the first regular-season tournament title since 2001. WVU was in the top 10 for nine straight weeks – the best run since 1960 – and climbed as high as No. 5, something the campus hadn’t seen since 1962.
Yet all of those things didn’t really move the Mountaineers closer to any of their far bigger goals. The 81-68 win against the Hoyas before a Coliseum crowd of 13,211 finally did. WVU clinched a top-four finish and a two-round bye in next week’s Big East Tournament, a useful tool to be used toward a stated goal of winning the entire event.
“But at the same time, it really doesn’t mean anything,” WVU’s Da’Sean Butler said. “Some people get those high seeds and they lose. It’s rare, but it happens, too, and you never know with us. It’s a matter of us taking it for what it is, but keeping our eyes on the prize and understanding what we still need to do to get there.”
Monday gave the Mountaineers another reminder. Up 22 points in the first half, 17 at halftime and 27 a little more than four minutes into the second half, WVU let the lead slip all the way to single digits with six minutes remaining. With leading scorer Austin Freeman out with an illness, the Hoyas never got any closer and the Mountaineers made went 3-for-4 from the floor and 13-for-15 at the foul line to finish.
“I think it’s harder to keep a lead than to build it,” West Virginia forward Devin Ebanks said.
“You get lax and complacent and think everything’s all good until they knock down 3-pointers and get some layups. But I felt we closed it out really well and better than we have all year when we let a big lead get away. We did it the right way finally.”
Read More Charleston Daily Mail
West Virginia rallies to win over Cincinnati
February 28th, 2010
West Virginia's Kevin Jones smiles after scoring against Cincinnati in a Big East conference game Saturday in Morgantown, W.Va.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — No. 8 West Virginia imposed its rebounding will after halftime to offset another double-digit deficit at home.
Kevin Jones scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and the Mountaineers used a big rebounding advantage to come from 13 points down and beat Cincinnati, 74-68, on Saturday.
West Virginia (22-6, 11-5 Big East) can earn a bye in the first two rounds of the conference tournament with a win over No. 11 Georgetown on Monday night.
The Mountaineers outrebounded Cincinnati, 41-30, after the teams were even at halftime. West Virginia entered the game as the Big East’s top rebounding team, while Cincinnati was first in rebounding margin.
During practices, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins has instilled a tactic in his players when it comes to corralling missed shots — he sends those who don’t hustle after them to a high-speed treadmill for punishment.
“We’ve got smart guys and they knew that we had to rebound the ball,” Huggins said. “It becomes a part of their DNA. If they don’t rebound in practice, they know that they’re on that treadmill.”
Ten of West Virginia’s 26 second-half rebounds came on the offense end.
“They got a lot of the long ones coming off on the offensive glass,” Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates said. “At times it seemed like the whole team was in there.”
Cincinnati is the Big East’s worst free throw shooting team but the Bearcats went 13 of 15 from the line, including 9 of 9 in the second half. That accuracy never transferred to the rest of Cincinnati’s game.
Cincinnati shot 29 percent (9 of 31) from the floor after halftime. The Bearcats led 46-36 after a pair of baskets by Gates two minutes into the second half. But the Bearcats went more than nine minutes without a field goal, allowing West Virginia to take over.
“When you miss a couple of layups, it’s crucial and we did it at crucial times when we needed a basket,” Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin said. “Jump shots are jump shots, but you have to put the ball in when you’re right by the basket.”
Darryl Bryant added 14 points, Devin Ebanks had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Wellington Smith had 10 points for West Virginia.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 points, Lance Stephenson had 14 and Gates added 10 for Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9), which saw its NCAA Tournament hopes take a hit.
Read More Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Mountaineers Hang On
February 28th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Eighth-ranked West Virginia got big second half performances from Devin Ebanks, Kevin Jones and Wellington Smith to hold off Cincinnati 74-68 Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
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| Forward Devin Ebanks scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for West Virginia during Saturday’s 74-68 win over Cincinnati. |
“We sure make it hard on ourselves,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins. “I don’t know what it is, but everybody that sees a West Virginia uniform gets hot. They’ve got guys shooting 19 percent from 3 and they come in and make them like they’re supposed to. This is a team that has been getting killed because they haven’t made free throws, and they shoot 87 percent today.”
The Mountaineers got a big lift for their quest to earn one of four double byes in this year’s Big East tournament when Notre Dame defeated Georgetown earlier this afternoon, giving West Virginia a two-game lead in the win column over the Hoyas, Marquette and Louisville.
Marquette plays at Seton Hall on Sunday while Louisville plays at Connecticut.
In today’s game in Morgantown, West Virginia had fallen behind by 13 points with 3:13 left in the first half when Huggins took out his entire lineup and replaced it with Truck Bryant, John Flowers, Deniz Kilicli, Cam Thoroughman and Ebanks.
That group went on a 9-0 run over the next two minutes to cut Cincinnati’s lead to four, 37-33, and energize the crowd.
“I was just looking for somebody,” said Huggins. “I didn’t think we played very hard. We got beat in transition and we didn’t get back and that’s just not going to happen so I took them all out. I thought those guys really came in and gave us a lift. They actually came in and cut the lead to six and made it a lot more workable.”
Early in the second half, Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9) once again got its lead to 10, 46-36, before six straight points by West Virginia cut its deficit to 46-42.
A key sequence for the Mountaineers came with 13:22 left when West Virginia picked up six points in a span of just 31 seconds to make it a one-point game. Danny Jennings followed an Ebanks missed free throw and then Butler answered with a big 3 with 12:51 left.
A Jones layup gave West Virginia its first lead of the second half, 53-52, and the Mountaineers eventually built it to six, 66-60, with 4:59 left on Ebanks’ follow-up basket.
West Virginia got it to six a second time when Huggins called a play for Jones along the baseline against Cincinnati’s zone defense. Jones was able to catch the pass and go in for the basket.
West Virginia’s biggest lead of the second half was seven, twice, on free throws by Butler and Bryant.
“We talked for two days about we have to be assertive – we have to take the ball at them,” said Huggins. “They’re very big and very strong but not as mobile as we are and we wanted to continually attack the rim and put pressure on them and try to get to the foul line.”
Read More MSNsportsNET.Com
No. 8 West Virginia outlasts Cincinnati 74-68
February 27th, 2010MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)—Kevin Jones scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half and No. 8 West Virginia came from 13 points down to beat Cincinnati 74-68 on Saturday.
West Virginia (22-6, 11-5 Big East) can earn a bye in the first two rounds of the conference tournament with a win over No. 11 Georgetown on Monday night.
Cincinnati led 46-36 after a pair of baskets by sophomore Yancy Gates two minutes into the second half. But the Bearcats went more than nine minutes without a field goal and West Virginia used a big rebounding advantage to take over in the second half.
Darryl Bryant added 14 points, Devin Ebanks had 12 points and 10 rebounds and Wellington Smith had 10 points for West Virginia.
Deonta Vaughn scored 15 points, Lance Stephenson had 14 and Gates added 10 for Cincinnati (16-12, 7-9), which saw its NCAA tournament hopes take a hit.
