03-27-2010, 11:39 AM
Lets see what The Charleston Gazette is saying about the border war between Kentucky and West Virginia.
Whether it's in Las Vegas or merely the court of public opinion, one thing is pretty clear about West Virginia's Elite Eight matchup with Kentucky tonight at the Carrier Dome.
The Mountaineers are not the favorites.
It is Kentucky's wealth of talent and first-round NBA draft picks against West Virginia's grit. It is the Wildcats' tradition and history of success and glass cases full of national championship trophies against the Mountaineers' almost pathological and long-standing underdog complex.
I see a trend developing. Everyone is David, and we are Goliath. From here on out, every game the Cats win, the more they become the villain. Kentucky is becoming the Yankees more every game.
Shoot, even pop culture is on Kentucky's side.
"They have Ashley Judd up in the stands rooting for them,'' Da'Sean Butler said. "We have old-timers. We have Jerry West.''
And guess what? West Virginia couldn't be happier with the situation in which it finds itself.
The only thing that bothers me about Ashley Judd is she is against coal. My Dad was an engineer on the railroad and it has put food on the table my entire life. Plus, where has she been the last two years when Kentucky wasn't #1 in the country. Sorry, got on my soapbox.
This is uncharted territory for West Virginia this postseason. In every game the Mountaineers have played since the end of the regular season they have faced a team seeded dramatically below them, first in winning the Big East tournament and then in running through the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament. Upsets along the way in both events allowed WVU to face just the Nos. 11, 7 and 8 seeds in the Big East and the Nos. 15, 10 and 11 seeds in the East Region.
Still, the Mountaineers have tried to adopt an underdog's mentality all along the way, which should serve them well now that they actually are looking up at a Kentucky team that is universally regarded as the most talented in the country.
It wouldn't have mattered if they wanted to adopt an underdog's mentality, the media would have made sure of it.
"Everybody has been favored to beat us since we got here, which is pretty strange,'' Butler said, conveniently ignoring the fact that West Virginia hasn't actually been a betting underdog since the last game of the regular season and instead choosing to listen to the occasional doubters. "I've never seen so many people [talking like] we're overmatched.''
Hopefully West Virginia will be overmatched today. I think they are.
It is a philosophy and an attitude that has served the Mountaineers well. A team that doesn't shoot the ball very well and needs to fight hard on defense and in rebounding is never well-served by being overconfident, so West Virginia's players have tried to view themselves as the underdogs in order to fuel the fire they need in order to win.
I like the fact they don't shoot very well. This is the main reason I think we will win by 15. The only teams that have given the Cats trouble is teams who shoot the fire out of the three pointer. It will be a rough one, but the Cats will gut this one out at the end.
What West Virginia faces tonight, though, is entirely different. In nearly every postseason game to date, the Mountaineers have had at least some sort of advantage in talent. Perhaps only Georgetown in the Big East finals did an opponent have a player or players (center Greg Monroe) who might have been more highly regarded than Butler or teammates Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones.
Kentucky, on the other hand, has among its starting five four players who will almost certainly go in the top 10-15 picks in June's NBA draft, assuming they all decide to come out. Freshman guard John Wall will be the first player taken. Massive (6-foot-11, 270-pound) freshman center DeMarcus Cousins is a certain lottery pick. Patrick Patterson, the 6-8, 235-pound forward from Huntington, will be a top-10 pick. And freshman guard Eric Bledsoe is right there, too.
It's not that the Mountaineers haven't faced NBA talent this season. In fact, of the 12 players the Web site NBADraft.net projects going at the top of the next draft if they declare, West Virginia will have faced eight by the end of this season (Ohio State's Evan Turner, Syracuse's Wesley Johnson, Marshall's Hassan Whiteside and Monroe are the others). But to have fully half of them on one team is fairly mind-boggling.
Talent has been the equalizer for the Cats since the tournament began. How can anyone matchup with the Cats? If the Cats play defense the way they did vs. Cornell I don't see any problem moving on to Indy.
But West Virginia's ace in the hole is its defense. Whether it be man-to-man or the 1-3-1 zone, the Mountaineers have caused problems for even the best of teams this season. While Kentucky is big with Cousins, Patterson, 6-7 Darius Miller and the 6-4 Wall, WVU can still cause matchup problems with perhaps all five starters at 6-7 or better if John Flowers is in the lineup. Kentucky had problems with Cornell's changing defenses in a 62-45 win Thursday night and at least one neutral observer likes WVU's chances of causing the Wildcats trouble on the defensive end.
"I think there are a lot of positives about Kentucky,'' Cornell coach Steve Donahue said after that game. "My concern is that I don't necessarily think for 40 minutes that they may be able to handle [that defensive intensity] against a team like us that's a little longer and athletic with experience. Maybe the next game. West Virginia is terrific.''
And certainly ready to give it a shot.
Last time I check Coach Donahue, you lost by 17 to a team that didn't play an entire 40 minutes and also hit 2-19 from the 3. The Cats find different ways to beat you. It was offense the first two games, defense won the last one. What will it be this game?
http://www.nationofblue.com/what-they-sa...ew_comment
Whether it's in Las Vegas or merely the court of public opinion, one thing is pretty clear about West Virginia's Elite Eight matchup with Kentucky tonight at the Carrier Dome.
The Mountaineers are not the favorites.
It is Kentucky's wealth of talent and first-round NBA draft picks against West Virginia's grit. It is the Wildcats' tradition and history of success and glass cases full of national championship trophies against the Mountaineers' almost pathological and long-standing underdog complex.
I see a trend developing. Everyone is David, and we are Goliath. From here on out, every game the Cats win, the more they become the villain. Kentucky is becoming the Yankees more every game.
Shoot, even pop culture is on Kentucky's side.
"They have Ashley Judd up in the stands rooting for them,'' Da'Sean Butler said. "We have old-timers. We have Jerry West.''
And guess what? West Virginia couldn't be happier with the situation in which it finds itself.
The only thing that bothers me about Ashley Judd is she is against coal. My Dad was an engineer on the railroad and it has put food on the table my entire life. Plus, where has she been the last two years when Kentucky wasn't #1 in the country. Sorry, got on my soapbox.
This is uncharted territory for West Virginia this postseason. In every game the Mountaineers have played since the end of the regular season they have faced a team seeded dramatically below them, first in winning the Big East tournament and then in running through the first three rounds of the NCAA tournament. Upsets along the way in both events allowed WVU to face just the Nos. 11, 7 and 8 seeds in the Big East and the Nos. 15, 10 and 11 seeds in the East Region.
Still, the Mountaineers have tried to adopt an underdog's mentality all along the way, which should serve them well now that they actually are looking up at a Kentucky team that is universally regarded as the most talented in the country.
It wouldn't have mattered if they wanted to adopt an underdog's mentality, the media would have made sure of it.
"Everybody has been favored to beat us since we got here, which is pretty strange,'' Butler said, conveniently ignoring the fact that West Virginia hasn't actually been a betting underdog since the last game of the regular season and instead choosing to listen to the occasional doubters. "I've never seen so many people [talking like] we're overmatched.''
Hopefully West Virginia will be overmatched today. I think they are.
It is a philosophy and an attitude that has served the Mountaineers well. A team that doesn't shoot the ball very well and needs to fight hard on defense and in rebounding is never well-served by being overconfident, so West Virginia's players have tried to view themselves as the underdogs in order to fuel the fire they need in order to win.
I like the fact they don't shoot very well. This is the main reason I think we will win by 15. The only teams that have given the Cats trouble is teams who shoot the fire out of the three pointer. It will be a rough one, but the Cats will gut this one out at the end.
What West Virginia faces tonight, though, is entirely different. In nearly every postseason game to date, the Mountaineers have had at least some sort of advantage in talent. Perhaps only Georgetown in the Big East finals did an opponent have a player or players (center Greg Monroe) who might have been more highly regarded than Butler or teammates Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones.
Kentucky, on the other hand, has among its starting five four players who will almost certainly go in the top 10-15 picks in June's NBA draft, assuming they all decide to come out. Freshman guard John Wall will be the first player taken. Massive (6-foot-11, 270-pound) freshman center DeMarcus Cousins is a certain lottery pick. Patrick Patterson, the 6-8, 235-pound forward from Huntington, will be a top-10 pick. And freshman guard Eric Bledsoe is right there, too.
It's not that the Mountaineers haven't faced NBA talent this season. In fact, of the 12 players the Web site NBADraft.net projects going at the top of the next draft if they declare, West Virginia will have faced eight by the end of this season (Ohio State's Evan Turner, Syracuse's Wesley Johnson, Marshall's Hassan Whiteside and Monroe are the others). But to have fully half of them on one team is fairly mind-boggling.
Talent has been the equalizer for the Cats since the tournament began. How can anyone matchup with the Cats? If the Cats play defense the way they did vs. Cornell I don't see any problem moving on to Indy.
But West Virginia's ace in the hole is its defense. Whether it be man-to-man or the 1-3-1 zone, the Mountaineers have caused problems for even the best of teams this season. While Kentucky is big with Cousins, Patterson, 6-7 Darius Miller and the 6-4 Wall, WVU can still cause matchup problems with perhaps all five starters at 6-7 or better if John Flowers is in the lineup. Kentucky had problems with Cornell's changing defenses in a 62-45 win Thursday night and at least one neutral observer likes WVU's chances of causing the Wildcats trouble on the defensive end.
"I think there are a lot of positives about Kentucky,'' Cornell coach Steve Donahue said after that game. "My concern is that I don't necessarily think for 40 minutes that they may be able to handle [that defensive intensity] against a team like us that's a little longer and athletic with experience. Maybe the next game. West Virginia is terrific.''
And certainly ready to give it a shot.
Last time I check Coach Donahue, you lost by 17 to a team that didn't play an entire 40 minutes and also hit 2-19 from the 3. The Cats find different ways to beat you. It was offense the first two games, defense won the last one. What will it be this game?
http://www.nationofblue.com/what-they-sa...ew_comment
