-- After yesterday's big game and with the fact that the UL/WVU football game is alsmost certinaly going to be on ABC....looks like the BE stumbled onto a pretty good new rivalry

Jackson


Heartbreaking loss won't detract from WVU's season
By Andy Katz, ESPN.com


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Rick Pitino knows the feeling that John Beilein had all too well.

He equated West Virginia losing its 20-point lead to what he went through when Duke beat Kentucky in the 1992 Elite Eight in Philadelphia.

"The only bad thing [about Louisville's 93-85 overtime victory over West Virginia Saturday] was going to shake hands of John Beilein and the West Virginia players because I know what they're feeling," Pitino said. "I felt great but shaking the hands of their players was very difficult."

West Virginia had one of the most impressive runs in the tournament. The Mountaineers beat Creighton on a dunk. They took out Wake Forest in double overtime. They outlasted Texas Tech in the Sweet 16. And then they made 10 3s in the first half and 18 overall and still lost in overtime to Louisville in the Elite Eight.

West Virginia native Kevin Pittsnogle couldn't miss. He made 6-of-8 3s and was constantly a matchup problem. Pitino said after the game that he has rarely seen a team with four players who could make 3s, let alone five and a starting center (Pittsnogle) who could knock them down at will without much spacing.

"This has been a great experience to come from West Virginia and be able to play and represent the state like this as a West Virginia player," Pittsnogle said. "I've had a great time. We've had a great season and next year we'll hopefully do the same."

And teams could end up getting "Pittsnogled" as one fan's sign read, holding it up every time the Mountaineers center made a 3-pointer.

But he wasn't alone as seven players made at least one 3.

Patrick Beilein had one 3-pointer off the glass from the corner of Louisville's bench and he had a near 30-foot 3-pointer from the coach's box right by Pitino.

"Usually that's a pretty good game," Beilein said of the Mountaineers making 18 3s. "I haven't coached against … I shouldn't say … I have coached against the likes of these guys before but maybe this game is a 20-point loss if we don't shoot that well because they were so talented."

West Virginia earned lots of respect with this game and this run. The two teams will likely meet in the Big East next season (not everyone plays each team in the 16-game schedule in the 16-team Big East).

After the game, an official from the Big East said he never would have dreamed that a Louisville-West Virginia game could end up being a marquee game for next season. But ESPN, ABC or CBS will definitely covet this matchup. The Mountaineers and Beilein have garned national respect from the likes of Wake Forest's Skip Prosser, Texas Tech's Bob Knight and now Pitino. Their 1-3-1 zone has been dubbed one of the toughest to play against and their offense one of the most finely tuned of any team in the country. They have been deemed a team that plays the right way without all the hype and fanfare of having All-Americans and summer-league baggage.

West Virginia only loses two contributing seniors -- Tryone Sally and D'or Fischer. The Mountaineers could enter next season as one of the favorites (along with Villanova and Connecticut) in the Big East.

"The way we lost the game was tough," said West Virginia's Mike Gansey. "But we had a great season. It was a tough game. Louisville is a great team. They made the plays they needed to make but we had a great year."

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.

Louisville-West Virginia=INSTANT RIVALRY.

Looking forward to both the Football and Basketball games this year. Man am I hype for the start of Big East play.

Yep - Great job to the Eers and Beilein.

I'm thinking the BE round robin TV pairings next year will be:

UConn-Nova-SU-ND

Louisville-Cincinnati-WVU-Pitt

Lots of tough battles in each of those groupings, not to mention still having to play the teams in the other grouping at least once.

That's 40 Top TV match-ups between just these 8 teams.

Much too big for ESPN (and a few to CBS) to handle. We definitely need to branch out in terms of our TV contract.

Cheers,
Neil

With ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN U, and ESPN Classic all showing games, to go with ABC and CBS, there might be enough TV spots to play all those games. ESPN U will have a ton of games on since it will pretty much be all college basketball from December through early March...

what an amazing post season. I can't say how proud I am of this team, Coach Beilein and all of our fans. WVU garnered unprecedented national publicity and kudo, and that will mean huge ticket sales next season at the Coliseum, and it should be a big boost for recruiting

Congrats to Louisville for a gutsy performance, and welcome to the Big East. Exciting times ahead!!!!!!!

Quote:I'm thinking the BE round robin TV pairings next year will be:

UConn-Nova-SU-ND

Louisville-Cincinnati-WVU-Pitt

-- Wow...those would be some very tough "brackets".....Personally...I think its important for the future all sports league that UL/UC/PItt/WVU play home and homes...the sooner those schools form an identity together and the fans get used to traveling to the other campuses the better...if UCs football program can keep it up and draw a few more fans and WVUs bball program can keep rolling that could be a VERY nice foursome in both major sports

-- I would be suprised if ND is put with SU, Nova etc...personally I think ND offcials are going to be whining in the conference meetings about how they had the toughest schedule the last two yrs and haven't advanced to the NCAA etc...I think they will be pushing hard to play Depaul, Marquette and bball only that is far less talented then Nova as part of their home and homes....don't think ND is going to be as good next yr withouth Chris Thomas

Jackson

I think WVU had a great season, and I enjoyed watching them play in the tournament.

And no disrespect to all WVU fans, since I know it's not all of them, but someone really needs to stop the idiots that think setting fires after WVU wins something big is a great way to celebrate. That is really bush league.

Maize Wrote:Louisville-West Virginia=INSTANT RIVALRY.

Looking forward to both the Football and Basketball games this year. Man am I hype for the start of Big East play.

It'll be good for Louisville to gain an instant rival in WVU. Close enough fans could drive to. As most BE fans know Morgantown is a tough win in any sport. Given five years this football league will still be 6th on the BCS pecking order but it should be able to distance itself from the MWC.

And it shouldn't take away from a great season. Jackson, I came in here and said you should be lucky WVU even made the tourney after going through a similiar bad stretch like UAB endured.

That said, I'm here to say that my heart sunk for you guys after losing the way you did to UL.

I'm still trying to figure out how WVU shoot 18 of 27 from 3 land and still lose the game. And I'm sure Eer's fans are trying to figure that out as well.

But it was a great season for you guys so you should be proud. WVU proved a lot of naysayers wrong at the Dance.

Quote:And it shouldn't take away from a great season. Jackson, I came in here and said you should be lucky WVU even made the tourney after going through a similiar bad stretch like UAB endured.

That said, I'm here to say that my heart sunk for you guys after losing the way you did to UL.

I'm still trying to figure out how WVU shoot 18 of 27 from 3 land and still lose the game. And I'm sure Eer's fans are trying to figure that out as well.

But it was a great season for you guys so you should be proud. WVU proved a lot of naysayers wrong at the Dance

-- Thank you for the kind words.....We played the best we possibly could against the Cardinals...in the end rebounding was the key...UL got 10 points of air balls that they caught and put back in....I don't think any West Virginia fan is really that disappointed considering the team exceeded everyone's expectations by such a wide margin....those boys entered WV folklore over the last month and will always be remembered.....there were 5,000 people to greet them when they got of the team bus in Morgantown after the loss to UL...it was a very special moment


Jackson

I expect to see WVU back in the top 25 again next season

Glad to see it--ofcourse I'll be in the Dome screaming my head off in September against you.