And Then There Were Four
Almost Heaven, West Virginia. That’s what ole John Denver would say right now but what would he say about the Mountaineers heading to their first Final Four since 1959?
West Virginia, however, does have someone who has been to a Final Four in the closer era. Bob Huggins took his Cincinnati team to the Final Four in 1992.
The West Virginia Mountaineers was the second team to punch their ticket to the Final Four in Indianapolis after taking down the top-seeded Kentucky Wildcats with a score of 73-66.
If someone was to tell me that we were going to make eight three pointers in the first half, go 0-16 from inside the arc, and still be up by two points at halftime, I would think you were nuts. With three point field goals being an obstacle for the Mountaineers all year long, they found a way to connect 8 of the 15 attempts from beyond the arc. They also only managed to give up the ball a total of three times going into halftime.
Kentucky dominated on the glass, especially on the offensive end. They out rebounded the Mountaineers 22 to 9 on the offensive glass and had a +11 advantage on the night.
Joe Mazzulla put on a phenomenal show in the game of his life, scoring a career-high 17 points in his first start of the season. Not only did he get his first start of the season, make his first three-point field goal of the year, and more than doubling his previous season-high, but he led his team to a Final Four appearance.
West Virginia took a different approach by playing their lengthy 1-3-1 Zone for much of the game. We usually don’t normally see it until towards the end of the game, but got right into it right after the tip-off. This reduced the young Wildcat penetration and caused frustration to all of the five Cats’ on the floor, especially Center DeMarcus Cousins. Every touch that he had in the paint, he was swarmed by at least three West Virginia defenders. Despite an early 11-0 run by Kentucky, the Wildcats had no answer for the Mountaineers defense. They finished the game shooting a miserable 4-32 from the three-point line as they missed there first 20 attempts. DeAndre Liggins ended the drought by finally hitting a three with 3:29 left to play. They also went 16-29 from the free throw line.
Da’Sean Butler lead West Virginia scoring 18 points and pulling down six rebounds. Butler, who played the game wit ha sore right hand, was key to the Mountaineers first half three-point shooting success as he made four of the eight they converted on.
The Mountaineers continue the streak of a Big East team in the Final Four to four years.