BIG EAST GAME PREVIEW: West Virginia @ Cincinnati

March 4, 2006


West Virginia, with a conference record of 11-4 has already clinched the 3rd seed in the upcoming Big East conference tournament. Cincinnati will either be the 8th or 9th seed and will meet Syracuse in the opening round Wednesday in New York City. That has been determined for the Bearcats, what is not known for certain is their status for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. A win at home on Senior day against the Mountaineers could be a tournament-clinching victory.


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These two teams met just a few short weeks ago in Morgantown and the Mountaineers rallied in the second half for a 9-pt win over the Bearcats. This is really a tough spot for West Virginia as they are coming off Monday's emotional high of beating Pittsburgh on their Senior Night celebration as the Mountaineers and their faithful celebrated on the floor sending off seniors Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey, Joe Herber, Patrick Beilein and JD Collins as winners in their Morgantown finale. Now, they already have their seed determined for the Big East Tournament and will be entering an equally charged atmosphere as the one that helped propel them to victory Monday night, but this one will be favoring the Bearcats.

Neither team is very deep and with the crowd energizing the Bearcats, any thought of them wearing down will probably be erased by the emotion as Chadd Moore, Jihad Muhammad, James White and Eric Hicks will play their final games at Fifth Third Arena and the fans can get one last chance to honor injured senior Armien Kirkland (Oh, my, will either of these teams have anyone left for next year? At least WVU has some recruits...).

With a sellout crowd urging the Bearcats on last Thursday in a tremendous atmosphere, Cincinnati game tantalizing close to a season-making win over Villanova. West Virginia is another unique team to play as they also like to spread the floor out and attack from the perimeter. Cincinnati has little depth, but the depth they have is at guard. They are also extremely athletic and tough inside, although small. The biggest worry for the Bearcats is how they attack the WVU 1-3-1 zone and their freshmen PG Devan Downey needs to protect the ball. WVU lives on winning the turnover game.

Cincinnati is also a team that has been banged up. Hicks left Tuesday's tough loss to Seton Hall in the last few minutes after tweaking his ankle again. James White has battled ankle sprains all season, too. They will need these two to carry them on Saturday.

West Virginia has looked like a tired team at times in their last seven games. After losing four of five, they have rebounded with home wins over Louisville and Pittsburgh in games that came right down to the wire. With the bye already in hand, they might substitute a little more freely and find a chance to get Joe Alexander, Rob Summer and Alex Ruoff some experience and rest their starters just a bit. They are trying to motivate themselves with gaining momentum for the Big East and NCAA Tournaments, but this is an experiences team that advanced to the Big East Tournament final last year, after losing to Seton Hall in their finale, and advanced to the Elite Eight following the loss to Syracuse in the conference championship game last year. This is not an important game for them, but, like all competitors, they will give their all to win.

With former coach Bob Huggins in the building to wish the best for the five seniors he recruited and the arena full, which is a building that has a tremendous home court advantage, you can expect max effort from the Bearcats, as they are also playing for Andy Kennedy to get the job as Huggins replacement permanately.

NBE Blogger Prediction:

Cincinnati 73 West Virginia 66