A live look beneath the bleachers at the Charleston Civic Center, where I spy a spare shot clock. This is great news in 2009.

Who’s ready for a fight?

5:02 pm: Two pre-game notes. Deniz Kilicli is on the starting lineup submitted by WVU. There are also no soft drinks in the press room. Apparently the per-can charge was too much for the Civic Center.

5:21: On the whistle tonight: Brent Hampton, James Breeding and Doug Shows. 

Hampton has called two Marshall games and has already handed out 12 technicals and been a party to 31 DQs after seeing 19 and 27 last year. Perhaps that was a slow season. He had 29 and 59 in 2009.

Breeding is not impressed (20 and 49 already this year). This will be the third time he’s seen WVU (Duquesne and Georgetown). He had the Marshall-UCF game and called two Ts — one against each team.

Shows has whistled four WVU games (Davidson, Minnesota, Robert Morris and Providence).

Breeding is a Big East ref. Shows is not, but has seen a number of Big East teams and games. Ditto Hampton.

5:27: Been hearing about these and finally got a look at them. The new WVU basketball uniforms.

6:17: Marshall’s women’s team (5-11) is pretty bad. And short-handed. WVU has eight players dressed and on the bench. The Thundering Herd have eight dressed in all. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 10-0 lead and have been up no less than seven points — and mostly by at least double that — the rest of the way. It looks like they could press if they wanted and just end this thing, but that would be ugly and perhaps unfair.

6:31: It’s 41-11 at the half and Marshall is — I quadruple-checked this stat and that I keyed it in correctly — 2-for-25 from the floor. Marshall has one assist (Yay!) and 14 turnovers (Oh.). I’ve never seen such a thing.

7:14: Awful. Just awful. I’m going to look for a white towel to throw on the floor. And yes, I realize that’s a flagrant violation of what I posted this morning. Screw it.

7:42: Women’s game was an historic demolition. It ended at 78-21, the fewest points ever allowed by WVU (38 years). Marshall had never scored fewer than 28 points since starting in 1969.

7:52: And boom goes the WiFi. I’m quite likely done with the blog for the night. Internet inside the arena is come and mostly go. I’m putting this on your shoulders. Good evening.