Elijah Macon is fired up upon seeing the draw Sunday night. WVU, which was No. 24 in Sunday’s RPI and No. 19 in the NCAA tournament’s selection committee rankings, plays at a yet-to-be-determined time Friday against Buffalo.

It’s the quintessential 12-5 game. I watched Buffalo for the first time Saturday night, considered 12-5 or 13-6 possibilities and thought, “This is the sort of team that can give WVU trouble.” The Bulls, coached by former Duke All-American Bobby Hurley, take care of the ball and have two very good guards. They rebound like crazy. They take and make a lot of free throws. They were No. 28 in the RPI and No. 48 in the NCAA seeding.

True, they come from the MAC, but they’ve won eight in a row and beat Central Michigan for the bid after losing to the Chippewas twice in the regular season. They like their chances.

To the more fortunate team Friday, it’s the winner of Maryland v. Valparaiso. We can go down that road later, but Maryland has a great guard and some size. Valpo is sort of an upstart team that has a wealth of young talent. But let’s go one step beyond that, because it’s amazing in that it was so predictable: Bob Huggins could see John Calipari in the Sweet Sixteen. The NCAA will never not do that, it seems.