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History and a brief history of WVU and No. 1

Bob Huggins is 1-4 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams, which doesn’t seem like a lot given that he’s been doing this for 34 seasons now. But that’s the truth, and it underscores how special the occasion is to play No. 1. At home. Huggins has never had the top-ranked team on his home floor.

The above is the one win, the season after West Virginia banked Cincinnati out of the NCAA Tournament, and it was the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout. (DeCourcy!)

“I thought they were the better team,” Krzyzewski said. ”Certainly they played harder than we did for the 40 minutes.”

Duke got 30 points from Avery and 12 from forward Elton Brand. Levett’s last two points gave him 25 for the game and helped him break out of the slump that gripped him for the first three games. He was 11-of-14 from the field and made both his three-point attempts. Small forward Pete Mickeal scored 17, and guard Alvin Mitchell 14, six in the final five minutes.

”We had a lot of chances to pack it in,” coach Bob Huggins said. ”They’re a great basketball team. They play so hard, and they’re so well-coached and do so many things to win games. They’re a deserving No. 1. But I was telling my guys, when you’re ranked No. 1, there’s a lot of pressure to win.”

WVU is 3-7 against No. 1 and 1-4 at the Coliseum. The last win against No. 1 and against No. 1 at the Coliseum was nearly 33 years ago against UNLV, which Bob Hertzel reminds us was coming off a loss.

The 11th-ranked Mountaineers, of course, play host to No. 1 Kansas tonight on ESPN2. They’ve won the last two tilts at the Coliseum against the Jayhawks, and that matters nearly naught.

“I think it might be the best one we’ve played so far with the way they’re playing now,” Huggins said.

Kansas (14-1, 3-0 Big 12) is the fourth No. 1 team this season, following preseason pick North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan State. The Spartans are the only team to beat Kansas this season, but the Jayhawks have won 13 in a row since then.

“No. 1 ain’t always safe,” WVU forward Jon Holton said. “You’ve always got guys hunting for you.”

That’s hardly new to Kansas, the 11-time defending regular season conference champion that’s been No. 1 22 times under coach Bill Self. His team is second nationally in scoring offense (88.4 points per game), third in scoring margin (plus-21.1), eighth in field-goal percentage (50.1) and second in 3-point shooting percentage (45.9).

“They’re shooting the ball as well as anybody I’ve seen in a long time,” Huggins said.