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Friday Recap

NCAA Morgan St West Virginia Basketball

What the Daily Mail is talking about this evening:

– How about that finish for WVU?

“I was kind of lost,” said forward Da’Sean Butler, who’s been a star in the final moments lately, but was happily demoted to spectator with 18,653 others inside HSBC Arena. “It’s probably the first smile I had on the bench in a while. Just sitting there and enjoying myself on the bench was strange.”

– Missouri will try to play Sunday’s game its way.

“You’ve got to handle pressure,” Huggins said. “They’re going to try to make the game crazy and we’ve got to play the game we want to play.”

– WVU didn’t much like the rim it was shooting at in the first half — and that was before an 0-for-11 start.

“I said before the game, ‘This rim is another defender,'” Butler said.

– Kevin Jones was just what the Mountaineers needed and when they needed it.

“Last year, we were kind of depending all on (graduated guard) Alex (Ruoff) and Da’Sean,” Jones said. “This year, we’ve got more guys we can depend on. It’s a big difference for guys like Devin, Truck and me, since we were freshmen last year.”

– This is a hoops holiday for Billy and Matt Hahn.

“It’s a really great thing Matt and his guys made it,” said Billy Hahn, who began his coaching career in Charleston as a Morris Harvey College assistant in 1975-76. “When we were watching the bracket (unveiled Sunday night), I said, ‘Hey, we’re in different regions, but they’re in Buffalo, and we’re in Buffalo.’

“A couple of weeks ago, we talked about who might go where. All I can say is the basketball gods took care of us. They took care of us (the Mountaineers), and Vermont, too, and the Hahn family.”

billyho

Q. Da’Sean, you were here two years ago when Joe Alexander went on that amazing run and really kind of became a household name. I’m just kind of wondering if you felt any similarities between what you’ve done in the BIG EAST tournament and your game-winning shots this year compared to what Joe Alexander went through couple of years ago.

DA’SEAN BUTLER: No, I couldn’t compare myself to Joey. He brought us — brought me especially to my first Sweet 16. First tournament appearance ever. He did so much for the team in general during the season that, you know, things I get to do still. He’s just a different player than I am. So I can’t really compare myself to him. Just things are just going good now. I’m just grateful for that. I can’t really say that on the level of his game where he was his junior year and this is my senior year.

Q. Popularity-wise?

DA’SEAN BUTLER: No. Everybody likes the white guy that can jump. I can’t jump. That’s his thing. I can’t really keep up with that.

Open post, everybody. Enjoy the game as viewed from the edge of your seat.

What, you worry?

nervous

So the Big East didn’t do anything to soothe your nerves — and wasn’t that great timing for today’s story?

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Deniz Kilicli unplugged

Deniz Kilicli is a man of many talents. Jump shots with his right hand. Hook shots with his left. If he could only find the time to add six or so hours to the day.

“If I had the time, I’d like to be in a band,” the Turk said. “I like to play music. But being a musician and being an athlete takes a lot of time.”

Don’t get it twisted. He still plays his guitar. He still messes around with a band. He’s just not in a band. He will, on occasion, play with guys who are in a band.

“I had a couple interviews with newspaper guys in West Virginia and they said I played guitar,” Kilicli said Thursday. “A bunch of guys in my dorm said, ‘Oh, you play guitar? Come on. We play guitar.'”

Kilicli has an electric — “I don’t have an amp. You can’t have an amp in the dorm.” — and rather likes throwback tunes.

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Flowers on Twitter rampage

I mean to say “Here’s John Flowers explaining his Twitter parade from earlier this week” but I think the headline excites people in another way.

“Again?!?!?”

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Unlikely.

The coach is a man who who got the NCAA’s rare “show cause” penalty, but appears to have come out on the other end as a better more appreciative coach and person. Contrite is probably a good word. Changed, too. He’s been there and back and didn’t say a word or do a thing to make himself look any worse than did the things for which he admitted guilt.

There’s more. Fittingly, he oversees a team that’s been through more than probably anyone else in the field. And that’s you opponent tomorrow, West Virginia.

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Bob Huggins. Hall of Fame. Discuss.

“I think you could find 500 players, or however many players who’ve played for  him, who’d stand up and say he belongs in the Hall of Fame,” said point guard Joe Mazzulla. “He’s one of the greatest coaches, but what he does best is what people don’t see.”

On to the next one

Last week’s running diary of the New York experience was a disaster for factors beyond my control. I won’t be doing that again. I’ll try to keep the updates here, though I hate flooding the main page with short entries. I think it’s the best way to go this week because I mostly hate not spreading the information.

The Daily Mail has a Twitter (/charleywest) but I’m not sure about this. I also vowed to make sure anything on the Facebook page would be found here, too. So I’ll try to put the meaningful briefs, the things you need to know, right here.

As for now, off to Buffalo. I got a million ways to get it.

Your 2010 “What if?”

In 2005 you wondered “What if Louisville hadn’t closed the first half on a 7-0 run?”

A year later, “What if Frank Young closed out a split-second earlier … or was an inch taller?” Also muttered: “What if I drove to Austin and punched Kenton Paulino in the throat?”

Heck, I still wonder “What if the Mountaineers won that game?”

In 2007, you said, “What if Sosa was called for a travel?”

In 2008, it was “What if WVU didn’t help on the drive against Xavier?”

In 2009, “What if the Mountaineers were ready to play?”

This year’s what if seems preemptive rather than retroactive, but it’s worth mentioning. WVU is by several predictions a wise pick to get to the Sweet 16. Many say the Elite Eight. Some suggest Final Four. Others take one more step down the road. It’s interesting that so many optimistic outlooks share the same structure.

Why they can win: The Mountaineers proved how far a team can go on formidable rebounding, stout defense and all-out hustle this season, riding those three elements to a third place finish in the Big East and a conference tournament title. If West Virginia plays a close tournament game, there’s nobody you’d rather have to take the final shot than Da’Sean Butler, who hit two game-winners in the Big East tournament.

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As grand as WVU made your life in NYC, the Mountaineers made things as difficult for those covering their exploits.

We’ve been through the trouble writing their games on deadline or coming up with stories when one game is the same as the one before it. In New York, and I would assume just for kicks, they combined both and then added the recurring theme of Da’Sean Butler’s game-winners.

A lot went unsaid and unwritten in a hurry and amid celebrations last week and I blame this on Butler. He made it too easy to summarize WVU’s games and overlook everything and everyone else — though he certainly deserved the focus. Ask him, though, and he’d happily admit to having a lot of help along the way.

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