College GameDay In Morgantown

It's Louisville vs. West Virginia tonight on ESPN's College GameDay. Noffke, are you really not watching this? Religion puzzles me.

Here's my deal. The Big East is definitely great this year. Personally, I'll take the ACC top-echelon teams over those of the BE, but all in all it seems like a good year for all the power conferences in college basketball (except the SEC!). Everyone knows that Pittsburgh and UConn are locks for 1 or (at worst) 2 seeds, but this Louisville team is sort of the mystery squad of the elite. And if they win tonight in Morgantown, they get the regular-season Big East crown. For me, it all hinges on ultra-inconsistent NBA prospect Earl Clark.

Clark is so amazingly talented. He can make some killer passes, he is 6'9" with a monster wingspan, he can shoot and crash the boards. But sometimes, he just disappears. Terrence Williams is a rock solid player for Pitino, for sure. But for me, whether this team goes deep or not depends on the play of Earl. And you just never know whether he will decide to play big or not on any given night.

Meanwhile, Bob Huggins' West Virginia squad features probable Big East ROY Devin Ebanks, who used to be an Indiana University commit under Kelvin "Text Me Baby!" Sampson. I love watching Huggy Bear coach. I also love watching Pitino coach. This is a definite showcase for those of us who feel like the Big Ten is the land of the best in CBB coaching - other conferences feature great coaches, too. Just to be fair.

Anyway, I'm pretty excited for this one. Jacksonville vs. East Tennessee State was a terrible game, basically unwatchable, so that was a big letdown. I'll be flipping back and forth between this game and the OVC Championship (OVC: Land of Perennial First Round Loser Austin Peay) on ESPN2. Hopefully at least one of these two will be entertaining.

Not to pick a side, but Go Mountaineers! Gotta represent the Pittsnogle Legacy. And I guess I'll take Austin Peay over the humorously named Morehead State.

UPDATE: The Big East is giving us a killer game. Louisville leads 32-29 at halftime on the strength of four Terrence Williams three pointers. He is looking pretty much unstoppable. Williams also had a gorgeous jam in transition. The Mountaineers, meanwhile, are showing off some pretty passing to the interior and are getting easy layups against the Cards big men. Very entertaining game.

Jerry West on who should be College Basketball's logo (West is the NBA 'logo'): "Maybe Bobby Knight, throwing the chair?"

UPDATE II: Well, it looks like the Ohio Valley Conference ain't no slouch, either. Morehead State and Austin Peay (with their rousing chant, "Let's Go Peay!" - sounds urgent) were tied at 55 all when Kenneth Faried laid down an alley oop jam for Morehead with 6.7 seconds left. And now?! Caleb Brown of Austin Peay ties it off glass as time expires! Huge. This one is going to overtime. Tim Welsh and Lou Canellis have the call on ESPN2. Both teams have big time players, notably Faried and Leon Buchannan for MSU. Who will get to battle a 2 seed next week? Stay tuned.

UPDATE III: Double OT in the O.V.C. 63-63. Louisville-WVU is within a few points. This is great.

IV: Well, Morehead State is dancing. Freshman Steve Peterson hit the winning shot, his only score of the game, with less than two seconds left. Meanwhile, West Virginia has taken the lead on Louisville, despite leading scorer and sole senior Alex Ruoff being held scoreless and tied to the bench with foul trouble for most of the game.

So far, we've got Cornell, Radford, East Tennessee State, and Morehead State in the tourney. I don't see any of these teams as higher than a 14, but I predict that at least one of them (probably Radford - that Art guy is really good) will give someone a scare in the first round.

V: Well, Louisville wins 62-59, despite West Virginia having one final last-gasp shot. Ruoff was held scoreless throughout. Terrence Williams had a huge game. Louisville goes into the Big East tournament as the #1 seed, ahead of Pittsburgh and Connecticut. What a tournament that is going to be. I'm signing out for the night. These next two weeks are going to be freakin' awesome.