WVU headed to Final Four
Mountaineers methodically conquer Kentucky, 73-66
by Mike Casazza
Daily Mail sports writer
The Associated Press
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - West Virginia's basketball players were ready for biggest game of their still young lives Saturday night when they began the short jog from the tunnel inside the Carrier Dome to the floor. The pep band played their song. The fans sprang suddenly to their feet and cheered. Jonnie West was first to squeak his sneakers across the floor. Then came Cam Payne.
And that was it.
"Once we saw Jonnie and Cam go out there, we stopped to see how far they'd go before they noticed," said point guard Joe Mazzulla, who with teammate Cam Thoroughman orchestrated this Elite Eight prank.
West and Payne eventually realized it and Mazzulla and Thoroughman led the rest of the laughing Mountaineers toward tipoff against Kentucky.
"That wasn't very nice," West would say later, "but that shows who we are. We're loose. Everyone stays loose before the game and even during it, but when we get in the games, we have a killer mentality and it's going to wear you down."
After wondering for most of the season if they'd ever figure out who they are, the Mountaineers have for the entire month mastered their identity, cemented an approach and insisted their way would cut it.
And now they're cutting down nets.
In the only matchup of a region's top two seeds in this NCAA Tournament, No. 2 seed WVU defeated No. 1 seed Kentucky, 73-66, before a crowd of 22,497. The Mountaineers advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1959 when West's father, Jerry, was a junior.
WVU (31-6) plays the winner of the South Region championship game between No. 1 seed Duke and No. 3 Seed Baylor Saturday in Indianapolis.
"We win games because of our tempo," senior Da'Sean Butler said. "We don't do well going up and down the court with other people. We're not a fast break team. If we control the tempo, nine times out of 10 we win that game."
Ten times in the past 10 games, WVU been funny before and then ferocious within and won each with discipline on offense and determination on defense. Noted for man-to-man throughout the season, the Mountaineers played a 1-3-1 zone for the majority of the game. The Wildcats (35-3) shot 34.3 percent for the game, missed their first 20 3-point attempts on the way to 4-for-32 shooting and had 16 turnovers that led to 19 WVU points.
"It was pretty tough," said Kentucky freshman point guard John Wall. "They're a long, athletic team. They did a great job denying us getting to the wings and we weren't making shots. I think if we would have made shots, it would have spread them out. Hats off for them. Their defense did a great job on us."
Wall was 7-for-18 and banked in a 3-pointer after missing four others. He added five assists, but also five turnovers and five fouls in what is likely his last college game. Shooting guard Eric Bledsoe, who was 8-for-9 from 3-point range in the first round, was 0-for-5 and had seven points. Guard Darnell Dodson was 2-for-9 from 3-point range.
WVU caused problems inside, too, and center DeMarcus Cousins had 15 points and eight rebounds, but also five turnovers. He was often made to deal with Mazzulla at the bottom of the zone.
"At one point he looked and me and said, 'Are you serious?'" Mazzulla said. "I said, 'Yeah, I'm serious. You're going to have to punch me in the face to get me off you.'"
The Mountaineers turned a two-point halftime lead into a nine-point advantage early in the second half and built it to 11 points when Mazzulla drove for an open layup when Cousins walked back up the court on defense. The margin grew to be as large as 16 points and WVU felt they had the Wildcats, who start three freshmen and a sophomore and have two sophomores and a freshman in their rotation.
"They outplayed us," Kentucky Coach John Calipari said. "I think there were times that the inexperience hurt us. Understanding you're not going to catch it all at once. Knowing that this is the guy we have to stop and then you lose him. There were things that happened. And I think their veterans - especially Mazzulla - were good. He got some layups that were back-breaking. He just played so well and ran their team."
Mazzulla played a season-high 30 minutes and scored a career-high 17 points. He also made his first 3-pointer since Nov. 28, 2008. Butler had 18 points and made four 3-pointers. Kevin Jones added 13 points and eight rebounds and Devin Ebanks had 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Mountaineers were 10-for-23 from 3-point range and 8-for-15 in the first half. They were also 0-for-16 from 2-point range and outrebounded 29-16. WVU shot 57.1 percent in the second half and outrebounded the Wildcats by one.
"We're not as good in the first half as we are in the second because people get tired of chasing it," said Coach Bob Huggins, who returns to the Final Four after appearing there in 1992. "They get tired of chasing it. They get tired of being screened. They get tired of chasing those curls. We got nothing at the rim in the first half. We got a lot of things at the rim in the second half."
The game unfolded not only in the fashion predicted by the Mountaineers, who believed their grinding style could trump Kentucky's talent, but also by Cornell Coach Steve Donahue.
"I think there are a lot of positives about Kentucky," Donahue said after Thursday's Sweet Sixteen loss to the Wildcats. "My concern is that I don't necessarily think for 40 minutes that they may be able to handle this against a team like us that's a little more longer and athletic with experience the next game. West Virginia is terrific."
The Mountaineers were in their third regional final and first since 2005, when they lost in overtime to Louisville. The team has broken every huddle in practice and before games this season by reminding one another they want to be national champs. Not since WVU lost to Cal 71-70 in the final in 1959 has the school been as close. The team that's 8-0 in this state this year will play Saturday in Hoosier State, where WVU is 0-2 with losses to Purdue and Notre Dame.
"The first day I was there I told them I came back to win a national championship," Huggins said. "I came back to win it for the university, having played there and for the great people in our state. And it's going to take a lot of work. And I said this many times, the wonderful thing about these guys is they never doubt. They never ask why. They never kind of bucked it. They just said, 'OK, that's what we have to do. We're going to go do it.' And they've done it and done with it great enthusiasm and great vigor. And they deserve all the credit for it. They're really good guys."
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