COLUMN: WVU deserves a No. 1 seed

Da’Sean Butler went into this week’s Big East Conference Tournament with two goals – to win the first title in school history and to earn a one seed in the NCAA Tournament.

He accomplished the first goal Saturday night, as West Virginia pulled off a 60-58 win over Georgetown in Madison Square Garden. Butler hit the game-winning shot with 4.2 seconds to go, a contested layup to secure the win.

While he hasn’t yet clinched the second goal on his list, Butler sure gave West Virginia the best chance it has to pick up the final No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

While the Mountaineers aren’t the likeliest of teams to grab that last spot – that nod goes to Duke, especially if it wins the ACC Tournament Sunday – they sure do deserve to be a one seed.

Right now, there is no hotter team in the country than Bob Huggins’ crew. They have won six games in a row, wins over Cincinnati twice, Georgetown twice, Villanova and Notre Dame.

And they know just how strong they are.

In addition, the Mountaineers have found a true identity as a team that will play you tough on defense and find a way to win a game in the final seconds.

That type of clutch, winning attitude is something every team dreams of having, but only a few each season can actually obtain.

West Virginia has that.

They have a leader in Butler, who is the most clutch player in the country. They have a second option in sophomore forward Kevin Jones. They have a third in senior Wellington Smith.

Finally, they have a point guard capable of winning a championship – Joe Mazzulla. While everyone will remember the game winners of Butler when they think back to this moment, many should remember the play of Mazzulla who put all his injuries and offensive struggles aside and willed the team on offense to the win.

With Mazzulla at the point in the NCAA Tournament, teams beware. A healthy Mazzulla is about as good of a leader as there is in the country.

“Joe brings such great enthusiasm, he brings such great toughness,” Huggins said. “I thought he ran our team.”

Huggins said after the game, with the Mountaineers’ resume, there should be no doubt they should be a one seed.

It’s hard to disagree with him.

WVU has 18 top 100 wins – the most in the country. It also has nine top 50 wins. The Mountaineers strength of schedule is expected to be No. 1 in the nation and the team’s RPI is supposed to be in the top three.

Sounds like a one seed to me.

Duke has a pretty nice resume too, but it doesn’t nearly compare to the strength of the Mountaineers’.

The ACC has nothing on the Big East this year. Outside of Duke, there is no real national title contender in the conference. West Virginia, Georgetown and Syracuse all have a true shot at winning it all. There is no other conference in the country that has as many – and the Mountaineers just won that conference’s title.

West Virginia will probably get slighted Sunday when the brackets are announced. Duke has the pull most teams would dream of when it comes to all of this stuff.

But, the Mountaineers deserve the No. 1 seed.

If you don’t agree after the win over Georgetown, you must be watching too much ESPN.

anthony.dobies@mail.wvu.edu