Written by Major Kelchner | 25 March 2010

The notion that the Big East has taken a beating is undeniable.  After getting eight teams into the tournament, only Syracuse and West Virginia remain.  While the number of teams left does not dictate the hit on the conference reputation, the teams and the way they lost definitely does.

First round exits by Marquette, Louisville, Notre Dame and Georgetown, along with second round exits to smaller conference teams by Pitt (Xavier/ A10) and Villanova (St. Mary’s/ WCC), have made this a rough year for the Big East.

 

West Virginia gets a shot at conference redemption when they face off against Pac-10 champion Washington.

The Mountaineers beat Morgan State handily in the round of 64 and then put away a pesky, full-court-pressing Missouri team in round two.

Washington is the only team in the tournament with possibly a bigger responsibility to their conference than either Big East team.  After a year of ups and downs, criticism and obvious struggles by the usual tradition-rich powerhouses (see: UCLA, Stanford, Arizona), Washington enters as the Pac-10 conference tournament champ looking to silence the critics by upending the Mountaineers.

Led by forward Quincy Pondexter and point guard Isaiah Thomas, ths Huskies have made a somewhat surprising run in the tournament, and look to knock off their second Big East team in three games, after edging Marquette in the opening round 80-78.  The Huskies also laid a thorough beating on three-seed New Mexico, 82-64, to pave their way to Syracuse.

The match-up to watch in this game will be Quincy Pondexter against Mountaineer forward Devin Ebanks.  West Virginia gains the advantage because of the seemingly endless supply of lanky forwards they can throw at the UW front line. Kevin Jones (6′8″), Wellington Smith (6′7″), Da’Sean Butler (6′7″) and John Flowers (6′7″) all could find themselves guarding Pondexter and any three of them could be on the court at the same time.

Can Pondexter be stopped? That remains to be seen, but it is entirely feasible to think they will be able to contain the senior forward. The Mountaineers should prove to be too much defensively to let Pondexter get comfortable for 40 minutes.

The other key match-up will be Truck Bryant or Joe Mazzulla against Isaiah Thomas. Both are decent defenders, but must stop the ball in order to disrupt the sophomore point guard.

Key to the Game: WVU’s Three-headed monster. Washington has to find a way to keep Ebanks, Butler and Jones from scoring and off of the offensive glass.

Outcome: WVU 72, Washington 59. A close one until Butler gets hot with 10 minutes to go in the second half.