Big East admits to officiating mistake in Louisville-West Virginia game

I’m not sure this will make Rick Pitino feel any better, but there it is nonetheless. Louisville’s last three conference losses have all ended with controversial calls.

WVU Tops Louisville, Jumps Three Spots in Each Poll

The comeback kids were back at it Saturday at the WVU Coliseum. For the sixth time in their last nine games, the Mountaineers fell behind by double-digits, and for the third time among those six, WVU came back to win.

• This time, it was a heroic effort from senior Da’Sean Butler, who scored a game-high 27 points and hit the game-winning jumper from 12 feet away off an inbounds pass from Joe Mazzulla. Butler was consistent all afternoon, and continues to be an extremely clutch player. This is the third time this season Butler has nailed a game-winning shot, with the first two coming at Cleveland State and against Marquette. Butler is now averaging 16.5 points per game while showing why he was a preseason first-team all-Big East selection.
• WVU utilized a 1-3-1 zone trailing by 11 points with six and a half minutes remaining. The Mountaineers length seemed to bother Louisville, as the Cardinals hit just one field goal and were outscored 18-4 the rest of the way.
• Louisville’s bench scored 26 points, compared to just five for the WVU reserves. WVU head coach Bob Huggins said afteward that he was not worried about his lack of bench scoring, because most of his reserves are not in the game to score. While it’s true that guys like John Flowers, Joe Mazzulla and Cam Thoroughman bring other qualities to the team than scoring, the Mountaineers cannot continue to let opponents reserves outscore them by 21 points. Mazzulla did a great job of setting the tone defensively and could’ve finished with more points were it not for a 2-for-6 effort from the foul line. Still, Huggins can’t be pleased seeing his bench hit one basket over the last two games.
• UL head coach Rick Pitino was upset with the officiating and it’s hard to blame him. Before Butler’s game-winner, Mazzulla went to the basket and lost the ball out of bounds. WVU maintained possession but the replay clearly showed the ball touch Mazzulla’s head last. It appeared to be a sequence where Mazzulla may have been fouled, and instead of blowing the whistle on that, the referees kept the ball with WVU. It worked out well for the Mountaineers, who quickly inbounded to an open Butler for a good look which he cashed in on. Pitino was also upset with the refs because when his team got the ball back on the ensuing possession, Reginald Delk missed a 3-pointer and the scrum for the rebound ended up out of bounds. Official Mike Kitts was closest to where the ball went out but could not see who touched it last because he was trying to protect himself from the ball and players potentially running into him. The referees looked at the monitor to determine something (nobody really knows what because they aren’t allowed to change the ruling of who’s possession it is) and ended up giving the ball to WVU. Replays did not indicate a definitive answer as to who it touched last, but many feel as if the Mountaineers got a break there too. Butler then hit two free throws and Mike Marra’s desperation 3-point attempt to tie was well off the mark. Afterward, Pitino went on a half-minute long tirade and let associate coach Ralph Willard talk to the media.
• With the win, WVU (17-3, 6-2 Big East) jumped up to No. 6 in each of Monday’s polls. It is the highest West Virginia has ever been ranked in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
• Pitt comes to Morgantown for a Backyard Brawl showdown on Wednesday. Be sure to check back tomorrow for more on that game and the debut of WVU freshman Deniz Kilicli.

Let the Battle Continue

As if it’s not already interesting enough, expect things to heat up even more between WVU’s student section and Morgantown in the coming days.

A win over Ohio State on Jan. 23 included consistent chants from the WVU students of “F— You Turner” and “F—ekyes” directed at OSU’s best player, Evan Turner, and mocking Ohio State’s nickname, the Buckeyes.

Then, Morgantown mayor Bill Byrne and WVU Vice President of Student Affairs Ken Gray voiced their displeasure over the lack of class displayed by WVU students, which could be heard on a nationally televised CBS audience as well.

Take a look at the letter Gray sent to each WVU student hoping for positive changes.

The student’s response? Well no Internet pictures have surfaced yet, but you can get a glimpse of what the students look like here two days ago in a win over Louisville.

All in all, I thought it was a pretty clever move from the student section. The t-shirts provided a different twist and were still all in good fun. While I agree students should tone it down a bit and come up with less vulgar chants, there was some improvement Saturday.

The part that seems disturbing to me is how the Mountaineer Maniacs, a WVU affiliated student sports organization, send out a “Maniac Musings” newsletter encouraging fans to chant “Ka-ren Sy-pher” to upset Louisville head coach Rick Pitino. While Pitino’s off-the-court affiar with Sypher was well documented this past summer, that doesn’t make it right for the Maniacs to encourage their members to cheer it. There are plenty of other clever chants that are less harsh and can still upset Louisville.

While it is more appropriate to attack a paid coach than an unpaid student athlete, the student section was still out-of-line in each of the last two home games. It is vulgar chants like this that often lead to complaints like these.

The WVU Coliseum can get just about as loud as any homecourt in college basketball. For most games, the venue provides the Mountaineers with a great advantage, evidenced by them having just one loss at home and eight wins at the end of January.

However, famous student sections all across the country, like ones at Duke, Pitt, Kansas, Kansas St., etc…, also provide their team with a great homecourt advantage and do so in a more appropriate manner. It will be interesting to see what Gray, Byrne and others in Morgantown have to say this week about the “Sypher” chants of last Saturday.

With Pitt coming in Wednesday, though, it’s hard to imagine things getting much better in the near future.