Wow!
That's all I could say when West Virginia University's basketball game with Louisville ended on Saturday in a 72-70 Mountaineer victory.
But since I was going to write the Sunday sports column on the game, no matter how many times I wrote the word Wow!, I wasn't going to be able to fill my allotted space.
What we witnessed Saturday was an incredible basketball game played at the highest level.
Both teams played -as they say in Boston about a pitcher that throws a 100 miles per hour fastball -wicked haaard.
Louisville, already guaranteed a double bye in the Big East Tournament, could have mailed it in. But Rick Pitino isn't about to ever let one of his teams do that. He's as pugnacious, as relentless, as the man he was coaching against on Saturday.
There's nothing more satisfying in sports than watching a group of individuals play as a team and as a result beat an opponent composed of more gifted athletes.
That's what we witnessed on Saturday.
Bob Huggins' team -and make no mistake, this is Bob Huggins' team - refused to lose, even though it looked like defeat was virtually inevitable as the clock was winding down.
This -in some ways -may have been West Virginia's best effort of the year.
It obviously wasn't one of WVU's better shooting days as the Mountaineers made just 33.9 percent of their field goal attempts. Do that against the No. 11 team in the nation and you're supposed to find yourself on the wrong end of a one-sided blowout.
But a blowout wasn't in the Cards. This one -like every West Virginia-Louisville game has a way of doing -was going down to the wire.
It took a pair of last-minute threes and a pair of free throws with one second remaining for West Virginia to secure its 20th win of the season and a first-round bye in the Big East Tournament, meaning the Mountaineers won't open play at Madison Square Garden until Wednesday.
But more than that, it took everything West Virginia had to give. The most telling statistic was WVU outrebounded Louisville 41 to 23. I'm sure Pitino was shaking his head over that glaring statistic, which more than any other indicates effort.
Kevin Jones was a beast. 25 points, 16 rebounds, both game highs. John Flowers also had a double-double, 12 points and 12 boards. Casey Mitchell, a non-factor most of the game, hit two clutch 3-pointers in the final 17 seconds as West Virginia was snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.
Then there was the sixth man, the WVU crowd. West Virginia has created a home atmosphere unlike any we have seen in the past.
It's loud. It's supportive. And it's as intense about the game as its team.
What's that? I still have one line left to fill. OK.
Wow!
Contact Dave Poe at dpoe@newsandsentinel.com
