WVU/Arizona: a truly halfassed preview

As I sit here at work, wondering why the eff I didn't just take a sick day, I can't help but think about just how far West Virginia can make it in this tournament if we play to our potential. With all cylinders firing, we're as good as any team in the country; we play scrappy, intense defense, we shoot well, and our sets are run by mastermind Bob Huggins. The sky is basically the limit for us.

But we have to prove it. We've got to win tonight against Arizona in DC before we go anywhere. How can we do this? Why, I'll tell you.

Keep the defense tough, especially in transition. Arizona loooooooves scoring points on the move, and we've got to keep up with them to stop that. If we can slow the game down to a tolerable pace - a la the Beilein years - we should have enough gas to keep up with them for 40 minutes. Nasty freshman guard Jerryd Bayless is quick and can slash, so we've got to put a body on him that can hang. Huggs is sticking Alex Ruoff in there for the task - I think he'll be able to keep up.

Grab those rebounds. Arizona doesn't have a true center - the closest thing they've got is ex-volleyball player and noted albino Chase Budinger. He's only 6-7 (an inch shorter than Joe Alexander), but he's got a ridiculous 40+ inch vertical. If we're hungry in the paint, we can hang with them. Smalligan: lookin' at you here.

Calm down. If we come in there nervous and not ready to play, we don't stand a shot. Huggins said it best in ESPN's preview of tonight's game:

I can't figure them out," [Huggins] said. "There's been days I thought we were really ready to play and we came out and didn't play. And there's been other days I didn't think we had a chance and we played really, really hard.

"We rely on making jump shots. And when you rely almost solely offensively on jump shots, you better make them," Huggins said. "When we don't make jump shots, we're not very good."

So that's it. If we do all of these things - plus make our free throws - we'll be super. I mean this team lost to UVa, for christ sake. They're definitely a beatable foe.

I'll be at the Verizon Center tonight - with zero press access, of course - but I'll take plenty of pictures and some epic notes for a game review tomorrow.

Fearless prediction: WVU wins in a squeaker - and that's with three e's - 65-64. This will be one of the best games of the tournament.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!