This Month in W.Va. History: Mountaineers get to the Final Four for the second time in program history
Warming up before playing Duke in the final four (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
The 2020-21 postseason was over almost as quickly as it got started for the Mountaineers, another tournament exit that came earlier than expected for most fans.
(Side note: Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse teams have been a thorn in Bob Huggins’ side since he returned to Morgantown, going 1-6 against the Orange -- including losing the last five contests by a combined 11 points. I would have called this a fun fact, but let’s face it… ain’t nothing fun about those numbers.)
Hopes were high for West Virginia this year after a disappointing 2019 campaign and a 2020 season that was cut short by the pandemic. There was reason to believe, too. The Mountaineers proved they were capable of playing with any team in the country on any given night this year.
As the seconds ticked off the clock at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, though, thoughts of what could be turned into what could have been as dreams of another deep tournament run were crushed.
Eleven years ago, Mountaineer Nation was seeing those postseason dreams manifest into reality. West Virginia athletics were still riding the wave of successes that the mid-2000s brought and were poised to keep it rolling into the new decade, and Huggins’ hoops team got the ball rolling.
09-10 WVU Roster (Courtesy of wvusports.com)
The 2009-10 WVU team, a mix of players from the John Beilein era and Huggins’ new regime, started the season off with an 11-game winning streak followed by a six-game mid-season winning streak. It was, however, the streak at the end of the season Mountaineer fans will remember most. On Feb. 27, 2010, West Virginia beat Cincinnati in Morgantown and would win nine more games in the next 35 days, including its first and only Big East Tournament championship.
The magical run to the title began with a quarterfinal matchup against Cincinnati. The Bearcats’ Dion Dixon, guarded by Da’Sean Butler, would turn the ball over near halfcourt with 3.1 seconds left, setting up Butler’s bank-shot, game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Mountaineers into the semifinal against Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish, led by Luke Harangody and Ben Hansborough, handed the Mountaineers one of their seven losses on the season earlier in the year. West Virginia would get its revenge and hold off a furious rally by the Irish down the stretch to set up a championship showdown with Georgetown.
On paper, it was blueblood vs. blue collar. The Hoyas came into the contest with seven Big East Tournament titles and had played for five more -- WVU, for comparison, had reached the conference final just one other time in 2005. Add in five final Final Four appearances and a national championship and history was definitely on the Hoyas’ side, but this was one of, if not the best, WVU team to ever take the court.
The Mountaineers held control for much of the contest, pushing the lead to as much as nine at one point, but West Virginia would have to hold off a late-game rally for a third straight night. The Hoyas continued to answer WVU’s shots with buckets of their own in the final minute.
With 17 seconds left and the game tied at 58-58, West Virginia would have a chance to make its own history, and that’s exactly what it did. Taking the ball at the wing, Butler drove left to the paint and etched his place -- and West Virginia’s -- in Big East history.
Being crowned the Big East champs (Courtesy of The Dominion Post)
(An actual fun fact: Butler’s game-winner was the sixth of the season for him.)
The party was only just beginning for the Mountaineers, though. The conference tournament win solidified the team as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament -- its highest ever. The Mountaineers rolled to the Elite Eight, setting up a matchup with top-seeded Kentucky, a squad packed with future NBA players -- John Wall, Eric Bledsoe, DeMarcus Cousins and Patrick Patterson among them.
WVU forward Devin Ebanks drives for a layup against former Huntington High School star Patrick Patterson in the 2010 Elite 8 (Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
In a performance that surprised maybe everyone, Mazzulla scored a career-high 17 points to go along with Butler’s 18 points as the Mountaineers eased past the Wildcats en route to the program’s second Final Four ever.
The Final Four matchup on April 3, 2010, would be a team that needs no introduction -- the Duke Blue Devils.
Tipping off what would be their final game together in Indy against the Blue Devils (Matt Detrich / The Star)
Despite trailing from the start and being down eight at halftime, there was always the sense, at least for me, that the Mountaineers were never completely out of it -- not with Butler. Then, with just under nine minutes to go in the game and trailing 63-48, Butler went down with a torn ACL and sprained MCL. Lacking the firepower of their leading scorer, the Mountaineers wouldn’t be able to keep up with Blue Devils and eventually lost 78-57.
As the magical run came to a heartbreaking end, Mountaineer fans were left wondering what could have been yet again. Could they have come back against Duke with Da’Sean? Could they have beaten the Butler Bulldogs in the NCAA championship?
Bob Huggins consoles Da’Sean Butler after he was injured during the second half against Duke (AP Photo)
It is easy to look back on the 2009-10 season and think only about how it ended. The image of Huggins consoling his heroic senior on the floor may be the first thing to come to the minds of many when you mention “the Final Four season.” But before the fall there was the climb to the mountaintop, anchored by each magical win along the way -- including the conference title.
If your bracket is busted and you’re still bummed about how this season ended, throw on some highlights from the 2009-10 season, and instead of thinking about what could have been, think about what could be. There’s always next year.
