MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- With a Big Monday national television audience looking on and scrutinizing their every move, the West Virginia students behaved like perfect little angels.

Hey, I'm trying to be positive here this morning.

The West Virginia team, which climbed into the Top 5 of The Associated Press poll earlier Monday for the first time in more than 47 years?

It wasn't quite so impressive.

The game against No. 4 Villanova wasn't just another game at the WVU Coliseum. It wasn't even just the first Top 5 matchup of this college basketball season. It was the No. 5 Mountaineers' biggest regular-season game since the Jerry West days more than a half-century ago.

That's not being dramatic.

That's merely being accurate.

I'm here to tell you Huggstown absolutely was hoppin' despite the presence of extra green-shirted security guards who were on hand to make sure the West Virginia kids didn't chant dirty words or throw stuff onto the court, as they had done in the previous home games against Pitt, Louisville and Ohio State.

That's what made Villanova's 82-75 win so impressive. Or so deflating from West Virginia's perspective. The Mountaineers couldn't dig out of an early 21-10 hole and wasted a big chance to make a national statement and climb even higher in the polls. Now, they must beat Pitt Friday night at the Petersen Events Center -- where the Panthers have been nearly invincible -- to avoid a losing streak.

Welcome to the brutal world of the Big East Conference.

"I'm going to take a day off and recruit," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said when asked about the game at Pitt.

He was joking, I think.

Everybody associated with the West Virginia program -- from Huggins to the players -- expressed the proper respect for Villanova, then proceeded to say they handed the Wildcats the game by struggling mightily against their man-to-man defense, being outrebounded, 38-30, and missing 14 of 32 free throws.

The West Virginia people were kidding themselves.

Clearly, Villanova is the better team.

I'm thinking it's the best team in the Big East by a long shot despite its 103-90 loss Saturday at Georgetown, its first defeat in the league.

The edge Villanova has over just about every team in the country is terrific, experienced guards. That was huge against the Mountaineers, who couldn't match up with Scottie Reynolds and Corey Fisher, who combined for 38 points.

Pitt fans probably aren't interested in reading more about Reynolds. He's the guy who beat the Panthers at the end with a length-of-the-court drive in the Round of 8 of the NCAA tournament last season, denying them a trip to the Final Four.

Sorry.

Reynolds was too good against West Virginia to ignore. He scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and seemed to have just the right answer every time the Mountaineers threatened. I'm sure there are better, more clutch players in the country, but I'll be darned if I can name one at the moment.

West Virginia is a very good team -- you don't make it to No. 5 by not being one -- but if it has a weakness, it's at point guard. Darryl Bryant and Joe Mazzulla struggled to get the Mountaineers into their offense against the Villanova defense. Often, they settled for bad shots at the end of the shot clock. They made just 7 of their 27 3-point attempts.

It was a particularly bad night for Da'Sean Butler, West Virginia's best player. He went for 43 points when the Mountaineers blew out Villanova here last season. This time, he scored just one point in the second half, missing all five of his shots.

"We can't expect Da' to get 30 points every game and carry us," Huggins said. "Our other guys are going to have to do things."

That hardly eased Butler's agony.

"As far as me leading by example, I did nothing tonight," he said, fully aware that his timing for an off night couldn't have been worse. This was the first time that West Virginia was ranked in the Top 5 and played a Top 5 opponent since West was the Mountaineers' star in 1959.

Now, it's on to Pitt.

"I'm sure they probably want to play us even more because of the way the game kind of ended the last time," Butler said.

The Mountaineers hammered Pitt, 70-51, Feb. 3. That's the game that got their students in big trouble and brought them a lot of unflattering national attention for throwing water bottles and paper cups on the floor and chanting obscenities at Pitt coach Jamie Dixon. Pitt assistant coach Tom Herrion was hit in the face with a quarter that night.

"They can have all the extra stuff on their side, I don't care," Butler said of a Pitt team -- and crowd -- that figure to be amped. "I know what we have to do to win. We just have to play our game."

Better than Monday night, certainly.

Still, I'm guessing the Mountaineers will show up.

Even Huggins.

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