NCAA tournament: Mountaineers are 'West Virginia's team'
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West Virginia guar Da'Sean Butler: "For us to win, this would uplift this state so positively. ... West Virginia, people say, doesn't have much. And to win this championship would give these people something they would be able to call their own."
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Former Morgantown Mayor Ron Justice won't be among the Mountaineer faithful making their way to Indianapolis this week for their basketball team's first Final Four appearance since 1959.
"I'll be at home all by myself, watching on television, all by myself," Mr. Justice said of the Saturday night game against Duke, with the winner advancing to the NCAA title game Monday. "That's what I believe I can do to help the Mountaineers win the national championship."
That's because Mr. Justice is the superstitious sort.
"Actually, my wife and her friends are going to the Final Four, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it," said Mr. Justice, who was mayor from 2002 to 2009, on City Council 18 years prior and is currently the director of student organizational services at West Virginia University.
"I went to Minneapolis last year [when West Virginia lost in the first round] and figured I was bad luck. The last time I was at the Big East tournament, they lost. This year, I didn't go to the Big East tournament, and I didn't go to any of the NCAA tournament games yet, and they've won. So, I'm not changing that luck."
The entire state of West Virginia also is hoping that luck holds. That's because the Mountaineers are to West Virginia what the Steelers are to Pittsburgh.
"We are West Virginia's team," Mountaineers basketball coach Bob Huggins said recently. "We are West Virginia's franchise."
The Coliseum is, well, their Coliseum, better than any amphitheater ever constructed in Rome.
Senior swingman Da'Sean Butler is their young man, one whose talents carried them to critical victories in March.
And then there's Mr. Huggins.
Seems these fans would follow that man -- who was born in Morgantown and played at West Virginia -- blindly into the deepest coal mine that could be punctured into the rocks of this Mountain State.
"In just three years as coach, Huggs has taken us to a whole new level," Mr. Justice said. "It is to the point where we're not happy to play in these big games, but we expect to win them."
Even West Virginia University president James P. Clements has a sense of understanding as to which individual, maybe because of his personality but certainly because of his success, looms largest on campus.
"It starts with our head coach, Bob Huggins, who has a genuine passion and love for his home state and alma mater, and wants to accomplish something special by bringing home a national championship," Dr. Clements said. "His players have embraced that and so has the entire Mountaineer nation."
First Published March 31, 2010 12:00 am
