BUFFALO, N.Y. - West Virginia was the first to admit that when they found out they were playing Morgan State this past Sunday, they knew nothing about the team they would be facing. The Bears, however, were fairly familiar with the play of the Mountaineers, and one player in particular.

“Da’Sean Butler,” Senior guard Reggie Holmes replied when asked what he knew of WVU. “I know that he’s a great leader, always puts the team on his back and he’s a very mature player.”

In the time since West Virginia began looking at Morgan State film, Butler has learned a bit about Holmes as well.

“He’s a very good player,” said Butler. “We watched him on film. I saw the game they had earlier in the year against Louisville. He can shoot the ball, he’s flat out one of the best shooters in the country and one of the best scorers in the country.”

Holmes averages 21.8 a game, but has more than twice as many turnovers as he does assists. The next top scorer on the team is 6-9 forward Kevin Thompson, who throws down 12.8 in a contest. Rounding out the players scoring in double figures in Dewayne Jackson, a talented freshman forward out of Bowie, Md., who has made 43.9 percent of his three-pointers on the season.

It seemed a theme with the WVU players that each felt this group of athletes they will match up against on Friday are on a different level than others might have come across from the MEAC.

“Watching their team, they’re very talented,” says Devin Ebanks. “The more we watch, the more I see. We just need to keep focused.”
 

Of course, Morgan State coach Todd Bozeman says this is all by design. When he began recruiting at the Baltimore school, he had no intentions of sticking to the type of player he was expected to attract. He instead looked for players who wanted to do something different by attending a smaller school that still had all its goals ahead of it. 

They have accomplished a good bit of these goals, like last year’s first-ever NCAA appearance, but now there is a new goal on the table – to win one. The task of beating a No. 2 seed Mountaineers team is a large one, but the first day of the tournament is proof that higher seeds don’t always pan out – especially in the BIG EAST by the looks of things. 

Last year, West Virginia felt the pain of losing to a lower seeded team, but this season Huggins says he has not even thought to bring up the past as motivation for the future. His players, however, have given it a thought or two. They each one of them has every intention to learn from what happened a year ago in the first round loss to Dayton and not even consider underestimating Morgan State.

“I think we paid attention to the name on their jersey last year more than the team,” said Ebanks. “We kind of took them for granted that they weren’t going to beat us. I’m trying to think about that and be careful that it doesn’t happen again.”

The pressure of course lies with West Virginia to play the way a 2 seed should when put up against a 15. Better than the way Villanova handled it, that is.