Published: July 05, 2009 04:35 am      

HERTZEL COLUMN: Mountaineers legit contenders in Big East

MORGANTOWN — It well could be that the Big East basketball championship will go through West Virginia this year and, if Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers can protect their home court as they usually do, it just might lead to West Virginia’s first regular-season conference title.

While it may be a tad early to be printing the road map to March Madness before major league baseball has played its All-Star Game or Brett Favre has unretired for what, the second, third or fourth time, it would appear that no matter how cold the weather is this winter, things will be heating up inside the Coliseum.

The conference last week announced West Virginia’s home and away opponents for this season’s 18 league games and if there is anyone playing a tougher home schedule than the Mountaineers, it is a team probably associated with the NBA, not NCAA.

The parade of Big East teams coming to Morgantown sounds almost like it could contain a preseason Final Four in Pitt, Villanova, Louisville and Syracuse. Georgetown and Marquette also come in and they are no strangers to contending for national championships, while rebuilding Cincinnati and Seton Hall fully expect to have a say in deciding the final champion.

In fact, the Bearcats seem poised to make a run at the title themselves after the controversial signing of New York superstar Lance Stephenson, who has yet to stand trial in Brooklyn where he is charged with groping a 17-year-old girl.

As further baggage, the NCAA is looking into the possibility that he and/or his family were paid for an Internet reality show that followed Stephenson through his senior year, which could cost him his amateur standing and eligibility.

But if Stephenson, who seemed headed to Kansas until the Jayhawks became a bit nervous about his situation, survives the landmines he must negotiate on his way to Cincinnati, he will join freshman star Yancy Gates and guards Deonta Vaughn and Cashmere Wright to produce a formidable presence in the Big East.

Only Rutgers comes to town with an almost empty portfolio.

With West Virginia being projected as one of the top three teams in the Big East this year and expected to be carrying a Top 10 ranking into the season, it would seem that almost every league home game will carry great national significance.

And don’t you believe that the road schedule handed the Mountaineers is much easier.

They drew Pitt, Villanova and Seton Hall for home-and-home games, which is not the way it would have been scheduled if Coach Bob Huggins were doing the selecting.

Pitt, despite losing DeJuan Blair and Sam Young to the second round of the NBA draft, is still Pitt, and Villanova simply is the crème de la crème in the Big East.

To make matters more intriguing, the Mountaineers have only one shot at both Notre Dame — whose season was saved when center Luke Haragody, the league’s top scorer and rebounder, withdrew from the NBA draft to return for his senior season — and Connecticut.

True, UConn no longer will have 7-foot, 3-inch Hasheem Thabeet swatting away shots under the basket, but anyone who would count Jim Calhoun out of the hunt doesn’t understand the assembly line of talent they have at UConn.

Considering that West Virginia has never won at either gym since joining the Big East in 1995, losing 15 consecutive games, that is not exactly the way Huggins would have scheduled it, either.

In addition to Seton Hall, Pitt, Villanova, Connecticut and Notre Dame, WVU plays at St. John’s, DePaul, Providence and South Florida, which ought to be an annual January or February trip to get away from the biting cold of winter.

One thing’s for certain, the Mountaineers are playing a schedule that should make them ready for whatever comes their way in March. Adding to the allure of the home schedule are dates against Mississippi and Ohio State, teams they played last season on the road.

The Mountaineers also will be taking part in the 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif., a tournament that some are saying is the toughest Thanksgiving tournament in the nation. With a field that includes UCLA, Clemson, Minnesota, Texas A&M, Butler, Long Beach State and Portland, WVU will find out early just how good the team it has built around the unique talents of Devin Ebanks and Da’Sean Butler really is.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.