2010 NCAA Tournament Preview: West Virginia Mountaineers

West Virginia became the king of the Big East on Saturday night. That tournament may not be the only one the Mountaineers win this March.

The West Virginia Mountaineers, already a guaranteed NCAA tournament team, defeated Georgetown 60-58 in the Big East championship game. The victory clinched a two seed for WVU in the 2010 NCAA tournament and put the Mountaineers in the list of possible 1 seeds in the Big Dance. West Virginia finished second in the Big East during the regular season with a 14-5 regular season conference record. The Mountaineers head into the NCAA tournament with an overall record of 27-6.

West Virginia started out strong, winning the team's first eleven games. Things got a little rocky after that as the Mountaineers lost three of six. In that stretch, the Mountaineers were downed by Purdue, Syracuse and Notre Dame (all 2010 NCAA tournament teams). West Virginia then got back on track, defeating Pittsburgh, Louisville and Ohio State in the span of two weeks. The team enters the 2010 NCAA tournament on quite a roll, winning six straight. During this winning streak, West Virginia has defeated Georgetown twice, Villanova and Notre Dame.

Unless you have not been paying any attention to college basketball during Championship Week, you've probably heard of senior forward Da'Sean Butler. Butler, the leading scorer for West Virginia (17.4 points a game), hit two game-winning shots for WVU during the Big East tournament. Sophomores Kevin Jones (13.5 points, 7.1 rebounds) and Devin Ebanks (11.8 points, 8.2 rebounds) patrol the paint for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia's defense was superb during the 2010 Big East tournament. Cincinnati and Notre Dame were both held to 51 points and Georgetown, a team that is playing arguably its best basketball of the college basketball season, was kept to under 60 in the championship game. The Mountaineers can beat you in a number of ways. WVU beat Notre Dame at its own game during the Big East semi-finals and the Mountaineers out-rebounded Georgetown by 17 en route to winning the Big East title. The team can also run at gun with the best team's in the nation, when necessary.

The humbling eleven point loss at Connecticut back on February 22 seems to have lit a fire under WVU. The Mountaineers are playing like a true national title contender heading into the 2010 NCAA tournament. The Connecticut game was the only "bad" loss for West Virginia during the season so I wouldn't bank on the Mountaineers being upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Despite winning the hardest conference tournament in all of college basketball, plenty of cynics still wonder if West Virginia has what it takes to make it to and through the Final Four en route to winning a national championship. Head coach Bob Huggins will be sure to keep the eyes of his roster on the prize and remind his players that plenty of teams, experts and fans don't believe WVU is among the elite teams in the country.

West Virginia is a Final Four caliber team playing great basketball at the moment. If I was coaching one of the other 63 teams in the NCAA tournament, I wouldn't want to face WVU once during this tournament.

All stats courtesy of ESPN