It was bad enough that Duke beat West Virginia to advance to the national championship game, but we also had to watch one of the Mountaineers suffer a career-threatening injury during what seemed like garbage time. De’Sean Butler, who was a slated first-round pick in at least one NBA Mock Draft, was diagnosed with a torn ACL. But that wasn’t on Huggins.

Sports information director Bryan Messerly said the MRI also revealed a sprain of the medial collateral ligament and two bone bruises.

Butler, West Virginia’s leading scorer, drew a foul after driving into Duke’s Brian Zoubek under the basket with 8:59 left in the second half of the 78-57 loss. –ESPN.

No, the big news was how West Virginia coach Bob Huggins left the bench to comfort the hysterical Butler, who probably could see the cash from a potential NBA contract floating out of his pockets as he writhed in pain. Sure, basketball shorts don’t have pockets, but bear with me. Huggins’ tender touch showed both a caring love for his player and a bizarre ignorance of personal space that’s difficult to qualify. See the images for yourself after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The “Backyard Brawl,” the moniker given for the rivalry between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, took an unpleasant turn last night. After a late second-half comeback by Pittsburgh in their game against West Virginia, some fan in the Mountaineer crowd threw something toward the Pitt bench, launching a bizarre sequence of events and technical fouls that eventually led to West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, in a delightful fit of irony, lecturing the crowd on their behavior.

Huggins grabbed a microphone and addressed the fans a short time after objects were thrown on the court with 12:08 left, telling the crowd, “don’t throw anything on the floor. That’s stupid.”

As the crowd applauded him, Huggins then asked if someone did it again, “point him out so we can throw him out of here.”

It’s just part of the legacy of the Mecca of the burning couch.

West Virginia’s students were sent several e-mails by a university official in recent weeks over their behavior at games. They were asked to tone down their language after profanities were heard on national TV in a Jan. 23 win over Ohio State. Against Louisville last Saturday, fans chanted the name of a woman that Cardinals coach Rick Pitino admitted having sex with outside his marriage. –Y! Sports.

The object turned out to be a coin that hit a Pittsburgh assistant coach in the face. West Virginia was assessed a technical foul as a result. Huggins had a DUI charge in 2004 that eventually led to his dismissal at Cincinnati, so it’s hilarious to me to see him lecturing others on how to behave in public. That said, the beatnik that mistook the basketball court for a water fountain at the mall has no business being anywhere in public. We’re in a recession, yo. Keep that money in your pocket and pass the savings onto yourself.

West Virginia and Xavier played the only closely contested tourney game last night, with the 3-seed Muskies getting the 79-75 win in overtime thanks to some clutch three-point shooting by B.J. Raymond.  The win puts Xavier in the Elite 8 (they'll play UCLA Saturday) and guarantees at least two more days of witty headlines using X-related puns.

There was much excitement at the end of regulation, as Joe Alexander (18 points, 10 rebounds) was fouled as he evened the game at 64 with a short jumper off the glass, but he missed the critical "and 1".  In overtime, the Mountaineers led 71-65, but poor free throw shooting and Xavier's three-point attack (11-for-19 compared to 1-of-11 for WVU) ultimately gave X the win.

I bet Bob Huggins is so fucking wasted right now.

Other games: Tennessee probably could have used a starting point guard in its loss to Louisville, while UCLA and UNC cruised to predictable wins.  Meh.  My March Madness is dissipating into more of a mild annoyance.

West Virginia hired a new coach to replace Rich Rodriguez, who departed for a better job at Michigan almost a month ago.  But WFV fans are still plenty pissed that someone would have the temerity to leave such a fine state.

Mountaineer fans furious over Rodriguez’s Dec. 16 decision to accept the head coaching job at Michigan have vandalized his home near Morgantown, hanging signs on a fence and tossing a mailbox in the yard. Arleen Rodriguez [Rich's mother] says her teenage grandson received a death threat and found other harassing notes taped to his locker at East Fairmont (Va.) High School, while her 12-year-old granddaughter had to be escorted to classes.

It's kind of awkward for me to provide commentary on this story, because when I first read it I thought that Rich Rodriguez and Robert Rodriguez were the same person.  I read it three times and kept thinking, "Sure, the Spy Kids movies are dumb, but is it really worth threatening his children over?  And shouldn't Sin City earn him a free pass?"  In hindsight, I guess it makes a little more sense than I originally thought.

[via The Debriefing]

I have to credit Awful Announcing for his stellar work — Matt Vasgersian had two terrific moments during last night's Fiesta Bowl, and within minutes both YouTubes had made their way onto AA's blog.  The first, above, is Vasgersian's call of Owen Schmitt's touchdown run.  Owen Schmitt + runaway beer truck = subtle Schmitts Gay SNL reference, which gets huge points in my book.  The other moment was obvious pandering to bloggers, so I relegated it to after the jump.

Oh, right: the game itself.  West Fuckin' Virginia more or less dominated Oklahoma in a 48-28 win, which is fine with me because Oklahoma flat-out blows as a state, whereas WFV at least has some charm in the way it embraces its couch-burning culture.

grammar mistakes.

"I'll tell you what," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "There are a lot of American League pitchers getting real nervous — and we're one of them."

So… the Red Sox are now an American League pitcher?  I don't even say things that retarded when I'm drunk.  As this blog post proves.