Irish and Mountaineers fight for right to play for Big East title

NCAA Basketball Betting Lines

03/12/2010 - New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The third-seeded and seventh-ranked West Virginia Mountaineers duke it out with the seventh-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the semifinal round of the Big East Tournament tonight at Madison Square Garden. The winner will move on to the finals against either Georgetown or Marquette on Saturday.

The quarterfinal round was full of upsets on Thursday and WVU adverted one with a last-second 54-51 victory over 11th-seeded Cincinnati. The Mountaineers were the only one of four teams that received a double-bye to move on to the semifinals tonight. Winners of four straight, WVU is making its third straight appearance in the semifinals and is looking to advance to the finals for the first time since 2005.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, continued its red-hot play with a 50-45 upset of second-seeded and 16th-ranked Pittsburgh in the quarterfinals last night. The Irish have now won a season-high six games in a row, knocking off three ranked opponents during that stretch. Notre Dame, which beat Seton Hall in the first round, has also won two straight Big East Tournament games for the first time since joining the league for the 1995-96 campaign.

The Irish own a 25-10 all-time record against the Mountaineers and ND took a 70-68 decision in the lone meeting during the regular season back on January 9th.

ND's new defensive-minded approach worked again last night, as it held Pitt to just 45 points and only 38.6 percent shooting from the floor. The Irish, who went from a run-and gun style to a more patient attack after star Luke Harangody got hurt, have allowed an average of just 54.6 ppg over their last six games. That is a remarkable improvement for club that was allowing over 70 ppg. Speaking of Harangody, he finished with 12 points off the bench last night and hit a few big free throws down the stretch. Following a 20-point effort in the second round, Harangody appears to be getting back into full form after missing five games and he is still averaging team highs of 22.8 ppg and 9.4 rpg for the season. Tim Abromaitis and Ben Hansbrough check in with 16.6 and 11.7 ppg, respectively, but both players have failed to reach double figures in either tourney game thus far.

Following a Cincinnati turnover with 3.1 seconds left, Da'Sean Butler took an inbounds pass and banked home a three-pointer at the buzzer to give WVU a dramatic 54-51 win over the Bearcats last night. Butler finished with 15 points on 3-of-6 three-pointers, while the rest of the team went just 1-of-14 from beyond the arc. Kevin Jones led the charge with 17 points and six rebounds and Devin Ebanks added 10 points and six boards. Heading into the tourney, Butler averaged a team-high 17.2 ppg, to go with 6.3 rpg. Jones ranked second with each 13.5 ppg and 7.4 rpg, while Ebanks produced 12.4 ppg and a team-best 8.3 rpg for WVU.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.