“Go Mountaineers” or “Go Cats” is about all I have heard from my friends lately.

That can only mean one thing – It’s March Madness.

For the last couple years, I have found myself watching more and more college games, especially during the NCAA Tournament. Being from West Virginia, I have found that WVU is the only school that I feel comfortable cheering for.

A lot of friends tell me to cheer on the Wildcats because they say UK is better much better team. I really don’t feel that way, and we’ll see because they are in the same bracket. If it came down to a WVU/UK clash in the Elite Eight and the Mountaineers notched a win, you wouldn’t hear the end of it from me. On the flip side, what if it went the other way around?

OK, let’s move on.

Like most WVU fans, I watched every nail-biting moment of the Big East Tournament this past week. Watching the Mountaineers play Cincinnati was like having my teeth pulled, as Butler inbounded the ball in the final seconds. When he hit the game-winning shot, I found myself cheering as if I was sitting in Madison Square Garden.

My friend Chris was even more pumped. He gave a Bob Uecker-style fist pump like he was Harry Doyle in the movie Major League. He was screaming Eer’s win so loud you would have thought Harry Caray had dug himself out of the grave and turned into a Mountaineers Fan (ok, that’s just scary).

The next night (Notre Dame) wasn’t a bit easier. It went down to the wire yet again. I was acting as if I was on the team – again – and during the second half I thought I was going to lose my mind after the Mountaineers went ice cold from the floor. In the end, we battled back – which I hope is not the theme of WVU’s NCAA Tournament run.

This brings us to the Big East Tournament Championship: West Virginia vs. Georgetown.

It seemed as if the Mountaineers had not played in days. The championship tilt had an NCAA Tournament feel (after all, the Big East is the toughest conference in America).

The way me and my friends were acting, you would have thought we were going after a National Championship.

Well, it was the first step.

Like Many, I was wondering if we could pull off another incredible, gut-wrenching win. You know, the odds go against those types of wins sooner or later.

But it didn’t.

only Seconds left in the game and Butler had the ball, I couldn’t really watch. There was no way he could do it again, could he?

He did.

A MySpace post from a WVU fan after the game said it best: “If you summed up the Big East Tournament as a game of Clue it would be, ‘The Butler did it in the garden with the basketball.’”

Let’s hope that Butler can take the Mounties to Indianapolis.

This week’s trivia question: What year did the Reds win their first world series?

1919 against the White Sox

To submit a trivia question email it to:

cmarcum@heartlandpublications.com