Before the embarrassing performance yesterday by the Big East, West Virginia was a trendy pick to make the Final Four -- Sports Illustrated has them in the final against Kansas -- and they still might be. Yesterday could simply be a case of the Big East not being as deep as everyone thinks, (although I still contend Villanova is one of the most overrated teams in the country.) But the
So do the guys from Morgan State have a chance against the Mountaineers? Probably not, but if Reggie Holmes gets hot early, I think they could make it interesting. Remember, this West Virginia team lost to Dayton in the first round of the NCAAs last year, and Bob Huggins' teams don't exactly have a history of going deep into the tournament.
Holmes is a unique player because he has a ridiculously quick release and a lot of the time he shoots the ball on his way up, which makes his shot almost impossible to block. Last year when Morgan State beat Maryland in College Park, it was Holmes five 3-pointers that did in the Terps, and he owned Greivis Vasquez (at least for a day) would simply couldn't guard the kid from Cherry Hill when it counted. I covered that game -- which everyone assumed would be an easy win for Maryland -- and watching Holmes backpedal up the court with his tongue hanging out after hitting what turned out to be the decisive points, a look of pure joy on his face, was one of my favorite sports memories of last year. This Bears' team is better than that one, and if they show up today, they could pull off an upset.
There is a good chance this is Todd Bozeman's last hurrah with Morgan State. And you can't blame him for that. He's done everything asked of him and more since getting hired three years ago. He deserves a shot at a mid-level job after what he's done reshaping what was one of the worst programs in the country four years ago. If John Calipari can have arguably the best coaching job in basketball even though his teams have had two Final Four appearances vacated, then Todd Bozeman deserves another chance to coach at an elite level.
But it would be a lot of fun to see him pull off one more big win before he passes the program to someone else.