2010 NCAA Basketball Tournament: West Virginia vs Kentuckyn

All those problems that people were talking about all season long with Kentucky showed up at a terrible time.

Kentucky couldn't shoot from the perimeter - the Wildcats were 4 of 32 from 3-point range. The Wildcats couldn't hit foul shots - last night they were 16 of 29. Kentucky is immature - how many bad, quick shots did this team take?

However, the credit and praise should all be heaped onto the Mountaineers of West Virginia, who have just punched a ticket to the Final Four for the first time since 1959, when a young lad by the name of Jerry West - ever heard of him - led his native state's school to the NCAA championship game against California.

In one of the most bizarre first halves ever seen by any longtime observer of college basketball, West Virginia did not make a two-point field goal but headed to the break with a lead. The Mounties finished 8 of 15 beyond the arc, and 0 of 15 inside it, all while hitting four free throws along the way for a 28-26 lead at the intermission.

To open the second half, WVU scored the first eight points to push its lead to 36-26, and that seemed to change something with Kentucky; more specifically, the bold Mountaineer surge at the start of the second half appeared to rattle the freshman-laden roster that had carried the Wildcats to the doorstep of the Final Four. In the heat of their most bruising battle of the season against West Virginia's lineup of New York natives, the Cats looked less comfortable offensively. They started rushing, and they panicked by forcing more threes instead of feeding their big man, DeMarcus Cousins.

Yet, it needs to be said that Cousins was flustered in his own right on Saturday night in Syracuse, N.Y. Kentucky's main main in the middle was harassed by the MVP of the game, West Virginia guard Joe Mazzulla. Everyone is going to note the career-high 17 points Mazzulla had in this contest - and make no mistake, his performance was incredibly impressive given the circumstances - but perhaps his most impressive feat was to slow down Cousins despite giving up almost a whole foot and 100 pounds in a physical tale of the tape. Mazzulla's combination of gritty defense on Cousins and his opportunistic, slashing, ball-driving offense was nothing short of spectacular, and it did more than anything else to put the No. 2 seed in control of the proceedings throughout the second half.

Kentucky had even bigger problems as the second half progressed: four straight points from Devin Ebanks put WVU up 61-45, and all but sealed this consequential collision in the Carrier Dome.

Was this the last game for John Wall, the aforementioned Mr. Cousins, and Patrick Patterson in a Kentucky jersey? Will Daniel Orton and Eric Bledsoe, and even coach John Calipari, bounce to the NBA?

Who knows? It could be a long offseason of waiting in Bluegrass Country.

It won't be a long offseason in Morgantown, W. Va., however: A team that represents the entirety of the sporting scene in the state of West Virginia has returned to the big show after a 51-year absence. It's a mortal lock that "Zeke From Cabin Creek" will make the pilgrimage to Indianapolis, as coach Bob Huggins - back in the Final Four for the first time since 1992 with Cincinnati - tries to win the national championship Jerry West nearly claimed in 1959.

What's Next:

West Virginia will play the winner of the Baylor-Duke South Regional final in the Final Four next Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

NCAA Tournament Elite 8 Recap - West Virginia vs Kentucky