W.Va. takes on Pitino for trip to Final Four

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The forward just got married. The little-known coach spent 25 years scratching his way to the top. All of the West Virginia players concede they're just thrilled to be riding a wave that could take their program to a place it hasn't been since the days of Jerry West.

Standing in their way is Rick Pitino, whose agenda isn't nearly as quaint. If he leads Louisville to a win today in the Albuquerque Regional final, he'll become the first coach to take three different programs to the Final Four.

"I don't think too much about that," Pitino said. "It's all happened so quickly, you don't have time to think."

On paper, the matchup between fourth-seeded Louisville (32-4) and seventh-seeded West Virginia (24-10) seems as lopsided as the vastly differing histories of the two programs.

The Cardinals have two national championships, seven trips to the Final Four and one of the best coaches in the game.

The Mountaineers have made it to the final once — 46 years ago behind West and coach Fred Schaus — barely sneaked into the tournament this year and are coached by John Beilein, whose resume includes stops at LeMoyne College, Canisius and Richmond — not exactly hot spots on the college basketball map.

Pitino isn't going to be fooled, though.

"Any team that beats Wake Forest gets your attention right away," he said of the team the Mountaineers knocked out in the second round. "This is not a Cinderella story and they do not have a Cinderella coach. He's one of the premier coaches in the game."

For a couple weeks now, Beilein has been described as a coach who has taught his team to play the game "the way it's supposed to be played."

"It's a tremendous compliment, I think," Beilein said. "I think it means something different to everyone. It's sharing of the basketball, defense, backdoor cuts."

The offense is a ramped-up version of Princeton's cutting, pick-setting style. The defense is a 1-3-1 zone, a set that went out of vogue when the 3-point line came in because it rarely could be extended far enough to defend the long-range shot.

"It's a very unique zone," said Patrick Beilein, the coach's son. "No one in the country plays it. We really don't even know what we're doing in it. That's what makes it so tough for other teams to figure out."