Tonight: The Heat Is On

But it's a dry heat.

It's finally here. Like Christmas morning, it's the first day of the NCAA tournament. It's a 10 hour orgy of college basketball and Greg Gumbel's mini-perm (Ed. note -- Gumbel orgy is the best kind of orgy).

The BIGGEST game of the day is also the last game of the day: #7 WVU v. #10 Arizona. Arizona may have talent and a freshman phenom point guard, but Joe Alexander is coming for the Wildcats, and hell Bob Huggins is coming with him.

A healthy Arizona team, however, should not be taken lightly. With Jerryd Bayless and Chase Budinger (the west-coast Joe Alexander), the Wildcats certainly have weapons.

The athletic Bayless will be a difficult match-up for Darris Nichols, and may require Joe Mazzula to play alot at point.

Arizona is also coming off its worst and strangest season since the early '80's. If anyone can tell me what truly went down with Lute Olson, I would be interested to know.

He takes an indefinite leave of absence due to health concerns. Then files for divorce from his wife the next day. Then, a couple months later, claims his leave of absence has nothing to do with health concerns. If he weren't so darned good looking with that regal white hair, I might be able to find it in my heart to mud-sling.

This list of Arizona players in the NBA is longer than my....well it's long. And doesn't even include my favorite Wildcat ever, Jason Garder Jenny Finch.

Lest we forget, amongst all the hype surrounding the game, Arizona is Arizona, and is the toughest 10 seed in the tournament. Also, WVU has only played well once in the last 4 games. (St. John's, Providence, UConn, Georgetown).

If Alex Ruoff can bust out of his shooting slump and give WVU an outside shooting option, WVU could win easily. But I believe the key will be rebounding. Arizona is not a good rebounding team, and the Mountaineers need to dominate them on the boards with second chance points, a-la the UConn win.

It will be mucho fun to watch and my nerves are already frayed, because it's the big dance and anything could happen.