I really hope you do, because if you had said no, I would have bitten your ear off.
Earlier this week, I posted the votes of the Big East coaches, a result that landed WVU 2nd in the league. An extremely impressive achievement, considering we've never risen higher than 5th in the preseason. But ESPN's Andy Katz doesn't quite think that's high enough. Warning, some of these quotes will give you goosebumps...
Bob Huggins has made West Virginia an elite team in three seasons.
But really, second place behind Nova? Does Villanova really have more talent than West Virginia or are the Wildcats just feeding off the Final Four run? Villanova lost key players Dante Cunningham, Dwayne Anderson and Shane Clark. West Virginia lost just Alex Ruoff.
Calipari's Kentucky team is getting most of the talk nationally and rightfully so for the impact the new-look Cats will have on the season. But Cal's former Conference USA coaching rival is back. The Mountaineers aren't as dominating as the Cincinnati teams Huggins coached earlier in his career, but this edition has the chance to do something similar -- make a run at a No. 1 seed.
I honestly have trouble envisioning West Virginia as a #1 seed. Not because I don't think it could happen, but because I didn't think it was possible just a few years ago.
Huggins is working on a timeline that even he must think has accelerated past his expectations. It certainly has mine. That quote from Katz about WVU being an elite team is telling: elite teams don't rise and fall so easily. They reload instead of rebuild. The Beilein teams of the middle of this decade were better than smoke and mirrors, but they were still jerry-rigged to some degree. These Huggins teams, though, seem to lack weakness. Whether its depth, inside vs. outside presence, defense, etc.
We're just good, and look to be good for years and years to come.