Players Accepting Roles Helps West Virginia Enjoy Special Season

Welcome, By-Godders, to the Shotgun/Throwdown, WVU's best place for sports links, information, sophomoric humor and daily distractions.

Basketball:

Players accepting roles helps WVU enjoy special season | Exponent Telegram
The madness that is March begins today, and it is very reasonable to assume that West Virginia will play a large role in it from the Big 12 Conference Tournament through the mayhem that is the NCAA Tournament.

WVU returns to top 10, visit from Texas Tech looms | Charleston Gazette-Mail
Not often does a team find itself in the top 10 this close to the end of the regular season and feel happier than it has for much what’s already happened. Yet West Virginia, now No. 9 in the coaches’ poll and No. 10 in the media poll, happens to think it’s getting better as it gets closer to the finish.

Basketball Notebook: One Week to Go! | WVU Athletics
With a week left in the regular season, the West Virginia University men’s basketball team can finish anywhere from first to sixth in the Big 12 Conference, depending upon how things shake out this week. Talk about madness, well, welcome to March Madness - Big 12 style!

Holmes Named Big 12 Player of the Week | WVU Athletics
Following her final two games inside the WVU Coliseum and a postgame marriage proposal on Senior Night, senior guard Bria Holmes earned her first career Big 12 Player of the Week honor.

Mountaineers Re-Enter AP Poll at No. 22 | WVU Athletics
The West Virginia University women’s basketball team re-entered the Associated Press Top 25 poll tied with Colorado State at No. 22 with 96 points on Monday.

WVU wraps up regular season at Iowa State | Exponent Telegram
Freshly back in the nation’s Top 25, West Virginia’s women’s basketball team concludes its regular season on the road today at Iowa State in an 8 p.m. game.

Holmes, WVU look to close out regular season with road win | The Daily Athenaeum
The West Virginia University women’s basketball team will close out the 2015-16 regular season tonight in Ames, Iowa against the Iowa State Cyclones, a rematch between the two Big 12 programs that faced off only two weeks ago in Morgantown.

Baseball:

WVU Edged in Exhibition Game vs. Diamondbacks, 7-4 | WVU Athletics
The West Virginia University baseball team played an exhibition contest vs. the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday afternoon in Scottsdale, Arizona.

WVU gets its shots in during 7-4 loss to D-backs | The Daily Athenaeum
The West Virginia University baseball team got a unique experience on Monday afternoon when the Mountaineers headed to Scottsdale, Arizona for an exhibition matchup with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks.

Huth Named Big 12 Player of the Week | WVU Athletics
KC Huth was named the Big 12 Player of the Week.

West Virginia Athletics:

No. 1 WVU wins GARC again, looks to defend national title | The Daily Athenaeum
It was a big weekend for the No. 1 West Virginia University rifle team. The team showed once again it is a force to be reckoned with as the NCAA Championships get closer.

Around The Big XII:

Big 12's most iconic plays of the last decade: Nos. 21-25 | ESPN
A pair of McCoys, a Boykin flip, a Dez dive and too many Tavon Austin moves to count get things started in our countdown of iconic plays in the Big 12.

Around The NCAA:

Ranking the 10 best college football programs of each decade | SBNation
Let's use modern analytics to go back in time and see how each decade has stacked up. Can 2010s Alabama or anyone else ever top what Florida State did in the 1990s?

2016 Sun Belt football previews, from ULM to Georgia Southern | SBNation
Bill Connelly's 128-team preview series moves on to the Sun Belt. Tune in every weekday!

Here's how long each state has gone without a star recruit. Does Vermont even play football? | SBNation
This will also make you appreciate how good Oklahoma's been over the years.

How Wisconsin's interim coach turned a depressing season into an NCAA Tournament bid | SBNation
The Badgers are surging into the postseason thanks to a little help from Bo Ryan's successor.

Today's Miss Throwdown is a professional skimboarder from Florida with a killer body. CLICK HERE for Amber Torrealba's Instagram.