First one since 1942:
Frank Young and the West Virginia Mountaineers shot past Clemson to their first NIT title in 65 years.
Young scored 24 points, including six 3-pointers, and De’Sean Butler added 20 points to help West Virginia beat Clemson 78-73 in the NIT championship game Thursday night. Young was named the tournament’s most outstanding player.
Young has stepped up in March. He averaged over 20 points in the Big East tournament. The senior followed that up with a stellar NIT to cap off his college career, averaging 22.3 points in five games.
It was the Mountaineers’ first NIT title since 1942, when Rudy Baric led West Virginia over Western Kentucky.
And it wasn’t even close. They were up 10-15 pts the majority of the game and the gap closed with the desperation trash fouls at the end.
Grats WVU.
Andrew
66th best team in the country!
danelectro
i watched long enough to know they would win.
congrats!
Punchy
Your coach is as good as gone, however. Michigan wants him, and will pay him a ton of scratch.
Dave in the Corn
Not to belittle WVU’s accomplishment (Andrew already covered it, I’m just piling on), but back in 1942, the NIT was THE tournament to win, not some consolation prize for power conference schools…nonetheless, congratulations to the mountaineers :)
Paul Wartenberg
Cough. Go Gators.
MMM
ANY major conference school that wants to play WVU on a one-and-one, call the athletic department collect.
Only recent team to do this is UCLA, last year and this year, and I believe they lost both times.
Congrats WVU!
Bruce from Missouri
Maybe next year they can learn to spell “Virginia” correctly on their championship t-shirts.
:>
John Redworth
Seriously… everyone knows that the name “Virgina” is the nickname of the Pac-10
Bombadil
Vivat, vivat Virgina!
physics geek
The coach at West Virginia coached at the University of Richmond for a few years before moving on. I figured that he would help revive the Mountaineers’ program. One regional final appearance, two Sweet Sixteen appearances and one NIT championship in his first three years would indicate that the program is on the right track.
I did feel bad for the players after the game, though. The idiots who manufactured the championship t-shirts apparently couldn’t be bothered to spell check.
Joel
Winning the NIT is like being the smartest kid in the special ed class.