Celebrating the 10 Year Anniversary of the 2010 Final Four Squad
Surprisingly, it has already been ten years since West Virginia won the Big East Tournament and made its famous Final Four run. Led by the now household names of Da'Sean Butler, Wellington Smith, Devin Ebanks, John Flowers, Joe Mazzulla, with a host of others, the 2009-10 edition of the Mountaineer made school history.
West Virginia started the season ranked No. 8 in the polls and were expected to be in the running to compete for the Big East title that season. In fact, they were predicted to finish second only behind Villanova. Da'Sean Butler started and ended the season on both the Wooden and Naismith Award List, and along with his teammate Devin Ebanks, were on the Preseason All-Big East team.
The Mountaineers started the season 11-0, which included wins in the '76 Classic Tournament to claim the tournament championship, and against ranked opponent Mississippi before losing to No. 4 Purdue on the road on New Years Day.
The Mountaineers finished conference play with a 13-5 record against Big East opponents. If you remember, the Big East was stacked that season, including ranked opponents Syracuse, Villanova, Georgetown, and Pitt, along with the other tedious schools that always gave the Mountaineers fits. The Mountaineers final regular season loss of the season would come to a Kemba Walker led UConn team on the road and its final record to end the season was an incredible 26-6.
But after that, West Virginia went on a run that Mountaineer fans will remember for the rest of their lives.
After earning byes through the first two rounds of the Big East Tournament, the Mountaineers began their quest for a Big East Championship against Cincinnati. Led by Lance Stephenson, the Bearcats kept the game close throughout its entirety. But a little heroics from Da'Sean Butler helped the Mountaineers advance.
Next up was the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.
The Mountaineers held a ten-point lead entering the eight-minute TV timeout, but the Irish fought back to tie the game. Then, Superman took over the game again. Da'Sean Butler finished the game with 24 points as the Mountaineers took a late lead. After a late stop, the Irish had a chance to tie the game but came up short as their final layup attempt missed and West Virginia held on to win 53-51.
The stage was now set for an exciting Big East Championship matchup, pitting the Mountaineers against rival Georgetown. The Mountaineers battled the Hoyas all game but were able to maintain the lead for the majority of the night. It was with 18 seconds left that the Hoyas were able to tie the game at 58 when Bob Huggins called timeout for one final play. For the third straight game, the ball was put in the hands of Butler, because when you have one of the country's best players, you give him the ball and give him a chance to win the game for you.
And just like that...the Butler did it one more time.
Da’Sean Butler’s running jumper with four seconds left lifted No. 6 West Virginia to a 60-58 victory over Georgetown to capture the 2010 Big East Title and the first Big East Championship in school history.
The Mountaineers entered the NCAA Tournament as a 2 seed in the East region and defeated Morgan State and Missouri in the first weekend.
With the win over Missouri, West Virginia advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, setting a date with PAC 10 foe Washington. It wasn't the prettiest of performances, but the old gold and blue found a way to win and move on to the Elite Eight to face 1-seeded Kentucky. The Wildcats were led by future NBA stars John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, and Eric Bledsoe. No one in the country believed West Virginia had a chance to win this game.
The entire country was shell-shocked by the Mountaineers suffocating Kentucky behind a mystifying 1-3-1 zone defense and a career-high 17 points from Joe Mazzulla, who was eventually named the East Region’s most outstanding player. West Virginia was able to keep Cousins in foul trouble and fluster Wall into being uncomfortable.
The Mountaineers were heading to their first Final Four since 1959 and had a chance at the school's first ever National Championship.
The 2010 Final Four took place in Indianapolis, which was the perfect road trip for Mountaineer fans. West Virginia fans packed Lucas Oil Stadium to watch their Mountaineers take on the Duke Blue Devils.
The Mountaineers kept it close before Duke gave itself some breathing room late in the first half. West Virginia seemed to have some momentum to start the second half but at the 8:59 mark, the hearts of all Mountaineer fans stopped. Da'Sean Butler drove to the basket where he was met by a Blue Devil and landed wrong and unfortunately tore his ACL on the landing. He would leave the game and not return. Without Butler, the Mountaineers kept the game closer than the final score would indicate, however, the Blue Devils were too much to handle as they defeated West Virginia to advance to the National Championship game. Duke would go on to win the championship over Butler.
It wasn't how West Virginia wanted to end their season as it seemed like it was finally going to be the year you would see the Mountaineers on top. But based on this performance, Bob Huggins has been able to build his program into what you see today - a title contender. These guys paved the way so the current guys can flourish.
The Final Four team is now scattered all over the world. Some playing professional overseas, some not involved with basketball at all anymore. Da'Sean Butler, John Flowers, and Kevin Jones all play overseas, but still manage to host a podcast called The Final Fourcast and help be involved in the community all over West Virginia. Flowers also put together the WVU Alumni team that plays during the summer that most recently was a part of the TBT Tournament; they entered with the team name of Best Virginia.
Although they didn't win, the Mountaineers gave West Virginia fans memories that would last a decade and will continue to be talked about for generations to come. This summer, Best Virginia is scheduled to play host to a regional of the TBT Tournament in Charleston.
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