Posted on the Bearcatnews.com Basketball forum by bcatwilly:

Well, I was there in person for what could go down as the most important day in the Bearcat rebuilding job.

I arrived at the game and was immediately handed a Mick Cronin mask, as they were handing them out to every fan that came through the door. I smiled and took one, somewhat amused by their hatred of Coach Cronin.

Many of the WVU fans near me definitely took note of my Bearcat shirt, but the guy next to me was pretty nice and talked about basketball with me. I said that I always liked Coach Huggins and know that he will win at WVU, but it did seem at times over the years that for whatever reason his team didn't always have a cohesive offensive strategy in certain games.

I realize that all fans, especially students, can be pretty rough. However, it would be hard to find a more classless group of students than the WVU section IMO. They repeatedly chanted profanities in unison during the game and even stood to point at several Bearcat fans walking past to loudly shout profanity in their direction. Of course there were the obligatory comments about Mick's height, making it start to feel like old times having a "hated" coach.

The most classless thing I saw was WVU allowing people onto the court during the introduction of the Bearcat players so that they could hold printed signs up for the student section to chant things like "You Suck" after each player was announced, nice.

It was very surreal watching Coach Huggins come out before the game, especially wearing his mustard colored suit and shoes. The Bearcats were still shooting around in front of the WVU bench, and if I didn't know any better it almost seemed that Huggins was a little emotional looking toward the Bearcat players. No matter what Bob says publicly I get this strange feeling that he would still rather be wearing the C-Paw if history could be rewritten, I mean who wouldn't want to be a Bearcat. He and Mick visited for a while before the game, smiling and chatting away.

Yes, WVU shot poorly from the field. But wow was it impressive even more so in person to watch how well the Bearcats executed the gameplan provided to them. The TOTAL domination on the boards and physical play was incredible to say the least and brought back awesome memories of Bearcat basketball.

WVU fans started to file out around the 9:00 mark, leaving Mick Cronin masks strewn all over the Coliseum floor.

I still don't think it has fully sunk in how HUGE this win was for Bearcat basketball, not just Coach Cronin. Bearcat basketball was on full display out there, "men against boys out there" per Coach Huggins. The ride is going to be fun, imagine Mike Williams, Yancy Gates, Cashmere Wright, Nick Aldridge and so forth added to the roster next season.

For anyone who was tempted to root for WVU prior to the game due to lingering bad feelings, if you didn't get pumped up as the game wore on with the Bearcats dominating then you probably should go ahead and move on IMO because your heart must not be with them.

Coach Huggins did some awesome things at UC, which I will always remember and be thankful for. But I am a Bearcat fan first, and boy was it fun to whip a team on their home court in the Big East no matter who was coaching them.

I was concerned at one point that it was going to be a long time before I could start enjoying Bearcat basketball again with my family, well my kids have been saying 'GO BEARCATS!' quite a bit lately. That makes me happier than about anything