Back-to-Back
March 17, 2008 09:09 PM | General
Mrch 17, 2008
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| Meg Bulger |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia finished third in the Big East Conference during the regular season, has been nationally ranked all year, and made it to the tournament semifinals in one of the best basketball conferences in America.
So what is the Mountaineers’ reward for an outstanding season? A trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to play No. 12-seeded New Mexico in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on the Lobos’ home floor.
West Virginia senior guard Meg Bulger has been through this before as a freshman playing Ohio State on its home court in 2004.
“We try not to worry about playing on their home floor and things like that,” Bulger said. “In women’s basketball you’ve got to do things like that to get the fans out and I wish we could have stayed closer to home but we’re going to go out there with the mentality that it’s their home court and that we’re going to have to go out there and play harder.”
West Virginia (24-7) earned a fifth seed in the tournament, which is its second-highest seeding in school history. The Mountaineers are making their third NCAA Tournament appearance since 2004 under seventh-year coach Mike Carey.
Bulger has been a part of all three NCAA Tournament teams although she sat out last year with a knee injury.
“It’s funny because I was talking to my sister (Kate) and she remembers when she was a freshman and she said, ‘Can you imagine we won five games and we got beat by 80 by Connecticut and now we’re worrying about what seed we are going to be?’ To have the opportunity to worry about seeding and not worrying about making it you know you’ve been doing the right things these past couple of years,” Bulger said.
One of the things Bulger was interested in doing when she came to West Virginia was to be a part of a building program. The foundation is now firmly in place with back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament.
“I saw my sister really try to get this program going when she was here and now we have such a big senior class with Yinka Sanni, LaQuita Owens, Chakhia Cole … the fact that my freshman year we were sitting on the edge of our seats trying to get into the NCAAs and now we’re talking about seeding and things like that it’s very important to a program,” Bulger said. “It’s important to be talked about nationally and to gain a little respect.”
New Mexico (20-12) has been on a roll of late winning six straight games to claim its fifth Mountain West Conference title in the last six years. The Lobos beat San Diego State, 62-59, in the MWC championship game behind 22 points from Brandi Kimble.
The 5-8 guard is one of three Lobo players averaging double figures at 10.3 points per game. Kimble is also the team’s top rebounder averaging 7.2 boards per game. Six-one forward Dionne Marsh is New Mexico’s leading scorer averaging 15.8 points per game, while 5-6 guard Amy Beggin is averaging 10.9 points per game.
Bulger says playing a different opponent will make things interesting for both teams.
“It’s tough when you play in the Big East because they know all of your plays, they know your personnel and vice versa for them,” she said. “We’ll scout them and they will scout us but you really don’t know a whole lot about them.”
New Mexico is making its seventh consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” Bulger said. “Going to Ohio State they were a lot higher seed than we were and we played extremely well there. It’s all about heart and having the intensity you need.”
West Virginia tentatively is planning on leaving Thursday for Albuquerque for Saturday’s game. Tip times and ticket information will be announced later this evening.
