FEBRUARY MADNESS

This college basketball season so far has been great for the critics. They’ve picked apart most of the teams, considering the entire realm of potential NCAA tournament qualifiers as generally unworthy.

Unbeaten Kentucky? Not as good as past Kentucky teams. The Southeastern Conference as a whole? Not worth mentioning. Gonzaga? Living off a weak schedule. And on it goes. Sheesh.

The talking heads can say what they want (and they do). But for excitement, nothing matches March Madness. Less than a month away from Selection Sunday, West Virginia and Kansas put on a show on Monday night that spoke to the excitement and passion of the college game.

They compete in the Big 12, clearly the best basketball conference in the country. No. 23 WVU, playing at home, defeated No. 8 Kansas 62-61. Juwan Staten scored on a layup with four seconds left for the Mountaineers (20-6) and Perry Ellis’ attempt at the other end of the floor at the buzzer for the Jayhawks banged off the back of the rim, with Staten all over Ellis. Fans poured from the fans to celebrate.

West Virginia reached 20 wins for the first time in four seasons. The Mountaineers had lost four in a row to ranked teams and three of their last four overall, so they were clearly feeling a sense of what’s ahead next month. They’ve not been in the NCAA tournament the last two years and were one-and-done in 2011.

This game put together all of the key elements that make college basketball fun. Does it compare in technical proficiency with the NBA? No. And it never did. It’s a different game, more dominated by the coaches. But it engenders a special passion, displayed perfectly on Monday night in Morgantown, West Virginia.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .