MORGANTOWN — The highlight is played before every WVU men’s basketball game in the Coliseum as surely as popcorn and hot dogs are sold at the concession stands.
It is 2010, Madison Square Garden, nine seconds left and WVU and Georgetown are tied at 58.
You know what happens next. We all do.
Da’Sean Butler hauls in the inbounds pass and drives to the top of the key … and then the foul line … and then he somehow gets off a shot while being double teamed.
It goes in, and the Mountaineers capture the Big East tournament. Two weeks later, WVU played in the Final Four.
Now participating as a coach during the annual Bob Huggins Fantasy Camp that began June 1, Butler opened up to what has become a running joke between him and former WVU teammate Deniz Kilicli.
Kilicli, then a 6-foot-9 freshman who was the team’s inside muscle, was standing underneath the basket all alone when Butler — who hit seven game-winning shots for the Mountaineers that season — took the shot against the Hoyas.
And Kilicli always lets Butler know it when they see each other.
“I still can’t see it,” Butler said with a large smile. “He tells me. I look at it from time to time when people play it or whatever and I still don’t see it.
“He brings it up all the time. He tells me I should have passed it to him. I’m like, ‘I made the shot.’ I love Deniz. He’s a good dude.”
INJURY UPDATES
WVU recruit Andrew Gordon was on campus Friday, but the junior-college transfer who sat out last season with a knee injury at Northwest Florida (Niceville) State College still hasn’t been medically cleared to play.
Huggins said WVU guards Brandon Knapper (knee) and Lamont West (wrist) are progressing well, but neither has been cleared for full practice or contact.
Huggins said he expected all three will be set to go before the start of the fall semester.
As for all six of WVU’s incoming recruits, freshman Jordan McCabe is already enrolled and Huggins said the other five (Gordon, Trey Doomes, Derek Culver, Emmitt Matthews and Jermaine Haley) will enroll this month and participate in team workouts.
WHAT IF?
Alex Ruoff, WVU’s all-time leader with 261 3-pointers, is also participating as a coach at the camp.
Ruoff was a year ahead of Butler and he graduated the year before the Mountaineers advanced to the Final Four.
Ruoff and Butler were asked an interesting “What If” concerning former teammate Joe Alexander: What would have happened to WVU’s 2008-’09 season if Alexander had returned for his senior season?
The 2008-’09 season also featured WVU’s highly touted freshman class of Truck Bryant, Kevin Jones and Devin Ebanks.
Could WVU have been in a better position to reach a Final Four like it did a year later during Butler’s senior season?
Alexander, who averaged 16.9 points and 6.9 rebounds as a junior, bypassed his senior season and became the No. 8 overall selection in the 2008 NBA draft.
“It’s tough to say,” Ruoff said. “We were also without Joe Mazzulla [injured shoulder], so it’s hard to say how much of a run we could have made.”
Without Alexander, Butler developed into a player who scored 17.1 points per game and became a team leader.
He isn’t sure he would have done the same if Alexander returned.
“It would have been a good team,” Butler said. “I feel like we moved on pretty well when he went to the NBA.
“At the time, I feel like I hadn’t worked on my game enough as a freshman or sophomore and I saw how much work Joe put in.”
Butler said the WVU coaches sat him down and said if he ever wanted to get to where Alexander was, then he would have to work like Alexander did.
“I always wanted that role,” he said. “I just didn’t know how to go about getting there.
“I became a so much better player going into my junior year. Would I have developed the same way if Joe had come back? Maybe not the same way, but I would have been better.”
Without Alexander, the Mountaineers were upset by 11th-seeded Dayton in the first round of the 2009 NCAA tournament, a loss that fueled WVU to make a run to the 2010 Final Four.
What would have happened with Alexander?
Well, Butler said that’s a conversation he’s actually had with Alexander.
“It was almost immediately after [the loss to Dayton],” Butler said. “He said we would have been able to take care of business.
“We would have played Kansas in the next round, and we felt like Kansas was weak that season. He talked to us about those things. It’s been mentioned before.”
