CHARLESTON, W.Va. - There's a saying in basketball that says it's not always the best team, but the hottest team that wins during tournament time.
Well, Charleston coach Mark Downey sure hopes that's true, and as for West Virginia State coach Bryan Poore? Not so much.
The Golden Eagles and Yellow Jackets will tangle in the regular-season finale at 4 p.m. today at Eddie King Gym, and a lot seemingly has changed since State's 87-68 victory over UC back on Jan. 19.
Charleston comes into today's contest scalding hot, having won seven games in a row and putting itself in position for a home game in the first round of the West Virginia Conference tournament after starting league play at 5-9.
Downey said the turnaround is due to several things.
"What happened is that we started understanding what our strengths and roles were as individuals, and we started doing what you have to do to win," Downey said. "We're bigger, we don't have a lot of small guards and we need to use that to our advantage and we hadn't done that all year. A lot of smaller teams really spread us out and made it tough for us to guard them, but now we're guarding better and taking advantage of our style and strengths."
Meanwhile, the Jackets (16-9 overall, 15-6 WVC) find themselves in uncharted water, struggling down the stretch after losing four games in a row before beating Glenville State on Wednesday. Thanks to the league's parity (excluding West Liberty), State remains in second place, despite the recent skid.
"We haven't shot very well, and it's kind of our own fault," Poore said. "We've got good shooters, I'm comfortable with Cookie [Miller], Bo King, and Will Collins, but I feel like the last three or four games we've taken bad shots and settled for early jumpers in the shot clock and have not been poised.
"I've always said our defense needs to start our offense, and we haven't been doing that either."
It's likely that the Yellow Jackets will see a motivated Charleston team. The Golden Eagles (14-11, 12-9) have dropped five straight to State, something that Downey said has been discussed.
"Obviously, beating State would be huge," Downey said. "This is the last game for a lot of seniors, and they've been dominated by State. We've been talking about that and how it's time to change it. It will be a tough game. It always is."
And while both coaches agree that it's good to enter tournament play on a winning note, Poore points out that after today, it's a new season.
"We think we'll win [against Charleston], we think we'll play well, but the fact is after Saturday afternoon, everybody goes to 0-0," Poore said. "If you lose on Tuesday you go home. West Liberty is kind of out there on their own planet, and everybody else is very equal. The Bluefield States and Ohio Valleys have gotten so much better and knocked off some upper-echelon teams, which makes it really close. The league is very equal this year, and I think you'll see at least a couple first-round upsets with some teams winning on the road."
Poore's thoughts on league equality have some merit. The last time a team that finished second in the regular-season standings and had as many as six losses was 1997 when Wheeling Jesuit and Alderson-Broaddus finished tied for second at 13-6.
If UC beats the Jackets today, the second-place team will end with at least seven losses. The last time that happened? Alderson-Broaddus in 1961.
Even in his first year as a WVC coach, Downey has noticed the parity.
"We're all beating each other up. Every team has two or three players that can really score and on any given night, anybody can beat anybody," Downey said. "It makes it fun, but it may be hurting us with the NCAA Region rankings a little bit.
"It's anybody's ball game and we'll see what happens at the tournament."
The University of Charleston women (21-6, 17-4) will try to wrap up the WVC regular-season championship in their season finale against West Virginia State (11-16, 9-12) beginning at 2 p.m. today at Eddie King Gym.
