ANAHEIM, Calif. - It's not all that surprising that West Virginia University has advanced to today's 10 p.m. championship game of the 76 Classic, which will be nationally televised by ESPN.

After all, the No. 8 Mountaineers were the highest-ranked team in the eight-team field when the tournament got under way on Thursday.

But what is downright shocking is who WVU will face for the tournament title tonight.

Out of a bracket that included perennial national power UCLA and No. 22 Minnesota has emerged, drum roll, please, the University of Portland.

The Pilots, who came into the tournament with a 3-0 mark including an 88-81 win over Oregon, have been the Cinderella story of the eight-team event. First, they not only beat UCLA, but they also destroyed the Bruins, 74-47. Then, they followed that up with a 61-56 win over Minnesota. Following that game, Golden Gopher coach Tubby Smith praised the senior-dominated Pilots, saying they were for real.

Just how real, WVU will find out tonight.

Portland will be attempting to match its 6-0 start from the 1995-96 season. But the Pilots will face a tall task in beating a West Virginia team that welcomed back Devin Ebanks and appears to be one of the nation's elite squads.

The Mountaineers, who entered the tournament with a 2-0 mark, have doubled that win total thanks to an 85-62 opening-round win over Long Beach State and a 73-66 semifinal triumph over Texas A&M, which had upset nationally-ranked Clemson in the opening round. Ebanks made a couple last-minute steals in that game to help the Mountaineers seal the victory.

WVU is lead by Da'Sean Butler, who is averaging 16.2 points and 3.8 assists per game. Butler is one of five Mountaineers averaging in double figures although Ebanks, who scored 14 points in his debut against Texas A&M, has played in only one game after sitting out the first three due to personal issues. Newcomers Kevin Jones (11.5) and Casey Mitchell (10.0) have made an immediate impact on the Mountaineer program, while Darryl 'Truck' Bryant (11.2) took up where he left off a year ago.

Perhaps the most surprising individual performance by a Mountaineer in the early going came against Long Beach State, when walk-on Jonny West, son of Mountaineer and NBA legend Jerry West, scored a career-high 11 points.

After playing for two straight days in Anaheim, the Mountaineers took Saturday off, taking time to watch the WVU football team's annual Backyard Brawl with Pittsburgh, which the Mountaineers won, 16-13. That game took place at 4 p.m. Pacific time.

Now, the WVU basketball team has an opportunity to complete a perfect weekend for Mountaineer sports by claiming the championship of the 76 Classic and making an early statement that West Virginia is one of the nation's elite programs.

West Virginia is one of three Big East Conference programs ranked in the top 10. In addition to the No. 8 Mountaineers, Villanova is No. 3 and Syracuse, which owns a win over North Carolina, is No. 10. WVU is No. 5 in the RPI rankings. No. 2 Michigan State already has suffered a loss, meaning teams below them may move up in the next poll.