MORGANTOWN -You never know what is going to come out of Bob Huggins' mouth.
So it wasn't all that surprising that when Huggins was asked during a Sunday night press conference in Morgantown about his Mountaineers playing their opening-round NCAA Tournament games in nearby Pittsburgh, he dryly responded, "What makes you think I'm happy about it? You aren't going to get the ticket requests than I am going to get.''
Once the question was re-phrased, Huggins relented.
"We need all the help we can get, so it helps,'' he said of the short bus ride. "Hopefully they (the fans) are on the phone now trying to get tickets because we are only going to get our allotment. Hopefully they find ways to get there, because I know they did when we played in Washington, D.C.''
West Virginia (19-13) is the No. 10 seed in the East Regional and will play No. 7 Gonzaga (25-6) at 7:20 p.m. on Thursday.
Huggins knows little about his team's opening round opponent.
"I don't know very much,'' he said. "I have seen some of their highlights. Sometimes I will cut the tape off, and they will be on late at night. I know (Gonzaga coach) Mark Few pretty well. We played them a couple times when I was in Cincinnati.''
Anxious to start scouting, Huggins said, "I will know more about them in a while.''
Still, Huggins says there are only many so many things you can do to prepare for an unfamiliar team.
"Basketball comes down to a couple things,'' he said. "You can't really get more than three guys involved in a play. You have to figure out a way to get the other two guys out of the way. It's all about numbers and trying to get the numbers in your favor.''
Huggins knows if his Mountaineers beat Gonzaga, they likely are looking at a Saturday game against No. 2 seed Ohio State.
"We played Missouri when we were a No. 2 in 2010,'' Huggins said. "They were a pretty good team. The advantage of being a No. 1 or a No. 2 seed is having an easier first-round game.'' (Ohio State opens with No. 15 seed Loyola of Maryland).
Huggins figured WVU was going to get an NCAA bid.
"I don't know anything more than anybody else, but when all those guys have you as a No. 10 seed, you probably are a No. 10. We were pretty much a consensus No. 10. No one really talked us about being on the bubble. They always had us as a lock. Whenever we got the South Florida win, I thought we were in the tournament.''
Huggins wasn't giving away any secrets.
Asked what his team had done since losing its Big East Conference Tournament opener to Connecticut, he replied, "We had practice a couple of days and tried to clean some things up. We shot the ball.''
