West Virginia Mountaineers men's basketball
The West Virginia Mountaineers finished the regular season with a record of 20–11 overall and 11–7 in the Big East, good for sixth place in the conference. They earned a 5th seed in East region of the 2011 NCAA Tournament, one of the record eleven Big East Conference teams selected. They defeated the Clemson Tigers in the second round, 84–76, to advance to the Round of 32. In a rematch of last season's Elite Eight match-up, the Mountaineers played the Kentucky Wildcats. Despite holding a 41–33 halftime lead, the Mountaineers lost, 71–63. WVU finished their season with a record of 21–12.With 184 games played between 1906 and 2012, West Virginia's rivalry against Pittsburgh, whose campus is roughly 80 miles north of WVU, is West Virginia's most-played men's basketball rivalry. This was an in-conference rivalry for many years: 1976 to 1982 in the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League and Eastern Athletic Association (predecessors to the Atlantic 10 Conference) and 1995 to 2012 in the Big East Conference. Following the conference realignment, West Virginia moved to the Big 12 Conference in 2012, and Pittsburgh moved to the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2013 and the series was put on hold until the 2017-2018 season. West Virginia has a 97–88 series lead.
1983 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
A historically significant run in the tournament was that of Georgia, who became the last team to date to advance to the Final Four in its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. But the N.C. State team led by Jim Valvano became the archetype of the "Cinderella team", the underdog that many fans look to as a possible spoiler over top-ranked teams. This label has, since then, been applied to many programs, including Villanova in 1985, Gonzaga in 1999, George Mason in 2006, Butler in 2010 and 2011, VCU in 2011, and Wichita State in 2013. Not only did N.C. State beat Houston to win the championship, but they also beat #1 seeded Virginia on their way to the Final Four. The Wolfpack did not assure themselves of a tournament bid until they upset Virginia in the championship game of the ACC tournament. North Carolina State became the first team in tournament history to win six games en route to the title (the tournament being 32 teams or less prior to 1979, and all champions from 1979 to 1982 had first-round byes).