2008 NCAA Tournament Regional Semifinals Phoenix, AZ West Virginia vs. Xavier Thursday March 27th, 7:10 ET Current Line and Total by Nick Parsons Credit is certainly due to West Virginia. Despite having a very inexperienced frontcourt, the Mountaineers have stepped up in a big way so far in this tournament. Most everyone knew about the amazing talent that Joe Alexander is but the 6'8 junior has surprised even his most ardent fans. Alexander has an amazing combination of athleticism and strength. Against bigger opponents he can put the ball on the floor and scoot right past them. Against smaller opponents they simply can't stop him as he uses his strength and height to go over the top against them. Da'Sean Butler is a physical sophomore who is a very solid rebounder and also a strong defender. Coming into this season, no one would have expected so much from this young frontcourt. However, after winning 10 of their last 13 games, including victories over Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Arizona, and Duke; the Mountaineers have served notice as a team that no one wants to play. The Mountaineers backcourt is what makes this team "scary good". 6'3 senior guard Darris Nichols is a very solid point guard with a strong assist to turnover ratio and he can also drop the three ball in with great regularity. 6'6 junior Alex Ruoff is the big three point shooter for West Virginia and he presents match-up problems for opposing defenses with good size for a perimeter player! Joe Mazzulla is a sophomore guard who is another strong defender that, just like Nichols and Ruoff, does a good job of distributing the ball well while also taking good care of the ball. Coach Bob Huggins has ended up getting a lot out of this team and let's not forget there are players are on this team that were a part of the group that brought home the NIT title for West Virginia last season. No wonder the Mountaineers are proving to be a tough out so far in this tournament! However, the Mountaineers may have just met their match here in a game that is quite likely to be a tight battle. Xavier is an amazing 29-6 this season. 5'7 senior guard Drew Lavender is simply amazing when healthy and he's a big leader for this team too. Lavender appears to be healthy now and he's certainly looking like a big headache for the Mountaineers in this match-up. He had 18 points and 9 assists against a very strong Purdue team in round two of this tournament. With fellow seniors Josh Duncan and Stanley Burrell, the Musketeers are a very experienced team that has an amazing stat that shows their balance scoring. No less than six players are averaging in double digits for the Musketeers. In addition to the three seniors above, the other three double digit scorers are: sophomore Derrick Brown and juniors CJ Anderson and BJ Raymond. Other than Lavender, the Musketeers have very good size all over the floor. The guards for Xavier are indeed excellent and this team plays solid defense. Could their pack-line defense prove the difference in this match-up with West Virginia? That is the question that unfortunately won't be answered until after the opening tip in this one. It's hard to bet against either one of these teams, but defense and experience certainly could key the way for Xavier. Get the winner of this game by going to the Vegas Experts Guaranteed Picks Page and then pay after you win! Vegas Experts is the original pay-after-you-win website where all of the sports picks are 100% Guaranteed to Win. Get free football picks, free basketball picks, free hockey picks and all other sports picks from the Experts!