Page-2 | Da’Sean Butler gives West Virginia the look of a No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament | Professional | NewJerseyNewsroom.com -- Your State. Your News.

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Ironically he did it all in the backdrop of the area he wanted to get away from. Butler grew up in Newark, a product of Bloomfield Tech. He honed his skills at Our Lady of Good Counsel and grew strength from countless pickup games on Springfield Avenue.

"Competition in the inner city will make you tougher than you can believe," he said. "If you can handle adversity there then you can handle adversity anywhere."

That's why tie games with just seconds on the clock don't faze him, why he relishes the moment.

Surely, he is fine with making a return trip to the metropolitan area annually to play whichever of the area's school and an extended stay at the Garden, but that's all he wanted when he was looking at colleges.

"I thought it was going to be a distraction to me," he said. "To be honest, I'm not going to lie, I went to high school and I didn't do anything too crazy when I was in high school and I stayed to myself and took care of business. But I knew that if I got away from my parents I would probably go crazy.

"I would rather go crazy in the middle of nowhere, in a nice place where the people are nice and look out for me and take care of me. As opposed to the City, where anything can happen. Looking at level of difficulty and getting in trouble, it's easier to get in trouble being in New Jersey and New York, as opposed to West Virginia."

Now he is one of theirs in Morgantown. Just like five other of his teammates from either New York or New Jersey, including Smith and Jones. Although, appropriately enough, before accepting the championship trophy on the makeshift stage midcourt, the entire team huddled up and did a victory dance, led by Butler and initiated by Brooklyn's Darryl Bryant. The name of the dance? The Harlem Shake.

But while their roots may run deep, first and foremost Butler said, the Big East title was out of fealty for the state. A call from the governor reminded them that they are West Virginians now and will always be.

The Mountaineers would go a long way towards establishing their place in the heart of their fellow denizens if they can make a deep run in the Big Dance.

They knew winning the tournament would be vital for that to happen, with the intention to lock down a No. 1 seed.

"Honestly that was the only thing I was thinking about," said Butler. "Just getting that one seed and making it easier for us to go deep into the tournament. It was important for us to get the one seed and for us to take care of business and the rest of that."

They are among possibly four teams in the discussion for the final top seed and Huggins made his team's case after the game, rolling off their credentials. According to ESPN, they hold the fourth best RPI, the third best strength of schedule, a 9-5 record against top-50 teams and now two wins over Georgetown, who whipped their fiercest competitor for the remaining top spot in Duke.

"They said do those things, we've done those things," said Huggins. "You know, that being said, we're going to enjoy this. We're going to get together tomorrow and watch the selection show, find out where we're going to go and who we're going to play."

However it all works out for the Mountaineers, they've made their case and are now content to wait and watch, confident in their resume. Before the game Huggins motivated his team by telling them of how ESPN personality Digger Phelps said that if West Virginia won the Big East tournament, it would be a knock on the conference. Well they won it and are likely to have a higher seed in the NCAA tournament than their three seed here. Another doubter down, plenty more still to go.

"We don't care," said Huggins. "We know what we are. John F. Kennedy said when they asked him to run for vice president, because he was young, aristocratic and Catholic, he replied, ‘Why settle for second when first was available?' And that's how we're going to go about things. I mean that's what is in us. I learned a long time ago you don't worry about what other people say."

For more Big East Tournament coverage, along with Rutgers and Seton Hall basketball news, follow Mike Vorkunov on Twitter at @Mike_Vorkunov

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