MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WV News) — There's a new show in town, folks, and maybe we all ought to look in on it, considering the trend in West Virginia sports of late.
On Sunday, West Virginia's women's basketball team beat No. 17 Baylor, 74-65.
This was more than just the team's 12th win in 16 games, its third in a row and fifth in seven games.
It was an announcement that West Virginia is back.
This may not have been the Brittney Griner and coach Kim Mulkey teams of the National Championship days, but it remained a nationally ranked power and at a school where the men's basketball team is letting the season slip through its fingers and where the football team has fumbled away all those high hopes that coach Neal Brown brought with him, this is something real and promising to grab hold of.
Good thing, too, because the mood had really turned sour in these parts, with bowl games and post-season play seemingly belonging to an earlier generation while this generation wanted something successful to grab hold of and to claim its own.
It is being brought to you by a new coach who accepted a torch that was flickering out under the veteran Mike Carey and who is determined to see that you — and this notorious butcher of names — learn to spell Dawn Plitzuweit.
She has come in with no promises, no boasts. Simply with a down-to-earth attitude that stresses the fun part of fundamentals and that relies upon an all-for-one, one-for-all approach to the game of basketball.
She owns a national championship at the Division II level at Grand Valley State and served an apprenticeship for Big 12 coaching at South Dakota compiled a overwhelming record of 158-36,winning three consecutive Summit League titles, earning four NCAA Tournament invitations, including one a Sweet 16 appearance in 2022.
That, coupled with an upset victory over the nation's No. 7 team last year earned her a shot at the big time.
By the way, that No. 7 team was Baylor, the same Baylor that she victimized at the Coliseum on Sunday in what was her first victory over a nationally ranked team at WVU, to say nothing of it being WVU's first victory over Baylor since March 6, 2017, when Carey's Mountaineers stunned them to claim the 2017 Big 12 Tournament title.
There were two items worth noting about the way WVU reacted to its win over the Bears.
The first was the unbridled glee they displayed after pulling off a comeback victory in a game they looked as if they would never find a way to win. The second was that they seemed to leave the glow behind by the time they left the locker room and acted as if it was nothing more than what they expected and were moving forward with so much more to prove.
It was so much of the fabric that this team is made of that it was what made up one of the most key plays in the game. WVU had taken the ball up the court in transition in the fourth quarter with a five-point lead, point guard Madisen Smith attacking the basket.
But, as she got down low, she realized that she would be putting up a difficult shot. Instead, she turned and spotted Kylee Blacksten out at the 3-point line. Quickly, she seized the moment, pitched the ball out and Blacksten canned a 3.
There was no celebration at the moment, though. In fact, Blacksten said the importance of the shot didn't even hit her then.
"For me, it normally hits after the game. At that moment, I'm thinking 'What do I have to do now? What's the next scenario?'" she said.
And, besides, she didn't feel she had done so much that she was fine to let the celebration go to Smith, who made the play possible with her recognition of the situation and pass.
"It was such a huge thing for Maddy to do that. She was celebrating everything and was giving us so much energy. It helped everything. It gave us more energy and we were running faster, all of it," Blacksten said.
The second item was Plitzuweit taking it more low-key than you might expect.
at"I thought our kids battled," she said. "Our discipline and toughness was really, really good. When we didn't have it, they scored. They scored quickly and efficiently, but we are getting better and had some toughness and made some plays. That was fun to see."
The key words were "getting better" for this is a work in progress and Plitzuweit knows she doesn't yet have all the parts in place. She's still learning her players, her players are learning her and her system ... but they have three straight Big 12 wins now.
