By David Schuman

Saturday afternoon, the West Virginia Mountaineers (15-6, 5-3 Big East) travel up to snowy Syracuse to take on the No. 4 Orange (21-1, 8-1 Big East). The matchup has admittedly lost some of its luster since West Virginia got blown out at St. John’s 78-62, but it’s still a battle of top-five teams in the conference so it should be a good one.

There were a few minutes in the second half of Wednesday night’s game between Syracuse and Villanova where it looked like the Wildcats would make it an exciting finish. But the Syracuse Orange (18-0, 5-0 Big East) did what they’ve done against every other opponent this year: they won. The final score is closer than this one felt. The Villanova Wildcats (8-9, 1-4 Big East) looked out of sorts all night, as the Orange rode a 20-2 first half run to an easy victory.

It's hard to tell if that Bernie Fine headline is from today or from the future. If all the allegations of sexual abuse coming out against the ex-Syracuse basketball assistant coach are true, we're guessing he probably won't stop when he finally does get to prison. 

Although we'd hope that the inmates would be doing more of the abusing than getting abused.

2011-12 Athlon Sports Preaseason Top 25

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1. North Carolina

2. Kentucky