VIDEO: Marquette Coach Buzz Williams Dances On West Virginia Floor To 'Take Me Home, Country Roads'

The West Virginia Mountaineers lost a heartbreaker on Friday night, dropping to 7-9 in the Big East with a 61-60 loss to the Marquette Golden Eagles. But it was what happened after the game that had West Virginia fans in a tizzy. Marquette head coach Buzz Williams began to two-step across the middle of the West Virginia floor as he approached the ESPN broadcast table for a postgame interview.

Coming on the heels of a frustrating loss, the dance in the middle of the floor, across the logo, and to John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" set the remaining student crowd off. Those students were conveniently placed right behind the broadcast table where Williams was headed to conduct his interview. On SportsCenter, Linda Cohn said that ESPN color commentator Bill Raftery was hit by something from the crowd.

Video of the dance:

Williams immediately recognized that he made a mistake, and apologized at the broadcast table. He also elaborated on that apology in the post game press conference:

"I apologize, if you could write that for whatever you write for. That was very unprofessional. I apologize, that's not a great representation - it's not a good representation, it's a bad representation of our program, our institution. So I apologize for that. I was just really excited, that was all. And how I grew up, it was really in the country and that was one of my favorite songs growing up and I realized as the riot was about to occur, that John Denver said 'West Virginia' in the song. I'm sorry."

For more news, analysis, and discussion on the Mountaineers, visit The Smoking Musket, SB Nation's WVU blog. For the perspective from the other side, check out Anonymous Eagle, SB Nation's Marquette blog. For all your Big East hoops news as March Madness approaches, follow along at Big East Coast Bias.

Marquette Vs. West Virginia: Mountaineers Go Cold In Second Half, Fall By One To Golden Eagles

In a rare Friday night Big East matchup, the West Virginia Mountaineers dropped to 7-9 in the conference with a 61-60 loss to Marquette at home. The Mountaineers struggled on the offensive end of the floor in the second half, as the Golden Eagles came from behind to eek out the 61-60 win. Marquette played without three of their best players in the first half, as Darius Johnson-Odom, Junior Cadougan, and Vander Blue were all suspended for the first twenty minutes for violating a team rule.

Darryl Bryant led the Mountaineers with 25 points but Kevin Jones struggled, missing all five attempts from behind the arc. As a team, WVU shot just 25 percent from downtown. The Mountaineers found themselves down five with just a minute to play, but the comeback attempt fell short when Bryant missed a jumper in the lane and the ball came left off the rim and into the hands of Cadougan. It was a frustrating second half for Bob Huggins, whose team continues to stumble down the stretch. They'll look to get back on track against Depaul on Tuesday night.

Stay tuned to SBNation Pittsburgh and The Smoking Musket for more on the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Marquette Vs. West Virginia: Mountaineers Look To Avoid Total Collapse

Well, it all comes down to this. When WVU squares off at home against Marquette tonight, it might as well be a tournament game because if the 'Eers lose, they become prohibitive longshots to make the big dance, and deservingly so. In their last contest the team failed to emerge from the locker room after halftime and the 'Eers were run off of the court by Notre Dame. Unfortunately, Marquette is an even tougher opponant and WVU has it's work cut out for it with the season on the line. Here's what I'm watching tonight:

• A marquee match-up in the paint. Kevin Jones, the only bright spot on the Mountaineers this season, will continue his quest for Big East Player of the Year, but tonight he'll square off against another one of the conference's elite big men: Jae Crowder. Crowder and Jones will go hard in the paint tonight and whomever wins that battle will have given his team a huge leg up. Mountaineer fans have watched in horror as Jones has been swallowed by opposing defenses lately who go all out against him. That focus wouldn't be too big of a deal except that none of the freshmen have managed to pick up the slack. Tonight, he's going to need to succeed against Crowder and get some help for WVU to win this one.
• Swagger, or lack thereof. John Radcliff made a great point this morning with this post on The Smoking Musket. Essentially, he says, this team looks like it's having no fun at all, and I agree with him. Ever since this slide began the Mountaineer have played like prisoners being nervously led to their doom and it's showed. The second they get down, you can see them hang their heads. Wednesday night's game against Notre Dame is the perfect example of this. The 'Eers started the second half down two points, but by the time they were down ten, the game was over. It didn't matter that there was still almost an entire half to play, because the Mountaineers had quit by that point. I'm terrified that's going to happen again tonight.
• Can Huggins shuffle his way out of this mess? Head coach Bob Huggins has shuffled his lineup each of the last two games, and drastically revised his substitute rotation. Unfortunately for Huggs, he only has so many guys and none of them seem to be able to do much. He gave serious minutes to walk on Paul Williamson and freshman Tommie McCune against Notre Dame, after each had barely managed to sniff the court up to that point. I don't think Huggins was rewarding them, however, and instead punishing Aaron Brown and Keaton Miles for not being able to push through their current setbacks. Mountaineer fans can take solace in the fact that if there is a lineup that will work (a big "if," admittedly), Huggins will find it.

Marquette Vs. West Virginia: Mountaineers Try To Recover At Home

The Mountaineers look to rebound after a tough loss at South Bend when the Marquette Golden Eagles visit Morgantown Friday night.