March Madness officially hits Charleston on Wednesday with the opening day of the Mountain East Conference tournament.
Once again, the MEC comes into this year's postseason with three of the top programs in NCAA Division II, including No. 1 Fairmont State, No. 11 West Liberty and a Wheeling Jesuit team that has been ranked most of the season but is now among those receiving votes for the Top 25.
But if there's one thing the league's coaches have learned from their past experiences at the Civic Center, it's that you must always expect the unexpected.
Last year, with everyone expecting the champion to come from the trio of FSU, WLU and WJU, all of which were ranked in the nation's top five, it came down to the tournament's Nos. 4 and 6 seeds. Concord and Notre Dame surprised everyone with their run to the title game and the Mountain Lions NCAA-tournament-clinching win in the championship.
"That's the great thing about tournament play," West Liberty coach Jim Crutchfield said. "People tend to grab a new life - teams that might have been flattened out once they realized they couldn't win a regular season title see that chance to go out and win a championship again. That's what makes this time of the year really special in this sport."
As they head into this year's tournament, the MEC's coaches know just how tough it's going to be to make a run through Sunday. For teams like the University of Charleston, that run begins on Wednesday with the tall task of winning four games in the next five days in order to keep its season going past this week.
That idea - knowing that it's now or never for this group - should be able to provide the Golden Eagles with all of the motivation they need.
"The next time we lose, our season is over," UC coach Dwaine Osborne said. "Our guys know that, I don't need to make any other speeches to them about that. Now we just have to go out there, stay ready and go do our jobs. If they do that, I feel like we can have a chance against anyone we play this year - and we've shown that at times this season.
"It's a grind, but this is what you work all year for. This is the best time of year and we'll be ready to go out there and see what we can do to make a run."
Wednesday's first-round action kicks off at the Civic Center at noon with the women's tournament opening with No. 7 Shepherd against No. 10 West Virginia Wesleyan before a 2:15 p.m. tip between No. 8 Charleston and No. 9 West Liberty. West Virginia State opens at 2:15 p.m. Thursday as the No. 6 seed against third-seeded UVa-Wise
Then the men's side opens the tournament in the evening as No. 7 Glenville State takes on No. 10 UVa-Wise at 6 p.m. and a 8:15 p.m. nightcap of No. 8 Charleston against No. 9 Urbana.
The women's quarterfinals will take place on Thursday followed by the men's quarterfinals on Friday with the semifinals (Saturday) and finals (Sunday) taking place on the weekend.
In the three years the MEC tournament has been played, the top-seeded team has never won the conference tournament and only one time has the No. 1 team made it to the finals. Fairmont State and coach Jerrod Calhoun are looking to make that bit of history this week at the Civic Center after finishing the regular season 27-1 overall with a 21-1 mark in conference play.
For Calhoun, a former West Virginia assistant under Bob Huggins, tournament time is when you're going to need to showcase your depth more than ever as teams prepare for the relentless grind of playing games over consecutive days.
The team that is able to come together and work with one another to make everyone's jobs easier is usually the team that will be able to persevere, overcome adversity and lift up a trophy at the end.
"First off, every team you play is very talented and you're playing everyone for a third time this season so there aren't a lot of secrets left that you can have," Calhoun said. "Every team has a superstar in this league, every team has a guy who is capable of carrying the team for 40 minutes. But you have to have depth, and you have to have a little luck, if you want to make a run in a tournament like this.
"It's going to be an exciting week for us, it'll be exciting for the fans. This week is the kind of thing college basketball fans wait all season for."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.