The Big East tournament champion West Virginia Mountaineers have thrust themselves into the national spotlight riding their staple of furious defensive pressure and fierce rebounding efforts, which are all direct reflections of fiery coach Bob Huggins. With a 27-6 record and two seed in the NCAA tournament’s East region, there is little room to dissect and nitpick at problem areas of the Mountaineers. But the team realizes it’s chief strength could stand for further improvement.

That could start Friday, when WVU plays its first round game against 15th seed Morgan State (27-9) in Buffalo, N.Y.

“It seems like people have shot the ball better against us than they normally do,” Huggins said just before practice Wednesday. “Louisville came in here struggling and just shot the lights out. Cincinnati came in here struggling and they shot the lights out.”

WVU clawed back and won each of those games, but as strange as it may seem, the Mountaineers have not necessarily put up staggering defensive numbers.

Out of 334 NCAA Division I teams, No. 5/6 WVU ranks 136th in field goal percentage defense, 126th in three-point field goal defense, 58th in scoring defense, 96th in blocks and 273rd in steals.

Hard to believe, isn’t it?

“All season we’ve had teams come out and shoot this magical number against us,” said WVU senior forward Da’Sean Butler. “I’m not even surprised anymore if teams have good games against us offensively.”

Now with the third toughest schedule in college basketball, some of the aforementioned is understandable.

WVU has had it’s share of slim nail biters swing their way and has also seen teams fight back and hit huge shots late in games to stay within reach, if not win the game. The Mountaineers have been in 10 such contests decided by three points or less and won seven of those white-knuckle finishes, most often turning to Butler, the team’s bona fide super star.

“Hopefully we win every game convincingly so I don’t have to do all that,” said Butler. “If it does come to that, then God willing, he wants the ball to go in.”

Huggins is famous for his gritty man-to-man defenses, but this season, he’s turned to a defense typically used by former coach John Beilein -- who recruited Butler, among other leftover Mountaineers -- before leaving for Michigan in 2007.

“I thought we needed change,” Huggins said. “I think a lot of these guys have familiarity with the 1-3-1. We tried to do some things I did at Cincinnati. We played a 1-3-1 when I was at Akron. That was kind of our defense we went through to change games.”

Any defense Huggins institutes is still man-to-man in principle, but the 1-3-1 has proved bothersome and in shifting to that zone late in games, opponents have struggled with adjusting to the extended pressure and varying traps along the wings.

“We’re not big, but we are long,” Huggins said.

While those defenses have been forced to slow down the likes of National Player of the Year candidate Evan Turner, as well as Scottie Reynolds and Greg Monroe out of the brutally competitive Big East -- which again sent a record eight teams into the NCAA tournament -- the Mountaineers have needed consistency on offense, which hasn’t always been present.

“Defense is always a great thing to hold your hat on, but we also know we have to score too,” sophomore forward Kevin Jones said. “There’s going to be games where we’re going to have to score 70 or 80 points and we just got to clean up our offense. I think that’s the main part -- once we do that, we’ll find easier ways to score.”

The Mountaineers 73 points scored a game, 43.4 percent field goal shooting and 33.6 percent three-point accuracy aren’t going to turn many heads or win shootouts. But WVU is the ninth best team in college basketball in rebounding margin (+6.8) -- that will continue to win close games and help advance the Mountaineers in the NCAA tournament.

Morgan State, a guard heavy team, will decidedly be mismatched against the size and athleticism of WVU.

“It’s going to give us a lot of advantages on the offensive end. We can rebound,” said Jones. “Hopefully we exploit that early and get a lot of shots close to the rim. We’ve been shooting a lot of jumpers and three-pointers so if we can get stuff close to the rim, I think it will help us in the long run.”

Butler explained, “They have a well-rounded group of people that can score. As far as size, they’re like a South Florida in a way, but they don’t do any of the things South Florida does. They’ve got that guy [Reggie Holmes] that shoots it like Dominique Jones, but he doesn’t shoot it as much.”

With just a 6-foot-9 forward in Kevin Thompson, a 6-foot-8 forward in Dewayne Jackson, and a contingent of guards, the Bears don’t have physical personnel to match-up with the Mountaineers. Butler believes that fact can work both ways. It just might when trying to defend Holmes, a 6-foot-4 guard who averages a team-high 21.8 points.

“We’re longer and taller than them at most positions, but then again, we got to guard them too off the bounce,” he said. “Every advantage has a disadvantage. It’s just a matter of how hard we play and how hard they play.”

Playing hard is very rarely a glaring question with this Huggins’ team, although last year, the sixth seeded Mountaineers were upset by 11 seed Dayton, 68-60, in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

“The only thing I can take from that game is to not let it happen again,” Butler said.