ANAHEIM, Calif. - Word was West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins would take his No. 8 Mountaineers to Disneyland on Saturday, an off day before the championship of the 76 Classic tournament here.

Turns out, however, there was no goofing off for WVU.

"Heading to practice,'' Huggins said around noon Saturday.

It was probably a good idea. At 10 tonight, West Virginia (4-0) will meet Portland in the finals of the Classic. The game will be televised on ESPN2. And all the unranked Pilots have done is defeat Oregon, UCLA and Tubby Smith's No. 22 Minnesota Gophers in their last three games to gain national attention.

Oh, and Portland didn't just defeat UCLA, which has more national championships than any other school. The Pilots whipped the Bruins 74-47.

"Obviously, they're very good,'' Huggins said of the Pilots. "They're shooting 48 percent from 3-point range. Most teams don't have one player shooting that [percentage]. They're shooting that as a team after five games.''

Portland (5-0) has a reputation as an excellent 3-point-shooting team. On defense, the Pilots rely on a zone. In its 61-56 victory over Minnesota, coach Eric Reveno's team hit just 39 percent from the floor but held the Gophers to 33 percent.

"We mixed up our defenses with logic behind it and some without rhyme or reason just to mix it up between our zone,'' Reveno said.

Of course, the 76 Classic, like Reveno's occasional defense, has had little rhyme or reason to it. Yes, the favored Mountaineers are in the finals, but they didn't meet No. 19 Clemson in the semifinals. The Tigers were knocked out by Texas A&M, which WVU defeated 73-66 on Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 12 Butler lost to the No. 22 Gophers, which then fell to Portland.

Huggins was asked if he ever envisioned making the finals of the Classic without meeting a ranked team.

"No,'' he said flatly. "Not at all. Everybody thought it would be Clemson and us or us and Butler.''

Now, though, Portland's other trail blazers are knocking on the door of the Top 25.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Word was West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins would take his No. 8 Mountaineers to Disneyland on Saturday, an off day before the championship of the 76 Classic tournament here.

Turns out, however, there was no goofing off for WVU.

"Heading to practice,'' Huggins said around noon Saturday.

It was probably a good idea. At 10 tonight, West Virginia (4-0) will meet Portland in the finals of the Classic. The game will be televised on ESPN2. And all the unranked Pilots have done is defeat Oregon, UCLA and Tubby Smith's No. 22 Minnesota Gophers in their last three games to gain national attention.

Oh, and Portland didn't just defeat UCLA, which has more national championships than any other school. The Pilots whipped the Bruins 74-47.

"Obviously, they're very good,'' Huggins said of the Pilots. "They're shooting 48 percent from 3-point range. Most teams don't have one player shooting that [percentage]. They're shooting that as a team after five games.''

Portland (5-0) has a reputation as an excellent 3-point-shooting team. On defense, the Pilots rely on a zone. In its 61-56 victory over Minnesota, coach Eric Reveno's team hit just 39 percent from the floor but held the Gophers to 33 percent.

"We mixed up our defenses with logic behind it and some without rhyme or reason just to mix it up between our zone,'' Reveno said.

Of course, the 76 Classic, like Reveno's occasional defense, has had little rhyme or reason to it. Yes, the favored Mountaineers are in the finals, but they didn't meet No. 19 Clemson in the semifinals. The Tigers were knocked out by Texas A&M, which WVU defeated 73-66 on Friday.

On the other side of the bracket, No. 12 Butler lost to the No. 22 Gophers, which then fell to Portland.

Huggins was asked if he ever envisioned making the finals of the Classic without meeting a ranked team.

"No,'' he said flatly. "Not at all. Everybody thought it would be Clemson and us or us and Butler.''

Now, though, Portland's other trail blazers are knocking on the door of the Top 25.

"I think we deserve it,'' said Pilots' 6-foot-10 forward Robin Smeulders, who is third on the team in scoring with a 13-point average. "In my first three years, we got rocked, sometimes by 40 points. It's nice to see us finally battling and winning against some solid teams. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if we were ranked after this tournament.''

Portland is outscoring teams an average of 77-64.6 and shooting 50.6 percent from the floor. The Pilots are hitting 47.8 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.

Portland is led by 5-9 senior point guard T.J. Campbell, who is averaging 18 points. He had 23 against Minnesota, nailing 4-of-8 3-point attempts. Senior guard Nik Ravivio, 6-4, is averaging 15.8 and needs 30 points to reach 1,000 in his career.

The Mountaineers, meanwhile, continue to be led in scoring by forward Da'Sean Butler's 16.3 average. But with the return of standout Devin Ebanks, WVU now has five players averaging in double digits. Ebanks scored 14 against A&M. Kevin Jones is averaging 11.5 points; Truck Bryant is averaging 11.3; Casey Mitchell is averaging 10.8.

As a team, West Virginia is hitting on 47 percent of its field goal attempts and 38.5 percent of its 3-point attempts.

The Mountaineers' smothering defense is also paying off. The team is plus-seven in turnover margin, averaging 12 turnovers and 19 takeaways.

West Virginia's average margin of victory is 18 points. That's impressive because, of its first four regular-season games, only one (Loyola-Md.) has been played in Morgantown.

Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.