— As they should be, the state, everything and everybody West Virginia are beside themselves with pride, joy, anticipation and hope, as for the first time since Jerry West — 51 years — the West Virginia University Mountaineers are in the Final Four.

It’s a happy, heady time, as well it should be, but some of the well-intentioned giddiness has reached the point of being fluff.

For instance, Hoppy Kercheval, the um ... host, I guess, of the West Virginia MetroNews morning radio program, was busy Tuesday campaigning for WVU coach Bob Huggins, the toast of the entire state, to wear a suit, rather than the warm-ups he has been wearing, during Saturday's national semifinal game against Duke, even though Huggins seems to be about as comfortable in a suit as he would be in a skirt.

Based on a Wall Street Journal opinion piece earlier in the week, “Suits or sweats?” was the hot-button issue on this day with one very wise caller urging “sweats,” since, after all, “you never pick up a happy baby.”

As though Bob Huggins gives a rat’s fanny to begin with, but honestly, have you seen some of his suits? Pat Riley he ain’t, but fashion sense be damned. Hoppy (and what is that?) feels a suit is the order of the occasion because of the so-called perception of West Virginia it would create if Huggins doesn’t wear one.

Well, let’s just put it this way, if Huggins wears that gold suit he whipped out last season for the entire nation to see on Saturday, it’s going to present a favorable impression of West Virginia? As though perceptions of West Virginia will change depending on what Huggins wears, and depending on how well or how poorly the Mountaineers fare this weekend?

Stick with the sweats, Huggs. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And right now, nothing seems to be broken when it comes to West Virginia basketball, other than, perhaps, Truck Bryant’s foot, which has now been fitted with a supportive shoe (purchased in Durham, N.C., no less), which should allow the point guard to play in this weekend’s Final Four.

Suit or sweats. Yes, these are the things you find some folks talking about when their team is going to the Final Four.

As for the actual games, President Obama believes, as most outside of East Lansing and Indianapolis do, the winner of the Duke-West Virginia game will be the eventual national champion.

I agree with the president on this one, to the point that I believe West Virginia will win the game. In fact, I believe the Mountaineers will win two games, although if I’m West Virginia I want to see Michigan State in the final instead of hot-shooting Butler.

With Butler in the field, beware of the “Hoosiers” factor, particularly with the Final Four being played in Indianapolis, just down the road from where the state final was played in the movie — on Butler’s homecourt no less! How does Hollywood always know?

On every bracket I filled out, I have West Virginia winning the championship. And even though I have been trying to tell anybody who is not willing to listen that Duke is really a very good team, I’m sticking with West Virginia to win the national championship. Granted, Kansas State will not be there to lose to the Mountaineers in the final, 78-70, as I forecast they would be, but the Mountaineers will beat Duke, and they’ll win Monday night’s national championship game.

No, WVU is no scoring machine, but every team they play these days seems to go into a scoring funk for some reason or another. Ask high-powered Kentucky.

Well, isn’t it time to consider since the one constant in those scoring funks has been West Virginia, it stands to reason, perhaps, that West Virginia is the some reason or another for said scoring funks? No coach coaches and teaches defense better than surly Bob Huggins does, bringing to mind another surly guy who had no use for wearing a suit on the sideline and did a pretty fair job teaching defense in Indiana for all those years, that happy-go-lucky fellow by the name of Bob Knight.

Look, Duke is going to be no day at the beach here. It’s true, they had the cakewalk region to get through (“So easy a caveman could win it.”), and those mysterious Duke calls have resurfaced along with this Duke revival. Make no mistake about it, this is Duke we’re talking about, that is Mike Krzyzewski wearing his suit on that sideline, and this is the Final Four. But as Ringo Starr once said, “Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues, and you know it don't come easy.”

No, it won’t come easy, but Monday night in Indianapolis, it will be the Mountaineers who will be cutting down the nets, further providing a lift to the state, everything and everybody West Virginia. And, remarkably enough, the impetus for that lift is being provided by a prodigal son so many high-browed West Virginia boosters had no desire to see return.

Yet even more remarkably, the entire state of West Virginia is now concerned with what he’s going to wear.

Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Write to him at mburke@times-news.com