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All five starters come from New York and New Jersey.

Asked how he lured so much metropolitan-area talent to Morgantown, West Va., Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins cracked, "My effervescent personality."

The team with the New York feel will play Georgetown for the Big East championship Saturday night after No. 3 West Virginia fended off No. 7 Notre Dame, 53-51, in the second semifinal at Madison Square Garden.

Behind Greg Monroe's 23 points, 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 blocks, No. 8 Georgetown handled No. 5 Marquette, 80-57, in the first game.

"There's nothing better than Friday night in New York City, other than Saturday night in New York City. So we're going to show up in New York City on Saturday night," Hoyas coach John Thompson III said.

The Hoyas are 7-5 in Big East championship games and have won more titles than any other school.

Georgetown beat West Virginia, 72-55, in the 2008 Big East semifinals.

West Virginia downed Georgetown, 81-68, March 1 in Morgantown.

"This opportunity, we can't blow this opportunity. I'm looking forward to this game tomorrow really bad," said West Virginia senior forward Da'Sean Butler, a Newark, N.J. native who starred at Bloomfield (N.J.) Tech.

Butler scored a game-high 24 points and added 7 rebounds and is now just four points shy of 2,000 for his career.

Huggins also hit a major landmark, tying legendary coach John Wooden for 21st on the all-time wins list with 664 victories. Only Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim and Jim Calhoun have more among active coaches.

Kevin Jones, a sophomore from Mount Vernon, N.Y., who bulked up to 244 pounds from 218 during a strenuous summer workout program, added 10 points for the Mounties, including two clutch foul shots to give West Virginia a 52-47 lead.

Wellington Smith, a Summit, N.J. native, scored just 3 points but made the most important play of the game when he corralled Tory Jackson's potential game-winning 3-pointer when it clanged off the rim in the final seconds.

Notre Dame's Tyrone Nash had a hand on the ball, but Smith ripped it out of his hands.

Smith was soon embraced by Butler as the horn sounded

Ben Hansbrough, the younger brother of former North Carolina star Tyler Hansbrough, kept Notre Dame in the game with 17 points, hitting 4 of 7 3-pointers.

On a night when Luke Harangody managed just 10 points and 3 boards, Hansbrough scored 10 of his team's final 12 points, drawing the Irish within 48-45 on back-to-back 3-pointers before Joe Mazzulla and Jones scored four straight to push the lead back to 52-47.

Butler chose West Virginia over Seton Hall and Rutgers because the coaching changes at those schools four years ago made his future uncertain.

He committed to play for former West Virginia coach John Beilein and then stuck around when Huggins left Kansas State for his alma mater.

Devin Ebanks, a 6-9 sophomore forward from Long Island City, N.Y., initially signed with Indiana but had an addendum to his National Letter of Intent that allowed him to get out if there was a coaching change.

When Kelvin Sampson was let go by Indiana after the phone-call scandal there, Ebanks chose West Virginia over Memphis, Texas and Rutgers because of Huggins' track record of sending kids to the NBA.

The younger New York-area players at West Virginia also picked the Mounties in part because of Huggins' history.

"Definitely," the 6-8 Jones said. "I look to his background when he was coming after me. I mean, he's a great coach. He had a lot of great players go to the NBA."

Huggins, in turn, said the league itself was the selling point.

"I mean, it's the Big East," said Huggins. "And I think anybody from the Big East, people are going to listen to."

With one game left to play in the tournament, the New York/New Jersey boys at West Virginia can win the schools' first Big East championship and also garner a No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

"All the other teams fell out," Butler said. "We take care of business and win this game [Saturday], I don't see why we can't be a No. 1 seed."