The Hunt for the Most Interesting Team in the World is the Dagger's 2009-10 countdown preview series. Check out the overriding principles here.

Last year's record: 23-11, 10-8 Big East

2009-10's toughest games: Purdue, Ohio State, Louisville, at Villanova

Primary attraction: Future lottery pick Devan Ebanks leads Bob Huggins back to the top.

Three items of undeniable interest:

1. The Huggins days of yore. It wasn't all that long ago that Bob Huggins was at the top of the college coaching profession. His Cincinnati teams were almost always national contenders, as Huggins pieced together junior college transfers and high-profile recruits to create one of the best programs in the country. But Huggy Bear's style has its fair share of deficiencies. For one, Huggins's players were never known for their academics, and his program's infamous zero percent graduation rate was a frequent story. Which is fine when you're winning, as long as you're staying out of trouble. But Huggins wasn't, and didn't. A 2004 DUI -- in which Huggins gave cops the classic "Do you know who I am?" while vomit lined his Lexus door -- was the beginning of the end of his career at Cincinnati.

Now Huggins has a whole new lease on coaching life. He's commandeered his alma mater in the wake of John Beilein's defection to Michigan, and he's done so in classic Huggins style: with talent. 2008-09 was the year that talent revealed itself in a crowded Big East. This year, West Virginia wants more.

2. His name sounds like the name for a bank some start-up guy could have thought of in 1995. If the Mountaineers are going to get it, it will be thanks largely to how dominant Devin Ebanks is. Make no mistake, this will be Ebanks's last year on campus, as he's projected to be a top five pick by many draft experts. That makes sense: Ebanks is a super-athletic, versatile three guard who can shoot from the outside almost as well as he flies to the rim. Ebanks had a breakout year in 2008-09. Whether WVU does more in 2009-10 will be largely up to how much he's improved in the summer since. Either way, enjoy it while it lasts. (And in the meantime, keep an eye out for Ebanks, who missed WVU's first game with "personal problems." Such is the curse of Huggins-ness.)

3. Casey Mitchell. At the risk of relying too heavily on name jokes, no, Casey Mitchell isn't a character from a b-movie about minor league baseball. Instead, he's Huggins's major recruit of 2009. Mitchell was the National Juco Player of the Year in 2008-09, averaging 21 points per game for Chipola Junior College; his recruitment was huge for a team that lost its three-point specialist, guard Alex Ruoff. The Mountaineers are set in the frontcourt, with Ebanks and senior leader Da'Sean Butler. What they needed was another guard, and what they got was a good one.

Bonus: Bob Huggins's finest hour.

Let he who has not shown up to a fundraiser with a gigantic shiner -- suffered while walking to the bathroom late at night -- cast the first stone.

Bob Huggins is tremendous.

Related: The Hunt