Coaches drama makes Marshall-West Virginia appointment television

Thanks to Marshall's stunning upset of Wichita State on Friday, the stage is set for a second-round matchup with West Virginia.

While any 13-seed making the next round is a story, the impending matchup between the schools offers much more than the regular Cinderella story:

• The two schools are just 157 miles apart
• The programs played in the annual Capital Classic in Charleston until 2015
• There's a well-documented beef between head coaches Dan D'Antoni and Bob Huggins

Oh? Did someone say beef?

Following a narrow West Virginia three-point win over Marshall in a 2014 contest, D'Antoni decided to poke the man known as "Huggy Bear." D'Antoni advocated that the schools play each other twice a year and suggested that the Mountaineers were scared if they backed out.

(Photo courtesy: Getty Images)

"I heard suggestions for home and home. Here's my suggestion: Morgantown, Charleston. Next year, Charleston, Huntington and just keep it that way," D'Antoni told Tom Bragg of the Charleston Gazette-Mail. "It's good for the state. If they back out now they're afraid of us. We're coming back."

Huggins wasn't having any of the chatter that the Mountaineers were "afraid." On his weekly radio show, the veteran coach said as follows, as transcribed by the SB Nation site The Smoking Musket.

"He can say I'm afraid all he wants. I've probably coached 1,116 more games than he has. It's ridiculous to say something like that. We're afraid. Yeah, we're really afraid. It's crazy, we've beaten Duke. Mike's (Krzyzewski) a pretty good coach. Was I afraid? I wasn't afraid playing Duke. Played (Jim) Boeheim. Used to play him every year. He's a pretty good coach, I wasn't afraid. Why would I be afraid?"

He continues the rant, bringing up the fact that Marshall had lost six straight games at the time D'Antoni made his comments.

"The thing that's most laughable and I'll get in trouble for saying it I know, but I'm to the point in my life where I really don't care. How about this: 'we're back.' That was their sixth loss in a row. 'We're back' alright. Honestly it becomes laughable. It's laughable. So they lose by three, 'we're back.' It's their sixth loss in a row. Three of them at home."

Huggins then ended with a bang, comparing the Big 12 to Conference USA.

"Now (for us) to go to Charleston, I think it really is good for the kids that can't get here and that kind of thing. Now think of this if you're Marshall and no one's coming to your games why wouldn't you want someone that's going to fill the place up. They're not going to fill our place up. It's not equitable. He wants to sit here and act like it's equitable, it's not equitable. We play in the number 1 RPI league in America. And has been for quite awhile. Conference USA's RPI as of today, they're the 15th-ranked conference. How is that equitable? It's not equitable. It's laughable."

Taking all of that into consideration, it's safe to say Sunday's contest between these two is one you might want to check out.