The West Virginia women are going west, but they're also headed into The Pit.

Seeded fifth in the Spokane, Wash., Region of the NCAA women's tournament, the Mountaineers not only are scheduled to visit 12th-seeded and host New Mexico, they are playing 8:30 p.m. Saturday on one of college basketball's most infamous -- and most sunken -- floors: The Lobos' home University Arena, a.k.a. The Pit.

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• PDF: 2008 NCAA Women's Division I Bracket

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It won't be easy playing an NCAA first round in a hostile environment, let alone one excavated from a 37-foot hole, regularly filled to its 15,589-seat arena capacity and home to an 80-plus winning percentage by the Lobos' men's and women's teams. It certainly wasn't an itinerary expected by a West Virginia team possessing a 24-7 record and No. 17 ranking by The Associated Press.

The Pit, and host New Mexico's presence there, offered a key explanation as to why two ESPN.com experts -- Melanie Jackson and Mechelle Voepel -- looked over the brackets announced last night and almost immediately declared New Mexico as their choice for "Possible Cinderella."

"That's the way the women's tournament is," West Virginia coach Mike Carey said last night.

"It's a shame you have to play on people's home court. We did that my first time going into the NCAA. We played Ohio State on their home court. Of course, we were a lower seed, so it really didn't bother me as much. Now we're the fifth seed playing on the 12 seed's home court. That's a big advantage for them."

But Carey added that there's no point in sulking now.

"We are disappointed, but we have to play the games," he said.

The Lobos (20-12) earned a bid by winning the Mountain West Conference tournament championship, their 62-59 final victory against San Diego State constituting their sixth consecutive win. This is their seventh consecutive berth in the NCAA tournament.

And West Virginia is about to take a crash course on the Lobos.

"I don't know anything about them," Carey said.

"I know we taped a couple of their games at tournament time so we'll have some stuff [later last night]. We're going to have to go play them on their home court. It's not going to be any different than what we've done all year playing a lot of people on their home court.

"It's a little disappointing we have to play them on their home court. You have to go play and worry about that game before you play the next game."

Same as the men, the Big East Conference got eight invitees -- half its league membership. The Mountaineers finished third in the league at 12-4.

They have lost three of their past five games, all away from home, but won 11 of 13 -- including nine in a row -- before February's end.

West Virginia went 5-6 this season against eventual NCAA invitees. It beat Cornell, Pitt, Louisville, second-seeded Rutgers and Notre Dame. It lost to top seeds Connecticut and Tennessee, plus DePaul, Syracuse, Louisville and Pitt -- whom it joins in the same Albuquerque, N.M., regional.

The program, established in 1974, has never played in New Mexico. But the Mountaineers played host Jan. 9, 1982, to the Lobos in their only previous meeting, and West Virginia won, 71-56.

Without Oakland Catholic's Meg Bulger, who missed the season because of knee surgery, the Mountaineers won their NCAA first-round game a year ago but then lost to LSU, which made it to the Final Four.

This marks their third NCAA bid in five years; they also went to the women's NIT final once in that span.

Bulger, bouncing back this year from her second season-ending knee injury in as many years, is the team's third-leading scorer at 12.8 points per game. She was a member of the Mountaineers team that played on Ohio State's home court in the 2004 NCAAs.

"We try not to worry about playing on their home floor and things like that," Bulger told reporters last night.

"In women's basketball, you've got to do things like that to get the fans out, and I wish we could have stayed closer to home. But we're going to go ... with the mentality that it's their home court and that we're going to have to go out there and play harder."