May I have your attention, please? Just hear me out…

It pains me to say this, but I’m going on vacation and it’ll last pretty much from the moment I finish writing a story out of Saturday’s scrimmage to the moment I sadly take a seat in my office next Saturday and figure out what I’ve missed.

And when I say it pains me, I mean it hurts so good.

I’m off to a place where even the glasses of ice water come with the little umbrellas. Where cricket is huge and Vivian Richards is Michael Jordan. Where when the last time I was there people thought West Virginia was a part of Virginia and WVU had something to do with the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This is not to say I want to get away because, gosh, it’s been lovely outside lately and, for some reason, I’m beginning to think there’s something charming about spring football — and I used to think the complete opposite. That said, it’s time to get away for a bit. I cannot complain and say this is an unforgiving job. No one would believe that. That said, for the better part of three months it was three jobs in one — WVU football, WVU basketball and, of course, Rich Rodriguez. It wasn’t just something seemingly every day. It was something big seemingly every day.

Then again, that’s the environment now. This is where big things happen. All the time. Perhaps I need a week on a beach to wrap my mind around this.

I’m actually a little worried about what I might miss. I was a little worried about what would happen on this here blog, which we’ve cultivated into something nice, yes? I had some ideas of how to keep the momentum going, but they were all flawed in some way or another and none of them solved the problem of me having to sit down and search the Internet for a week’s worth of headlines just to get caught up.

Then I found the solution. The blog is yours, my friends.

This evening an entry entitled “The Takeover” will appear. This is where you take over and use the comment section to post the headlines and the news and the commentary that might normally fill this space. I’m completely confident this’ll work because, in my view, some of the best posts here have been the ones with which I’ve had little to no input.

You control the direction here. And I mean you, the many, many people who post frequently and the many, many people who I come across all the time and admit to reading the blog, but say you’ve never commented. I need you now more than ever. The people need you now more than ever. Tell me — and everyone else — what’s happening, what we need to know, what we’re missing, what you think and what we should think, so on and so forth, so long as it’s WVU sports. It’s largely anonymous, so why not?

Thoughts on spring practice? Sure! Impressions after the Gold-Blue Game? Absolutely! Stunned by another comeback by the baseball team? Yes! Interesting clip on YouTube? Please! Disbelief over the latest act perpetuated by Team Rodriguez? Of course! 

I’ll return next week and, I hope, see a ton of comments that get me back up to speed. Our record is 56 comments. We can beat it. Either that, or I’m fired. Don’t let me down.

On to the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In other words, just about everyone has gotten the hint and made their work legible!

p.i. reed:

he’ll be back

Joe Alexander, of course.

JX said:

I, for one, am excited at the prospect of Joe doing this. Think about it for a second; he’s STILL learning the game and what better way to learn than hitting up the pre-draft camps and going up against some of the best talent in the country? You gotta think, a lot of the guys in these camps aren’t your Mike Beasley’s and Derrick Rose’s of the world…a lot of these guys are gonna be going 110% all out in an effort to turn some heads and get some attention to get their draft stock up, or in some cases even get them on the draft radar.

Seriously, other than another season in the Big East playing against the best comp the country has to offer, can you think of a better way for a guard trying to learn out to play the post with regularity to learn his craft and hone his game? I think not!

And, besides, if it helps his turn around jumper become that much more deadly i’m ALL FOR IT.

I see the points and they’re all good ones, but let’s remember Joe, too. He’s got a streak in him and when he plays with that snarl, he’s tough (See Xavier, second half). He’s not going to develop that because he already has that. He did, after all, go 32-32-29 against UConn, Pitt and St. John’s, which were three pretty good defensive teams — stop laughing about St. John’s. He did hit up UConn for 34 in the Big East Tournament and he did slow down on a fast break so he could dunk over Stanley Roberts. He did take great pleasure in tormenting Duke. Who’s to say that doesn’t happen in the camps? And if it does, you think he’s staying? This is a challenge for him and, yes, it’s great practice, but it’s also a great proving ground. Might we all be missing the forest from the trees? He’s doing this to get better, but what if he gets better than many of the others?

Foul Shot said:

My thought is that he wants to see where his projected draft spot will be and when he sees that if he sticks around for another year, learns to perfect his post up and turnaround J and puts on some more muscle, he could be in the lottery in the 2009 draft. That and the fact that, if he leads a Final 4 run, he would be guaranteed a lottery spot. He hopefully will stick around. I am partial to Vanilla Sky regarding a nickname

I think that’s what he’s thinking, but I don’t know what he’s thinking. Only a privileged few people know what he’s thinking because he’s chosen to stay quiet, speak through press releases and not talk to people about his plans.

thacker said:

This is somewhat off-topic and focuses on the WVU/Huggins Term Sheet that was recently made public.

I don’t like the fact that such was made public by virtue of what is included within the Term Sheet. The university should have included a standardized ‘morals’ clause rather than identifying specific past transgressions. It, also, flys in the face of certain stated logic by the university, as reported by the media, of why contracts, again, have yet to be finalized. Huggins doesn’t deserve to have that crap thrown in his face.

Huggins, Stewart, coaches, faculty, et al deserve confidentiality, forethought and, including, the security of a contract. It is a simple matter of good business practices and respect.

Right or wrong, it’s the life of a public figure. I do think it’s odd that a section of the Term Sheet prevents Huggins from going public about the contract. The “Confidentiality and Publicity” clause says Huggins can’t “make any public statement at any time bearing on the negotiation or award of an Employment Agreement, including but not limited to the content of this term sheet, to the media or any other person or entity…” What’s seems interesting about the Term Sheet isn’t really all that interesting. There are some things — the behavioral stuff — that you don’t find in any other WVU contracts. I can’t believe it is or was a big deal, though. Ed Pastilong showed up to meet Huggins with the Term Sheet and asked Huggins to sign it. Huggins glanced at it and signed it. And let’s be honest: If he or anyone else was guilty of any of the things the contract seeks to prohibit, they’d be out of a job. He was instead a model employee and, more importantly, a bargain at the salary we learned he was being paid.

glibglub said:

“One Shining Moment” is not the worst wedding music. Last year, I attended a wedding where the bride and groom’s exit was accompanied by music from “Star Wars.” It was an inappropriate choice, inasmuch as I didn’t see anyone in the wedding party that looked that much like a wookie.

There’s “Guess you had to be there” and then there’s “I wish I could have been there.” This is quite clearly the latter.

Erinn said:

I can’t believe we have to wait a whole year to see a new one. Gotta love TiVo.

I think everyone should take note that WVU Mountaineer Brady Campbell had a prominent shot in the montage. Kudos to Brady!! I don’t remember the Mountaineer being featured before (though I could be wrong).

Was anyone else confused by the headshot of Wellington Smith and the absence of both Joe Alexander and Darris Nichols?

What was more startling? The lack of Alexander or the lack of Duke?

Sam Wilkinson said:

Did you count Xavier draining the three? Because West Virginia was definitely part of that clip…sadly.

I did not, but if I did, the count would have gone from five WVU images to seven. There’s one of a player leaping out at the Xavier shooter and then one of the player standing in disbelief in the background as the shooter celebrates. The Moment is supposed to encapsulate the tournament and not the season, so let’s go with five and not seven.

Shannon said:

Preseason polls this early are about as reliable as Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail.

College basketball is the one sport where it doesn’t matter where you are ranked to start the season, so put WVU wherever you want. The great people that run college basketball have this funny concept that make the polls secondary to the sport, unlike their college football counterparts. It’s called the postseason. What’s so amazing is the teams actually get to play for their sport’s respective title. Who knew you could declare a champion on the court and not with a computer and a sports writer eating McDonald’s on deadline?  

Well…I think that….Hmm…You know what? I’ve got nothing to add. See, this is why I don’t need to be an integral part of the blog for it to continue on in my absence.

Enjoy the weekend and let’s make this work!