Cancel all plans from now through Tuesday. Not only was Mike Brown’s deposition just released — and thank goodness, because what else was I supposed to do on a beautiful weekend? — but the Altoona Curve has you covered for when you emerge from the bunker that protected you from Brown’s bombshell.

Date: Tuesday June 03, 2008
Time: 7:05 PM
Bobby Petrino, Nick Saban, and Rich Rodriguez. What do they have in common? They all sprinted out the back door and quit on their teams! The Curve return home from a six-game road trip and open up a three-game series against the New Britain Rockcats (Twins). Gates open at 6:00 p.m. Come to Blair County Ballpark as the Curve salute quitters of the game and give away a free back door — literally.

Onto the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In other words, you can only apologize for errors … and what good is that?

glibglub said:

Cue Hank Williams:

Goodbye Joe
He gotta go
Me-oh my-oh . . .

I remain fascinated by Joe Alexander’s ascent. When Alexander signed back in 2004, a lot of people were scrambling to find out stuff about this kid from Mount Airy, Md. I found colorful commentator Jay Jacobs one day and Jacobs, who lives in nearby Frederick, Md., had never even heard of Alexander. During a media thing that preseason, I was talking with Mike Gansey, who was then a senior and couldn’t help but flat-out gush about the freshman. Gansey said — and I’ll remember this for a long, long time — “He’s one of the best athletes in the Big East. I’d put him up there with Rudy Gay.” Honestly, I was suspicious. Then I started watching Alexander and learning more about him and you could just tell he had something going. Then came the tipping point. The players fill out surveys for the gameday magazines and the hobby Alexander listed was priceless: Dunking on people. I could no longer resist. I wrote a story that must have been 40 inches long on this unknown kid with unlimited potential. This is not to brag, but I must say that to this day it’s probably one of the best things I’ve written. A lot of that, of course, goes to Joe, who even then was an enlightening interview, but has also lived up to all the projections his peers made when he was a freshman.

thacker said:

Hard to overlook things that money can’t buy — that senior year in school, all that fun on the court playing a game that you love, playing it with a bunch of people with whom you have bonded and committed, they along with you, all that hard work and making a run to that final game and buzzer … that once in a lifetime chance.

Could be that Alexander is driving himself to that chance. Win or lose, it would still be one hell of a ride.

OK, so no matter where I go, people talk about this very scenario. Not necessarily to me, of course, because I notice that when I’m in, say, Kroger, two people are mulling over tomatoes as well as Alexander’s future and the implications of his decision. I’ve done a lot of reading, talking and listening and I’d say it’s 90-10 that Alexander is done with WVU. I’d even go as far as saying I imagine the advice he’s getting tells him to go to the NBA. However, a lot of people agree that Alexander is unique and one must at least allow for the possibility he comes back to school. He’s tight with his teammates and his friends at WVU. He’s absolutely obsessed with being the best and erasing weaknesses. He’s worked so damned hard to get here, he may very well realize he could be even better after another y€ear with Huggins. He’s just a really smart, conscientious kid who, no matter what, will not make a bad decision.

X-Rayted said:

I think it is common knowledge that if Joe would return next year, his stock would almost certainly go up. The mountaineers would be a force in the big east, and in the tourney. He’s still learning the game, and the strides he made over the course of last season are evidence of what a freakish athlete and gym rat he really is. But, let’s be honest here, if he regresses or God forbid have a major injury, then where does he go. Speaking from experience, knee injuries are horrifically difficult to come back from. The time it takes to get your explosiveness back is tedious and at times mind-numbing. He can’t take that risk. This isn’t football. His money is guaranteed as a lottery pick. He’ll undoubtedly be a project in the association, but he needs to leave now. The biggest crime committed in Joe’s carreer was Beilein not redshirting him his freshman year. It truly is a great draft day story, and I’ll be watching it with great anticipation

Good points all around. I have to think that in the past two weeks he’s thought a lot about another year at college, just because his NBA stock has risen so quickly and he realizes the end may well be near. Of course, with Alexander, WVU is in the preseason top 10, he’s a preasason All-America candidate and the team is a favorite to win the Big East. Those things excite kids. But the dream of playing in th$e NBA is right there for him. He’ll need a year or so just go get adjusted with the changes in size, speed, strength and maturity in the NBA. He’s not Kevin Durant … but he’s not Shavlik Randolph, either. The draft is about projection and potential and Alexander fits in that regard.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

If he’s projected as #8 at this point, imagine how good he would be had he been redshirted and be a rising redshirt junior next year…..

Joe, thanks for the great games at WVU — maybe, we’ll see you playing in OKC next year!!

Two mentions of Joe’s bizarre freshman year. He was very good in the preaseason that year and his coach was excited about how Alexander might contribute. He played in some early games and a lot of people who watched the game remember how he went at Texas’ LaMarcus Aldridge in the Guardians Classic. He shower no fear and even posted up Aldridge and scored on a — get this — turnaround jumper. Then Alexander completely disappeared. He played in only 10 games and even he admits he just wasn’t good enough. No one’s fault, really, and it’s difficult to say how a redshirt in 2005-06 would have changed things in 2007-08.

Kirk said:

Would have loved to see Alexander back to play with Huggin’s 2008 recruiting class, but you can’t blame the guy for going into the draft if he goes in the top half of the first round. How many of us would pass up a contract for $2-$3 million? Good luck to him. WVU will miss him, but the Mountaineers will still be very good without him.

Not picking on you, Kirk, because it’s a point we’ve all made, but this isn’t about the money. Yes, it’s hard to pass it up, but we need to realize there’s more to it than just that.

Foul Shot said:

I still think Joe could use another year of “seasoning” in the college ranks.
His jump shot does not yet appear to be what is required for the NBA to be a real scorer.
Another year with Huggins learning the skills he developed last year along with working on the J would spring V-sky into the lottery for the 2009 draft.
Of course, I would love to have Joe for the NCAA Tournament run for one more year.
Look at Hansbrough, he is putting in one more year at UNC.
There may be some logic to it.

You had me until you mentioned Hansbrough. Alexander is a better prospect than Hansbrough, who decided to stay in school rather early in the process for a reason. Well, two reasons.

Andy said:

Mike,

Long time reader, first time poster. I miss Sheetz. The Shmiscuits were a thing of beauty. But we here in the Charleston area have to read our Athlon at the local Go-Mart.

Wait — this is the first “First time, long time” at the blog! Welcome to the party…Fred Heater would like to speak with you!

JP said:

Who is that nerd? Mike Garrison’s brother?

You know, I have to admit I’m a little disappointed we didn’t make a bigger deal of that nerd. And by the way, you have to love New York. No one even paid attention.

X-Rayted said:

Mike, a barely visible hairline fracture of your fibular head, which is non-weight bearing, is what your injury was. Yet, you limped more than I did after I retore my ACL. Quit making it out like you came back to the softball fields like Willis Reed to the Garden. With that said, I’m still out with that same injury, and you did beat the crap out of the ball the other night. Congrats…

Look, I don’t make the terms, I just use them. I had a broken bone in my leg. Part of my leg was broken. Broken leg.

thacker said:

Uh oh. The “my injury is worse than your injury” thing pops up. No one to add that their fish is bigger than someone else’s fish? What I wanna know is who throws most like a girl.

Gotta love sports blogs.

I most certainly do not throw like a girl, a strength supported by a weakness.

X-Rayted said:

Mike can’t hit the cutoff man if that counts…

It depends on your definition of the word “the.”

Erinn said:

X-Rayted doesn’t even get the opportunity to throw like a girl

Too soon?

oklahoma mountaineer said:

PLEASE tell me the constant calls for him to be the new AD are more than wishful thinking……Eddie P can go tomorrow— now that would be “Almost Heaven”!!!!

“He” being Jerry West, who turned 70 this week. Utopia, thy name would be WVU.

JP said:

I doubt Jerry West wants to be the AD. He just turned 70. He got out of full-time work in the NBA, and if I were him, I wouldn’t start a job as an athletic director for WVU when I could be playing golf with Michael Jordan.

Well, the days of golfing with M.J. wouldn’t be done. In fact, I think Doug Collins’ star player would love a go at the Greenbrier, where West has a home.

thacker said:

I would not discount it. How many rounds of golf can a guy play before boredom and brain mush set in. Golf is why God said, “Let there be weekends and off-season”. I would lay down a Michael Jordan bet that the kind of support Jerry West would get as AD, the different environment, etc., the work would be a hell of a lot of fun. What a way to cap off one hell of career. Talk about leaving a legacy, to come full circle and do it, again.

——-

I have never met Jerry West. Watching him play ball at the university never made me want to play the game. As a kid, I was pragmatic enough to realize that I never would nor could have that type of athleticism for the game. What he did give to me, unknowingly and without intent, was a love for college athletics and, most of all, a reason to be proud to call myself a West Virginian. I am grateful for that. A man never knows how he may influence people throughout his life or in what forms he influences them. With the current problems and, thus, opportunities facing the university and the state, Jerry West and a few other good people could have a profound effect upon so many things and upon a lot of people. Yeah. Legacies.

I suppose the wild card in this equation is West and his competitiveness and how long he can sit on the sidelines and watch the world of sports evolve while wondering how he might fare. College athletics would be a new endeavor, too, and I do not doubt he’d love a challenge.

Erinn said:

Thacker, that was well put. While I agree, I have to ask, why would the Legacy risk his golden reputation by coming to the U. now? Would that be a gamble for him?

I yield the floor…

thacker said:

Thank you, Erinn. That was very kind of you.

I am guessing that your questions pertain to the university’s current administration and the issues surrounding that. If so, that is very valid concern in my opinion. If I were offered a position in such circumstances, Garrison and staff would have to go. The Board of Governors would, at the very least, need to demonstrate some credibility, also.

Replacement of Garrison and filling the Provost position with academicians of impeccable credentials, character and vision combined with West, existing coaching staff, etc. is a formula of tremendous potential. One that can take the university as a whole to a level that has long been desired.

If part of your question includes James Manchin’s prior on-hands involvement. I honestly believe that Manchin’s involvement and passion could be redirected and done so with considerable benefit.

As far as any existing litigation, again if that is part of your question, such could be dispatched within a short time frame and done so honorably.

The timing of all the events, taken as a whole, is perfect for opportunity. There has never been greater opportunity for the university of which I am aware. It is golden and goes very well with, as you stated, West’s golden reputation.

Well, the Mike Brown deposition just hit me e-mail box. JP has today’s finale.

JP said:

It may be good timing but it won’t happen.