Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is talking about what everyone else is talking about today. Hadn’t seen him do something quite like it before, didn’t think he could pull it off and was left speechless after seeing it — Bob Huggins wore a gold tie under his blue pullover.

After resisting the urge to ask him where my seat was, I found I rather liked the look. It’s formal and casual, which works perfect for Huggins, who’s gone from fantastic suits to pullovers to sports jackets and unbuttoned collars and other looks in his first year-plus. Seeing as if WVU won, and rather convincingly at that, we might see this more often. Huggins likes to ride a look for as long as it will take him.

Oh, and Alex Ruoff dunked.

Then, with Georgetown still hanging around, waiting for that one run that home teams always seem to make, Ruoff showed his true constitution and he took the ball at the top of the key, saw an opening, broke through toward the basket and while challenged, went up with a one-handed slam dunk that rattled the rafters.

Considering that Ruoff dunks about as often as Obama takes the oath of office, it changed the whole complexion of the game.

“I’d just missed a layup and I didn’t want to take a chance on another finger roll,” Ruoff said of his decision to go strong to the hoop.

It was another example of just what Ruoff means to this West Virginia team. Even on a bad shooting night, when he goes 3 for 10 and makes just one of seven 3-point tries, Ruoff finds some way to provide a positive spark to the team.

In the end, he finished with 10 points and nine assists. Count ‘em – nine.

Bad shooting numbers, but he did not play a bad game. Oh, and those nine assists? They kind of made up for his shooting.

Six of his assists, including all four in the first half, led to 3-point baskets. The other three went to Smith for easy dunks.

“Even if I’m not shooting well, I think (the opponents) know they can’t leave me,” said Ruoff, who had made 216 3s and 37.6-percent of his attempts in his career. “I do get a lot of attention, but this was almost like being a decoy.”

You can’t underestimate the importance of starting this ridiculous stretch by getting the Georgetown win before practicing for two days for Sunday’s game against Pitt, which hasn’t played since Monday.

Onto the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In honor of Chief Justice John Roberts, there will be no joke this week.

thacker said:

::uncorking the scotch::

Anxiety attacks always sneak up when watching this year’s ballclub.  

But it hurts so good!

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Is it me or does the Mens BB team not seem to be improving??? It is a young team, but the new guys don’t seem to be showing improvement and the “veterans” seem to make the same mistakes over and over again.

This team must be driving Huggs crazy; Jay referred to them as sleepwalking…..and inferred they were not as basketball savvy as some of Belein’s teams.

This was before the Georgetown game, but, yes, they do make some mistakes now that they made early on and a big part of that is starting two freshmen and leaning on a third. They’ll make mistakes and make others make mistakes. It happens. To that, WVU’s veterans are far from perfect, but show me a team that has perfect players. Beilein’s best teams had three- and four-year starters. You have to account for that. But now’s about the time you begin to see things and people change. Everyone has a better idea what’s going on. Coaches focus on who and what’s good for conference play. Players have half a season to look back on and learn from as they go forward. Don’t look now, but free throws are almost a non-issue. I didn’t see that coming.

Mack said:

I think Ruoff has improved 100x over where he was. Butler has not. I think it’s too early to tell with Ebanks and Jones. Wellington Smith is what he is… a fairly athletic player with no basketball IQ to speak of.

I think it’s easier for the freshman to improve after they’ve been here for a year or so and it becomes “their” team.

Ruoff is making a good case for Big East’s most improved. He might finish with similar scoring, rebounding and assist numbers, but he does it better and in a different way now. I sometimes wonder if he needed to redshirt his first year. I think Butler is a lot better, though. He’s a pretty good shooter and just skilled inside. He’s finding space to score and has a knack for using his body — shrink and expand — to create space. Not only that, but he’s approaching a “I’m guarded, but I’m still scoring” mentality.

JX said:

I know this is going to sound HORRIFICLY Xenophobic but…a foriegn player who’s on TV all the time with the Blazer won a popularity contest?

Really?

SHOCKING!

This is something that happens ALL THE TIME whenever the NBA has an internet vote…how else do you think Yao Ming is the starting center in the Western Conference every year at the All Star game? How do you think Yi Jiliian finished fairly high in the voting at Forward in the Eastern Conference last year???

Look, it didn’t MATTER that Joe Alexander had the most creative campaign…and it doesn’t matter (apparently) that Alexander is one of the best dunkers in the game….guys like Joe Alexander are going to lose popularity contests driven by fan voting to guys like Rudy Fernandez.

And that’s the way David Stern wants it.

Well, first off, it’s the NBA. I’d agree with what you’re saying, but Joe finished third behind Russell Westbrook … who plays for Oklahoma City. I don’t want to go all Karl Rove, but the disappointing thing is China let him down. I don’t think that element was exploited properly in the campaign. In the end, he’s a guy barely playing on a struggling team. Fernandez and Westbrook are better and more popular players right now.

Sam said:

JX,

The China connection should have also benefitted Alexander. And how do we know he’s one of the best dunkers in the game? What evidence is there of that? Its tough to dunk sitting on the bench.

I still maintain Joe would have found a way to dunk from the bench and debunk that myth. I also think the Bucks could have used his obscurity as an advantage. What if, in a campaign video, he goes, “People say it’s hard to dunk from the bench …” and then he pulls something off where he dunks from the bench? Edit it, CGI it, whatever, but that would have been pretty funny.

Dave said:

I was surprised that he came out because I thought that based on what he saw with one year of Huggins, he would have extrapolated that out a bit into two years, but I’m not sure I can argue with the bird in hand ($$$).

However, I believe that both WV and Alexander both would have benefited handsomely with another year together.

WVU would have benefited, for sure, but teams would have found a way to guard Alexander. Remember, his explosion last year was a nine-game run. Only UConn, the team he started the surge against, saw him more than once in that time. If Big East teams had another year to go at him, they would have figured a few things out. The coaches are way too good in this league to think otherwise. He wouldn’t have regressed, but he wouldn’t have necessarily became a top three pick. Maybe he’d grow as a person and a player, but why not do that in the NBA and get paid handsomely?

Birch said:

He went in the top 10. I think that makes it the right decision. He’ll improve as he gets practice/game time against NBA caliber players. He’s come a long way in a short amount of time from a developmental standpoint. Plus there’s this:

08/09: $2.403 million
09/10: $2.583 million
10/11: $2.764 million (team option)
11/12: $3.515 million (team option)

What he said. 

Foul Shot said:

100% goaltending.
It was a terrible call.
And then the refs sprinted off the court before Huggy could catch up. It was a joke.

Some Georgetown students had one-liners ready for Butler last night to rub in the way last year’s game ended. Needless to say, those jokes ended fairly early. As for the refs, can you blame them for escaping an angry Huggins?

overtheSEC said:

Here’s my beef with it, there’s no way that’s a no-call if it’s Wellington Smith blocking/goaltending an identical Jessie Sapp game winning layup. I just don’t know why we never get the calls at home.

That’s quite possible. Underrated moment from last night. Georgetown’s Greg Monroe drives to the basket and Smith stands in his way. Smith is set. Monroe takes off. They collide. No call. On reputation alone, I was sure Smith was getting called for the foul. I saw that as a good sign for WVU. 

Mack said:

I agree that it was obviously goaltending. If you watch other games, as Casazza does, you’d see that the refs ALWAYS call that a goaltend… and they didn’t on that occasion.

Fine … at the 45-second mark of the video, I think the ball is coming down, but I also think it is, as Len Elmore says, imperceptible. What bothers me more is this weird reality that the rules change at the end of the game and the players, not the officials, must decide the outcome. I go back the the semifinal of the 2005 Big East Tournament and WVU’s win over Villanova. Allan Ray didn’t mug Mike Gansey on that put-back attempt and the refs could have let it go. But it was a foul — Ray admitted it — and it was called. And that was bad because?

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Greg Robinson will be a good hire @ Michigan if allowed to do his job. Only problem he will have is that, if I remember correctly, he ran a 4-man front at TX and you can see what happens to a qualified coach who is not interested in running a 3-man front, specifically the 3-3-5, with the Product.

Maybe PRod will focus on the offensive offense he put on the field last year…..

Fly on the wall moment: The first time the kind and soft-spoken Robinson witnesses/encounters the Product’s vulgar buzzsaw.

Josh said:

yeah. Rod went to the 3-3-5 because of Casteel and the difficulty in recruiting enough Defensive Tackles. I think the 3-3-5 makes recruiting a little more flexible because you can go after more athletes…of course Rod kept all of the athletes on the offensive side of the ball.

You’d have to think it’s be easier to get defensive tackles at Michigan, unless P-Rod wants a 6-foot-5, 290-pound tight end. Or three of them.

thacker said:

Re: Kerns

Doesn’t the university have some sort of programs available to help kids like this out? To hell with the football aspects … if a kid appears as dedicated as he is, it is sad that he would have to leave. The university can be ranked 6th among public universities in producing Rhodes Scholars and it should rank in the top 5, at least, in helping kids who need and want an education but can’t get it for whatever reasons through no direct fault of their own.

Re: the Obama/Martin Luther King/Integration post

The philosophical issue that I have with such a discussion is that its mere point of discussion focuses on issues that should not have justifiable merit. Such issues are frivolous or should be. The only initial yard stick used to measure a person should be the whether they are a jackass or not. Anything else just don’t count.

The help is readily available for players like Kerns. Actually, the opportunities are available. The “want to be helped” is up to the player and some guys just don’t have it.

Homer said:

Athletes at WVU, especially football and men’s basketball, get more than their fare share of “academic counseling.” If they can’t make it with that program and the catch-all “A.C.E.” major, they probably can’t make it at all.

Can we call it Academic Darwinism?

Alli said:

Like Homer said, the football team has plenty of counselors and tutors at their disposal. There are writing workshops and math workshops as well. We really don’t know what Kerns story is. Perhaps he does work extremely hard but still has problems with the material. Maybe he doesn’t take advantage of the tutors, etc. Ultimately, for whatever reason, Kerns wasn’t ready for college yet. Hopefully he can do better in Junior College.

As for Barwis, he was the type of guy who if you met him once, he’d give you a hug the next time he saw you. He was a very emotional guy. Maybe the reason why he hasn’t paid yet is because the contract didn’t have a time line. Can anyone here write a check for $50,000 without extinguishing your savings?

I learned this a while back, was told I couldn’t write it and then saw it in print yesterday, so I’m lifting the embargo: Kerns’ ACT score was flagged early in the fall semester and he had to re-take the test. To get the NCAA’s approval — which, in this case, would have been re-approval — he had to be within three points of the most recent score. That didn’t happen and it was a total snafu from that point on. WVU was and is understandably and profoundly pissed. As for Barwis and the check, I feel bad the guy has to scratch 50 Gs off the books and I do doubt a lot of people in his situation could do that, but he had to know it was there. He signed the deal. If he didn’t like it, he shouldn’t have signed it. At the very least, sometime in the past year he should have been compelled to call WVU and say, “Hey, can we work something out?” What would WVU have done: Accepted the money in some payment schedule or chase the money through red tape?

How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love Coach Stewart said:

Additionally, thank the heavens above that Galloway and Holiday can recruit. . . it will keep our program afloat until Mullens learns how to put a game plan together.

From the shadows in which I lurk, I keep hearing more and more about Galloway (he got Tavon Austin and Jon Scott), which is a megabonus considering the reputation of the old coaches — Stewart, Casteel and especially Kirelawich — and the new ones — Doc and Beatty.

Mack said:

I was wondering . . . is Holliday getting most of the credit for this recruiting class? Is that who should get the credit for it?

Cliche alert, but it’s a “total team effort.” Everyone’s pulling in guys and getting a few of the names at the top of their list. People I talk to say this might be the best on-paper class ever at WVU. I know, I know. What does that mean? Nothing, except that in the first full year as a staff when it was largely criticized for going 8-4, WVU is getting a really good class of players.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Does the apparent academic issues with Tevita Finau open that position back up?

I recognize that he is a verbal recruit, but I’d presume this causes the school to rescind his scholarship offer and we go another direction…..  

WVU will give him every chance to make the grade and get here on time to play next season. That said, WVU would be silly not to have a contingency in place in case there is something other than an academic issue delaying Finau’s arrival. The scholarship limit is 25, but that’s a soft number. Classes generally go above 25, but dwindle when players don’t qualify, don’t arrive or don’t enroll until January.  

Birch said:

I say we officially retire the Bill Stewart stereotpye comments at least until signing day or even better, spring ball. The tread is starting to wear off those tires.

Done, though I do wonder what he has in store for Signing Day. He’s alluded to pulling cats out of bags a couple times.

Homer said:

Are Lion King malaprops still allowed ?

Enjoy the weekend!