Welcome to the 98th edition of the Friday Feedback. I know what you’re thinking about 100 Friday Feedbacks and I’ll spare you the suspense: Yes, it’ll be commemorated; no, there’ll be no magicians.

I was given $5 to go to the LaundroMutt to wash the message board grime off the blog, only to find it wasn’t necessary. Things got pretty intense, a little personal and a tad ugly … but only in an Elisha Cuthbert way. It may have looked bad, but when you got close, it was actually OK. Plus, there are no rights and wrongs. If there were, we wouldn’t be here to discuss and debate.

Huggins v. Beilein is an appropriate representation. Again, I don’t think we can accurately say one is/can be better than the other if only because there are too many variables. I also think it’s impossible to compare, not only because they’re so different, but because the samples are too brief.

Were Beilein’s teams more fun to watch? Probably so and a Huggins team doesn’t paint as pretty a picture, but I think there’s something to be said about the potential for sustained success when you lean on defense and rebounding rather than 3-pointers and backcuts. That’s not a knock on Beilein, but when you don’t guard and rebound and a team takes away your offensive strengths, you can be in trouble. It’s harder to take away Huggins’ strentghs and I think the way this team struggles to shoot is more of a rare occurrence than people seem to think. Then again, Beilein’s teams won in March.

Beilein arrived in a different and more fortuitous scenario. WVU was rock bottom. Forget the 8-20. They couldn’t get Huggins. They couldn’t keep Dakich. Beilein had a lot of rope. There were almost no expectations unless you consider avoiding the NCAA’s death penalty an expectation. He really started with a blank slate and had the, um, freedom to recruit Herber and Durisseau-Collins, retain Pittsnogle and invite his son along and let them grow. As good as Huggins was his first year, Beilein was better. Try starting four freshman as a first-year coach in the Big East. That team didn’t belong going 14-15. And then Beilein, quite frankly, got lucky scandal erupted at St. Bonaventure and the school was hit with a postseason ban, which then urged Mike Gansey to transfer. Imagine if that never happened.

Huggins, meanwhile, came in with far greater expectations based in no small part because of what Beilein had accomplished and facilitated. (Devil’s Advocate: Say Huggins resigned April 15 to become athletic director and Andy Kennedy was hired as coach. Wouldn’t Kennedy then have even greater expectations?)

But Huggins won and you might argue that team didn’t belong going 26-11. Granted, he had an older roster with more talent and those kids desperately wanted to prove people wrong, but they were playing a very different game in a much stronger Big East … and remember, they were 11-7 in the conference and then beat UConn in the Big East tourney, but they needed Joe Mazzulla’s overtime-forcing layup to win at St. John’s as a postseason catapult and then jumped on board while Joe Alexander made the leap. It’s a razor’s edge sometimes.

The difference? The success came quicker for Huggins, which accelerated the arrival of heightened expectations. Beilein was allowed to grow into his success … and remember, they probably don’t make the 2005 NCAA Tournament and then make the run unless they beat Villanova in the semifinals.

I guess things today are only as good as they were yesterday and Huggins has been good, though some of it has to do with a foundation that was in place for his arrival. Ask Frank Martin about that out at Kansas State.

I really like John and I’ll always admire him for a lot of different reasons. I think he could be where Huggins is now — recruiting nationally, playing the third-toughest schedule while sitting at No. 5 in the RPI, starring on television, so on and so forth — or at least in a comparable position, but not as quickly as Huggins has arrived. I think his Mountaineers could compete nationally, but I think Huggins’ Mountaineers are capable of making it a more regular event.

The way Beilein worked, his teams were more likely to be really good for a year or two every two or three years — it takes time to learn mentally and mature physically to be great in his systems — though I’ll allow we might not know for sure what might have been at WVU, or anywhere else, because he rarely stays for long. Huggins, because his ideals aren’t as “complicated” or attached to experience and are reached easier by the talented players he recruits, seems to have more staying power. Seems.

The best part? We don’t know and it can all change tomorrow. Heck, it will all change, but we never know how.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, accidents happen.

SheikYbuti said:

The heck with comparing Huggins and Beilein; I find it more provocative to compare Huggins and Mike Carey (except for their respective wardrobes). Which of their teams will advance farther in the NCAA tourney? Depending on the day, my mind changes like . . . well, like a girl changes clothes.

Both teams are well-regarded, but only the women have a frickin’ baller.

And away we go…

Mack said:

People seem to think you can “outsmart” everyone and win if you’re a good coach… but if you’re playing the best teams in the country, as West Virginia is, then it’s pretty tough to win when you don’t have a good point guard.

It boils down to that, really, and I wonder if before long we don’t see more of Ebanks or Butler at the 1. I’ll also ask this: What if Mazzulla started and Truck came off the bench? The offense, which is arguably better with Mazzulla in charge, gets going at the start of the game and Joe does his best to get players involved early. Truck then comes off the bench and can afford to be aggressive. And really, doesn’t the bench need someone to give the game some life?

LOCAL MAN said:

IF EBANKS IS READY FOR THE NBA NOW THAN THE NBA IS NOT NEARLY AS GOOD AS EVERYONE THINKS. I THINK IN A FEW MORE YEARS HE COULD BE A ROLE PLAYER IN THE NBA BUT HE WILL HAVE TO GET A LOT STRONGER AND IMPROVE HIS SHOOTING ALOT TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE.

Good point. Thank you, Stephen A.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Maybe WVU fans should have come dressed as NBA scouts this year…he certainly played well last night!

Call the Maniacs!

hershy112 said: 

I have watched Ebanks play the past 2 years, and obviously at the beginning of this year, he looked “a little off” so to speak. There are a couple things I have noticed about him. He has incredible hands. He never seems to as much as bobble or tip a rebound. If the ball is bouncing around on the floor, he snatches it up and rarely ever tips/kicks it around. The other thing is his body and ball control while in the air. These are just a couple of areas I have been very impressed with, along with his defense, sans the Dyson drive last night. (I think it was Dyson)

Excellent observation. Scouts love his hands, but wonder why he doesn’t finish better.

overtheSEC said:

Syracuse gets 20,000 fans against St. Bonaventure 5 days before Christmas. We can’t get 12,000 on a sunny Saturday against Seton Hall when were ranked in the top 10

It’s crazy, but they love basketball up there. Every game, every year. Funny, but a lot of people ask me “Why is Syracuse basketball so popular?” and I explain they have no pro teams and, in essence, don’t have a lot else to rally around up there. The reply, “Oh, so a lot like WVU?” And I go, “Hey, is that … (sprints away)”

Josh24601 said:

Oll Stewart is crazy if he doesn’t ask Huggs to deliver the What WVU Means to WV speech to the football lads.

And WVU is crazy if that last sentence isn’t incorporated into the pregame-intro hype video in perpetuity.

I sense it has legs. I really do.

overtheSEC said:

I can’t think of a better way to coach a team dealing with the problems we currently are–missed opportunities, mental lapses, failure to finish strong.
It’s a head and a heart, not Xs and Os. Great job Huggs to have the boys focus on this and let him worry about the Mike Stuarts and Les Joneses.

Here’s what’s weird. Bob Hertzel, author of said column, did not make the trip to UConn. And he has perhaps the best story to come out of it. And the timing, to be sure, couldn’t be better because, in a subtle way I probably didn’t recognize at first, Huggins shifted the focus from something from something to look back at over to something to look forward to the rest of the way.

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

Everyone (meaning everyone on TV, you know, ESPN types and what not) paints this picture of Huggins as a yelling screaming madman. I don’t know, maybe he once was that, or at least closer to that, but it seems to me that he’s got a much greater depth of emotion than he’s given credit for. He genuinely loves what he does, loves his players, and as much as he’s motivated by a desire to succeed on an objective level, I get the feeling that he’s just as motivated by that subjective version of success: player for the love of the game, his players playing up to the best of their abilities, bringing joy and pride to the Mountaineer Diaspora.

I think that’s what he really means when he says “the state” here — it’s not just the state, it’s all those people from around the country who still identify as West Virginians on some level — the people who were emailing the Owen Shmitt Fiesta Bowl interview around to everyone they knew in January 2008 with long messages about what it means to be a Mountaineer. I live here and I got some of those messages from relatives in Arizona and California, people who haven’t lived here for 50 years.

Anyway, my point is … ah, I don’t remember my point. I think it was a pretty good one, though.

No, no. You got the point in there. I’m not sure who Huggins was because I didn’t know him back when he was whoever he was, but if perception is to be taken as reality, he is no longer that guy. I’m not sure this speech was an act or a way to alter stereotypes or something insincere. He really does like being home and close to friends and family and, like a lot of people who do what he does and strives for a certain level, he’s an all-in kind of guy. I think he’s been more patient than he likes with this team and with a few players and I think he’s really trying to get some people to finally see a big, beautiful picture.

oklahomamountaineer said:

That may be the best post game speech ever given…..his heart is on his sleeve and has the heart of a champion. If he can transfer that heart and a little brain to about 3 guys, we still may be a long way into March madnesss.

Bingo. It’s just too bad nothing rhymes with February.

SheikYbuti said:

Mike’s WVU Blog: The best place to post out one’s yin-yang.

I need that on the masthead.

Jeff said:

What’s the lesson? Visitors play better after CEJ or Americans play better after CEJ? 

You almost had me. But upon further review, something bad happens for the home team.

glibglub said:

When Ed Olczyk called the game “tremendously tremendous,” I’m guessing Doug Marrone fainted.

http://tiny.cc/IqocH

That’d be neat to see.

Karl said:

My wife hates sports and hates my fervor for WVU sports. She was reading on the couch during Saturday’s Seton Hall game when CEJ played through the TV. She nodded along and mouthed some of the words. I’m not even sure she realized she was doing it.

Anyway, the divorce papers were filed within the hour.

Well, at least you been married long time ago.

Josh24601 said:

Michael Stephens is actually the worst*. I panic when I see him on the floor at the beginning of a WVU game; it’s so bad that I feel bad for other teams when I see him work non-WVU games. Outcomes of plays occurring in his area may as well be decided by random-number generator.

*He’s the one who had no idea–he literally shrugged asking for help the way officials do when their sight of an out-of-bounds play is blocked–on the out-of-bounds call on the sideline in the first half of the UConn game, even though the play occurred right in front of him in a wide-open area and even though the tape shows him looking directly at it. UConn got the ball via the poss. arrow, though they should have had it outright. Stephens is also the guy who had no call at all when Gavin Edwards lowered his shoulder and knocked Dan Jennings over in the post despite Jennings being completely stationary outside the lane.

… that was completely inexcusable.  Not only that, but Stephens and Cahill huddled and WVU got the ball. Then Stuart, who initially signaled UConn ball on the whistle, came over and reversed it. He was 40 feet away from the play.

lowercase jeff said:

This is one of my least favorite WVU sports teams in the last decade.

Re-really?

ccteam said:

I hate to say this, but I just don’t care much for this team. I have never said that before about a Mountaineer team. They whine too much, play too little defense, and the offensive flow is just brutal and boring. UConn wanted this game more. Sad but true. I’m not saying they don’t play hard, they do. But they just don’t play well together most of the time.

Well, once is an accident. But two thumbs down? I think maybe “disappointing” is a good word because they have so much promise and talent, yet get away from it. A lot.And they repeat errors and bad habits. A lot. But they’ve been ranked high all year long — they haven’t event moved backward much with losses — and if they get it together …

SheikYbuti said:

In my experience, parents with limited means seldom name their children “Wellington.” Sheik, maybe, but not Wellington.

OK … and if my mom had had her way and named me Abra?

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96:

I was just thinking about how my apartments in Morgantown were not nearly as nice as WELLS’ place and were about half as big as his foyer! Can you say House Party? WELLS here we come…BYOB of course….

Of course!

Josh24601 said:

“Wellington Smith” has a number of interesting anagrams: http://bit.ly/almIfv

My favorites: “Menthols Wilting” and “Hells Towing Mint”

Well, there go 15 minutes of my life. And I’m pretty happy about that.

Aaron said:

I’m not gonna wade to far into the Beilein/Huggins debate, but I do think they are so vastly different that it’s hard to compare the two. Huggins can recruit, Beilein couldn’t, Huggins isn’t much of a strategist, Beilein relied heavily on it…. the list goes on.

No, I want to get off subject on something else I noticed: the Mountaineer Maniacs new chant when a player fouls out, first displayed in the Seton Hall game.

So they have essentially copied Pitt and other schools (including UConn) by instructing people to chant “left, right, left, right….” etc as the fouled out player heads to the bench and then explode with cheers when he sits down.
Now at first, I was miffed because I just thought it showed a lack of creativity by the students. But then I was AMAZED at how Wellington Smith used it to his advantage last night.

Obviously, most of the time a player fouls out, the player he fouled is on his way to the line. Last night Wells let the students chant left and right all they wanted. The students eyes were on him. Then right as the UConn player attempted his shot, Wells sat down. The students exploded, and their own player MISSED his free throw. I don’t know if that was as intended, but from where I was sitting I thought that was brilliant. As we all know, missing the front end of a 1-and-1 in the clutch might be all it takes sometimes to blow a game.

It’s another arguement AGAINST us using it at home, but man was that a smart play by Wells last night. One he made, once he’d left the game. Amazing.

I saw it and not only that, I saw it coming. It’s the second time he’s done it this season — first was at Pitt — and he has twice clearly calculated taking his seat. I love it. So did the guys on the bench, who were watching it, too. By the way, the opponent has missed both free throws.

glibglub said:

Between this game and “24″ over on Fox, there is a lot of fake violence on television right now.

Enjoy the weekend!

P.S.

Birch said:

EVERYONE….Barbaro called and he’s tired of everyone on this blog still beating on him. Enough.