Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is, um, all atwitter over John Flowers. Fantastic game last night that deserves the full vetting.

– The 24-point game was his career high … by eight points.
– Add the steals, blocked shots and assists and what they preceded and he chipped in 28 additional points scored by his teammates.
– He had one foul. One!

That’s where things get predictably fun, if for no other reason than because John Flowers is involved.

“The thing I’m most proud of is I didn’t foul out,” he said.

What about starting 6-for-6?

“I was looking at my hand at one point and said, ‘What’s going on?'” Flowers said. “I hadn’t missed a shot yet. Then I missed a 3 and I said, ‘All right, there it is. That’s the John Flowers I know.'”

What about handcuffing Marshon Brooks and holding him to 13 points, well below his 23.8 average?

“I tried to get in his mind a little bit,” Flowers said. “Coach said he was like Kobe Bryant, so I kept calling him Kobe all game. ‘I got Kobe.’ The shot clock would be running down. ‘It’s Kobe time. Don’t let Kobe get the ball.’ But he’s a really good player. A great guy.”

And what about the headband, which was nowhere to be found Thursday night?

“I give them away too much, so they stopped giving them to me,” Flowers said.

And can you teach me how to Dougie? I ask because last night, of all nights, WVU debuted a video that has Flowers doing the dance. And not only that, but the video was revealed after one moment that was completely ridiculous and apropos at the same time.

Cam Thoroughman tried to lob a pass to Flowers for an alley oop, but was off by a few feet. Flowers still caught the pass and flicked it to Kevin Jones for a layup. Providence called a timeout and the video started. Bob Huggins had a hard time keeping his team’s focus in the huddle.

“Coach yelled at us a couple times to pay attention,” Flowers said. “It was pretty funny.”

Let’s tie this all together. At its lowest point(s) this season, it was evident WVU was lacking personality. We’ve said it before, but you need competitors like Devin Ebanks to be a monster every game. You need attitudes like Da’Sean Butler’s that keep it silly when it’s going well and bad. You need someone to stand in front.

And it was Flowers who after the Duquesne game pointed out the Mountaineers were missing voices.

“This is the first time that when I’m sitting on the bench no one is clapping or anything,” said Flowers, who is starting full-time for the first time in his career. “It’s just dead. The old teams, when I was on the bench, I was getting hyped up, standing up and clapping. Everyone was. We need to get back to that. I think it’s very important to just be ready to play. We have to support our teammates on the bench.”

This is not to say Flowers will do that every game now, or even more often than not. He is who he is. He does what he does. That said, he’s their dancing, Go-go listening, Twittering, skit-filming, trash-talking, headband-wearing, shot-blocking presence. He’s valuable in a variety of ways on and off the floor. And now WVU has won three in a row and has a little more swagger, a little more attitude, a little more belief than it had two weeks ago.

KJ can’t become that competitive jester. Ditto Mazzulla or Mitchell. That’s not them and you can’t fool your teammates. Flowers can be that guy and for proof, witness his two-handed dunk/and-one that was followed by a brief body rock in the paint and then an  impassioned waving of the arms to get more noise from the fans. Circle it!

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, maybe don’t go West.

KMS said:

Is it me or did Mazzulla seem to play better last year with the injured shoulder? I was happy with the improvement in the team effort on Saturday and think that Huggs has them on the right track. My biggest concern is still that no leader seems to be emerging. I thought Mazzulla would take that role with his documented aspirations for a future coaching career. But, so far, we seem to be without a leader.

Wait for it …

Parks said:

KMS– I think JF is as close we have. Seems to be the only one that seems energized whether he is in the game or on the bench. He is not yet a leader by example as he can’t seem to stay out of foul trouble but he has been the most consistent (according to Huggs as well) and the best source of energy around. I really expected Mazz to step up as well but we all know come Feb 1 and onward he will be explosive–just never seems to fail. Saturday showed that when this team plays as a unit they can be very good this season.

That was from earlier in the week. Well done!

rekterx said:

If this team actually wins the next two games … watch out!

Bingo. Purdue isn’t a bad matchup for WVU.

Hunterdon said:

Nice to finally win a game without big mental lapses. Hopefully last night’s game showed the team what they are capable of when they focus and play together.

I think that was the most important thing to take from the game. It was business from the start and no one gave any indication they were looking ahead to Purdue or Marshall, or felt content with the Georgetown win. Mental growth.

WVYou said:

Word is there was a Mickey meltdown in the media room tonight before the game.
True?
Do tell, Casazza.

Um, yeah. It was odd. I can never tell if Mickey is mad or joking. He speaks with the same volume in either instance. He was upset about the way things are being reported and leaked, but I think he was having fun with us, too. And in some regard, I can see where he has a point. He’s old school. And he never included me, so I have no issue with his “meltdown.” It’s a competitive time in the media throng.

JP said:

Tony Caridi tweets:

“I’m told up to 3 former WVU/Michigan assistants will try to join Todd Graham if he takes over at Pitt.”

Ugh. What are the odds one of the assistants will be Calvin Magee?

By now, you know the answer. Magee and the Tonys Gibson and Dews.

Dave said:

They need jobs … not sure what the big deal is.

Many guys are in this biz for a payday, like many people, and are only a fan of the school who pays them. Not big deal.

There are a few who you’d think would have some sentiment toward a particular school or situation, but they are few and far between … and fewer and further between when dollars are a part of that discussion.

But it’s going to be weird for Magee and Gibson, in particular. Take all the ugly stuff out, like Magee’s racism charges and Gibson’s claim his son was being bullied in West Virginia. That’s going to make the one game every year awkward. But what about the everyday stuff? They were headed to the very top of their profession and then 13-9 happened. Really, if Magee’s offense finds a way to be itself that game and WVU wins and then rolls Ohio State in the national title game, how different could his career be at this point? Ditto Gibson, who was the recruiting coordinator for a team that had a lot of really good recruits. But Pitt derailed all of that. And now they work for Pitt? Now they work for Pitt!

Bill said:

Casazza – just curious if you have any news on the new football staff. Are they all in Morgantown now? Are they out recruiting? Any news on Mike Joseph? thanks

Standard stuff. They’re in and out of town. There’s a limit on the number of coaches who can be out at once and there are restrictions for what Oll Stewart and Holgorsen can do, so the guys rotate. When they’re not on the road, they’re on campus. Haven’t heard a word on Joseph, which means he’s still employed, but I’d have to imagine he’s guaranteed nothing once Holgorsen takes over next year. He’s essentially auditioning next season.

EersNC said:

If the defense can hold our opponents to less than 4 TDs, I think we should be more than just fine in 2011.

I’ll need to hear that form Jock Sanders first.

Sam said:

That might prove a taller order than we’re necessarily imagining.

… I didn’t want to say it, but, yeah, there’s a lot of truth to that. Eight starters are gone. That’s a huge number. And is it bigger? Najee Goode wasn’t a starter in the bowl. Pat Lazear, a senior, was and he played a lot late in the season. I’ll stop. Sorry.

Jeff in Akron said:

Lots of question, and lots of potential. Holgorsen and Co. have the players to run their offense, I wonder if “The Poet” stays in his receiver position or if he is more important as a running back. Clarke and Johnson may have fumblitous and could remove themselves from consideration.

On defense, I have to trust in Casteel and Co. They may not field a top five defense next year, but, I do not see the defense falling off the map either.

If Holgorsen can work his magic and put points on the board, the opposing offense could become one dimensional and need to pass to keep up. Irvin and Miller could post huge numbers next year if that is the case.

For what it is worth, I have a feeling the football team will be exciting to watch next year. Another year of the Big East being there for the taking and WVU will be in the mix, if not the favored. Plus, LSU comes to Morgantown, it shouldn’t take long to see if the Mountaineers have the stuff they need, I say they do.

Initially, I’d have to think Tavon is locked in at receiver now. He’s way too good in space. His future in the Holgorsen offense is, in my view, the brightest there. That said, Stewart is the head coach. He’s advocated moving Tavon to running back. It’s quite likely his call. That’s what I don’t like about this arrangement. For the purpose of this discussion, though, I could see a role for Austin that combines Stewart’s once-uttered thought of playing Tavon as a receiver and getting him sweeps from the slot, but also giving him snaps at running back and allowing him to start at and play receiver. You can feel good about the defense because it is in good hands. Look at Casteel’s work and more prevalent than teams that rank highly in this or that are units that improve from the beginning to the end, when they’re usually playing their best. I don’t think enough gets made of that. I expect next season he’ll have it figured out and humming after three or four games. That’s his M.O.

The 25314 said:

John Antonick also recently wrote that WVU has a void at tailback for the first time in 15 years. I’m not sure that is entirely accurate. I was a young whippersnapper at the time, but I don’t rememeber Avon Cobourne being the clear cut favorite to start at RB in 1999. Former Urban Meyether recruit at Notre Dame and current actor, Cooper Rego was also considered a front runner for starter following the 1998 season.

Also, following the 2004 season, there was no one ensconced in the starters role. You could argue that Colson was, but many people thought Pernell Williams would become the starter and another faction thought Gwaltney would earn it.

I think we’re in the same situation in 2011 as we were going into 2005, with Alston playing the part of Colson and Johnson playing the part of Williams.

Agreed on all of that, but I think the point was Cobourne was a nobody. He had talent, but he redshirted the year before. And Rego was a variable, too. It wasn’t clear-cut as it has been in recent years. That 2004 season might need an asterisk, though. You’re right. Colson had a very good 2003 season, but I never thought the coaches liked him all that much … and that suspicion was confirmed when he was buried on the bench after early fumbles.

SheikYbuti said:

So there I was, early in the morning on December 27, 1998, boarding an American West flight in Tucson along with a couple dozen other disappointed WVU folks and several more ebullient Mizzou fans, when I noticed that maybe 5-6 of our players were also on the plane, apparently released from the chartered flight by Coach Nehlen to travel home for the holidays by commercial means. David Carter, who would start at linebacker the next season, appeared to be out of it, commenting loudly about the small dog that everyone could hear barking in the cargo hold. He raised such a ruckus that he was eventually thrown off the plane; they also removed his traveling companion, a redshirting first-year player identified by the crew as Avon Cobourne, although he was being nothing but polite and even trying to get DC to calm down. I remember hoping that news of the spectacle would not make the press, inasmuch as Cobourne was our best prospect at running back the following season. The big question, however, was not his talent, but whether he could come back from a serious knee injury he sustained during his senior year in high school. Not sure how much this bears on the Antonik story and 25314’s recollection, but it’s a fun (and completely true) anecdote.

… and this, I truly believe, is why people come here.

JL said:

25314,

If those guys are Colson and Williams, who is going to be 2011’s Slaton?

Ahhhh. He’d have to be a true freshman, right? I’m not sure the Selders kid from Houston will be ready (tore an ACL before the high school season started … which might make him an Avon Cobourne in 2012). I’m going off the board. Keep an eye on Andrew Buie.

The 25314 said:

JL,

In the Holgorsen offense, it may be more important who emerges as the 2011 Michael Page or Eddie Jackson.

Good point. In that case … show me Terrell Morning!

Karl said:

My expectations for next year are modest. Our offense will improve — Holgorsen would be hard-pressed to actually make it worse. Our defense will take a big hit, there’s just no way around that. I think the best you can hope for is that the offensive improvements will sort of cancel out our losses on the other side of the ball and we wind up with a similar record.

The Big East will be tougher next year. Teams like Louisville and South Florida got  better as the year went on. Syracuse is competitive again. RU and Cincy had tough years, but that shouldn’t be the norm. I take Sam’s word for it that UConn’s coach is no savior, but I do think Graham is a much better college footbal coach than Wannstedt.

Bottom line, wins shouldn’t be as easy to come by. And we can forget about LSU, we had our chance this year and blew it. They’re going to murder us.

Fair assessment. It’s funny how the league has turned over coaches as often as it has, but appears to have good ones in place at Cincinnati, Syracuse, USF and Louisville. Jury is still out on Graham, Stewgerson and Pasqualoni(!), but I think you could safely assume most or all of them will work. A good question from the chat Thursday asked me to rank the top three in the Big East. I said USF, Syracuse and Cincinnati. I could go in different directions on that one. You?

pushthebutton said:

Who will be the 2011 George Shehl?

Another good question. Certainly not Jeremy Kash.

notruB said:

Mike is Daquan Hargett still on the team? I heard rumblings of a transfer…

I was told by WVU’s sports information people the only scholarship player who did not come back was Barry Brunetti. I’d be stunned if guys didn’t split after the spring semester. Spring football will thin things out, I’m certain. It’s characteristic of regime change. And WVU needs scholarships. At the end of spring, the coach, whoever it is, decides who will and will not have their scholarships renewed. Remember, scholarship are one-year deals. Not four- or five-year deals.

The 25314 said:

What do we think about kids graduating high school early to go to college compared to kids leaving college early to go to the NFL? Should the same arguments of maturity and enjoying a special time in your life also apply?

I’m a bad person to ask. I wish I was still in high school, let alone college. I don’t have a problem with it, if you need to know. I just worry about a kid coming to Morgantown who’s never previously lost his mind on prom night or at beach week. You don’t want to dip your toe in the waters here.

michael said:

Mike- re Millard. This came from another site but the info sounds authoritative. Anyway, I looked at the videos and its seems like this kid has slipped thru the cracks and might be a prototypical Holgorsen QB. He is supposed to matriculate WVU this week:

I don’t know how to use the multiple quote feature, so I’m just going to answer all the questions at once.

First of all, Paul is a legit 6′2. He’s got all of the tools to be a great college QB. As you can tell by looking at his stats, he cut his interceptions by more than half from his junior to senior seasons. He has a very good arm and can make all of the throws. He’s got great pocket awareness, a very quick release, accuracy, doesn’t lock on to receivers, always looks down field, and just does’t make mistakes. He never forces throws. I would compare him to Christian Ponder without the wheels and Greg McElroy. There is no question he should have more major BCS offers. He lead the nation in passing for a reason. You guys are getting a steal.

There are 4 elite passers in Texas for the 2011 class. David Ash(Texas), Michael Brewer(Texas Tech), JW Walsh(Oklahoma State) and Paul Millard. Personally, I’ve seen Walsh and Brewer play 4 times each, and Millard is a better passer than both of them. He has a lot less help on offense as well.
I’ve never seen Ash play live, so I cannot comment on him. He has 2 2011 classmates that are D1 BCS level good in Josh brake, a 6′3 4.6 WR and Hunter Lee a 5′11 4.4 all-purpose back/slot WR/return specialist, similiar to Coppell’s Cam McDaniel committed to Notre Dame. We have a 2012 QB Marshall Williams who is expected to be a big time recruit. He is 6′5 and has a cannon, but had to play WR because Paul is so good. He’s only going to get to start 1 year because he had to sit behind Millard for 2 years.

A little background info: Flower Mound plays 5A football. They run a vertical spread offense. They do throw a lot of screens, but they don’t dink and dunk it down the field like some of you are probably thinking. The offense is extremely efficient, and is a product of Todd Dodge’s spread offense. 5A is the highest classification in Texas. Over the last 2 seasons, Flower Mound has played in the toughest district in the state. Each week, Paul usually played against a top 25 team in the state. A lot of people will say he’s a product of the system, but I have a few things to say to that. Any player that puts up big numbers like Paul did in a spread offense is going to be called a product of the system. However, these numbers were not just results of a product of the system. These are video game numbers we are talking about. We have not seen numbers like this from the QB position against elite competition since Riley Dodge and Greg McElroy were at Southlake Carroll. Guys like Graham Harrell, Scotty Young, and Garrett Gilbert put up huge numbers, but they did not play against elite competition every week like Paul did. Every game Flower Mound played was literally a playoff game. Had Flower Mound even had an average defense, Millard probably breaks every season passing record in Texas and Flower Mound would have advanced far into the playoffs, playing several more games. He was on pace to shatter all of Gilbert’s records, but Flower Mound lost in the first round of the playoffs. For those of you looking at the results of Flower Mound’s games, you can tell right away that Flower Mound was statistically one of the worst defenses in the state. Due to the level of competition Flower Mound was playing, the offense needed to score on almost every possession if they were going to win the game. There was a lot of pressure on Paul and the offense, and they delivered.

Another note: His 2nd and 3rd best WR’s got hurt at the beginning of the year and missed the remainder of the season.

I’ve seen Paul play more than 20 times, including his first varsity game when he was a sophomore in which he threw for nearly 400 yards and 3 TD’s. Bottom line, you guys are in very good hands. He was not a major recruit because he plays baseball in the off-season and did not attend many camps. He did not get a lot of exposure between his junior and senior years. He is going to be perfect in Holgorson’s offense. His other offers were SFA and UTEP. I think he’s a 5.7 3 star recruit at the very least.

You can go to this website to view single game box scores.

http://www.dallasnews.com/highschoolsports/flower-mound/

Go to:

http://www.jaguarfootball.com

click on the recruiting section, there is a ton of film on Millard.

flower mounder said:

Paul Mallard is a good Div ll player. Flower Mound was in a very good district but the last two years the non district schedule was super soft. The defense was terrible so he probably got a lot more possesions than a qb on a good team.

Flower Mound coaches put all the good players on offense and just try to moutscore opponents.

He is slow. Has a good arm. Will be exposed playing higher level competion.

Excellent information.

huskerman said:

Yeah, Millard is a good qb but he was probably the third best qb in the district.
Definitely a product of the offense and the fact that flower mound is strictly an offensive football team. If they played their schedule again they would finnish 3-7 instead of 7-4. Hebron and Plano had better qb’s.

He would have been better off to go to a div ll school. You’ll see.

You’re not going to find this anywhere else, I assure you.

bigjoe said:

I agree. Michael must be Millards dad or something.

Good player who had lots of help, very soft non-district schedule last two years.

Surrounded by lot of offensive talent and one of the worst defenses in 5a football allowed him a lot of reps. The kid behind him, Marshall Williams should have graduated last year and is overated. He was hand picked by the coaches as some future superstar since he was in JH. He is a poor player and not respected by his teamates.

… and I’m off the soap box. Hopefully Paul will speak to me.

glibglub said:

Seems I recall hearing somewhere awhile (note my lack of emphasis on the h) back that Darrious Curry was seeking a second opinion about his medical condition. Erroneous?

He’s thought about it, but I don’t think he has a choice. WVU has the final say, and for obvious reasons. Curry can secure the second opinon and then a transfer and he’d then have the ability to make the call.

Sam said:

GlibGlub,

I saw that being reported in one of the university’s publications I think.

Meanwhile, does anybody know how serious this injury is? Does it rob him of his game, like it did Cam? Or this recoverable?

Less severe. Cam had issues with his kneecap dislocating. Noreen had a cyst removed. Surgery indicates a serious condition, don’t get me wrong, but this is not that. He should be fine over time.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

Hope that the next one is able to contribute more; Noreen is going to be a good player — probably like Cam — in his career. Good team guy who busts it everytime on the floor.

Mike, is there any hope that Cottrell ever gets back on the floor at WVU?

Noah’s gone. It was finalized Thursday and reported today … and I thought Mitch did a really nice job with that delivery. That said, I don’t see the big deal. The kid never played here and had problems that screamed “liability.” He needs to get himself right before he gets himself back into Nikes.

glibglub said:

Why would one want to carry a cabbage around? You’d end up smelling of it, and quite possibly be mistaken for a carnie as a result. You know what I’m talking about. Carnies. Circus folk. Nomads, you know. Smell like cabbage. Small hands.

/looks at watch

roopoo said:

That’s why you run fast when you carry the cabbage glib…so you don’t smell. Extra motivation.

Enjoy the weekend!