Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is open to public comment for an infinite period of time. Today is the end of the 30-day period during which the Board of Governors solicited feedback regarding the proposed beer sales at Mountaineer Field. I think this is a lock, especially now that WVU has taken the big first step toward a no smoking campus.

There’s only one way I think this doesn’t pass: We’ve witnessed stunning subterfuge.

Bad behavior is the target and certainly the biggest contributing and controllable factor is the re-entry policy. Virtually no one allows this and even WVU has an embargo for night games … when the freaks really come out. WVU has examined this for a few years and wrestled with removing the re-entry, but, for whatever reason, has never done it. I’d imagine it would be met with significant protest, even though the re-entry is a practice at WVU and not a policy and, as such, doesn’t need any type of vote or quorum to get rid of it.

But what if — and this would be great — WVU threw up a big smoke screen with the proposed beer sales? Certainly the decision-makers knew  quite well the debate would be significant. Behind that smoke screen was the far less offensive idea to eliminate the re-entry practice, as well as smoking in the stadium, which is another thing WVU doesn’t need anyone’s permission to do.

For more than a month now we’ve seen posturing about why WVU should and should not sell beer, but hardly anyone is bent about the ban on re-entry or smoking — and if they are, it’s secondary anger or a whisper compared to the uproar. The attention has been taken totally off of it, even though this is a tailgating culture and the parties are in the parking lot.

People for and against beer sales have similarly communicated the belief (fact) the problem is not inside the stadium, but outside of it. Both sides say that can be controlled by not letting people out and then back in after they refuel. Say June 3 the BoG announces it has listened to everyone and done its homework, but will not be passing the beer proposal. Huzzah. Obviously, you take away the alcohol element in the stadium and the associated behavioral side effects are gone, too. But now, you can’t go outside, knock back a few Nesteas and then return for the third quarter, either.

Bad behavior, banished. Beer, banned. Two birds, one proposal. It’s actually quite sharp. If this happens, my head may spin off and tunnel to China.

Onto the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In other words, know your audience.

P.S. I’m not neglecting the fantastic and hysterical work performed in the “Time for a challenge” post. It’s just not a finished product yet. Let’s keep it going. I may or may not be up to no good on my own.

SheikYbuti said:

Perhaps Aaric can avoid the sit-out year if he can demonstrate to the NCAA’s satisfaction that he’s transferring to take care of Barry Brunetti’s sick mother.

Well done, sir.

Jeff in Akron said:

I believe I read somewhere that this year’s basketball recruiting class was ranked 21st. I have to believe that Murray only improves on that.

Huggins has had a very good start to his time at WVU, I also believe that it is only going to get better. If everything falls into place this fall WVU could be looking at a top twenty football team, basketball team, and womens basketball team.

Mike, has that ever happened before, all three finishing in the top 25?

Indeed it has, and just recently. In the 2007 season, the football team was No. 6 in the final poll while the men and women were both No. 17 in the final 2008 basketball poll. In 2009, football finished Nos. 22/25 and the men and women finished the 2010 season Nos. 3 and 10, respectively.

The 25314 said:

I’ll take KJ’s 40.4% 3-point shooting his sophomore year, or his 34.4% career 3-point shooting or the 50.0% he shot from 3 over the last month of the season.

This is a good point. KJ’s averages are very good — they just didn’t jump from his sophomore to junior year as dramatically as they did from his freshman to sophomore year. He’s had ups and downs and, I suppose, his ultimate task is to become a more consistent player. Maybe you don’t expect the highs every day or the lows for long stretches, but just a consistent output. And we overlook this, but he played very well, across the board, the final four weeks of the season.

Sam said:

He can assert himself without jacking up any number of horrible looking 20-foot jumpers. He can be a force by doing what he does. That’s the thing that I, as a fan, hope he figures out. He has a better chance at the NBA if he maximizes the talents that he has, rather than trying to create talents that he does. He can be a ferocious rebounder, a strong defender, a good passer, etc. He doesn’t have to be a three-point shooter to be effective.

I might argue he is a good 3-point shooter and that is what makes him effective in college and appealing at the professional level, though for different reasons. In college, he’s a more unique player in that he can play inside, but also take his defender outside and create the necessary space in the motion offense (it is here where, if he can play off the dribble, he can become a very different, very dangerous player). At the professional level, he doesn’t possess the inside presence to be a power forward and he isn’t fast enough to be a small forward, but if he has a 3-point shot, he has a value nevertheless. There’s also this: KJ was a better inside player, a better defender and a better passer as a junior than he was as a sophomore. You can fairly expect improvements in other areas for his senior season.

NCMountaineer said:

A lot of fans got bent out of shape on his jumper because he wasn’t hitting it in the first half of the season. He has an unorthodox shot, but he makes a decent % from three for a guy 6-8, 260.

This team should be more athletic and get up and down more than teams in the past. That alone should allow KJ to expand his game for the next level. Seeing a big guy run the floor and finish and transition is never a bad thing. If he can add anything off the bounce he has a bright future, and it will help next year’s squad reach it’s potential.

This is a lot like other things. Too often we forget one simple possibility: It may work.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Follow-up question for Huggs:

Do you see WVU leaving for another conference?

No chance he answers it. That said, I bet you could find a split in the athletic department and maybe even a lean toward WVU being a member of another conference in the not-so-distant future.

Wayne said:

Let’s wait for the outcome of football expansion and the next television contract. If the football schools think that the league office is still protecting the basketball-only schools at their expense then a split becomes possible if not likely.

You’ll be waiting a long time. The current contract runs through the 2013 football season. Imagine what can/will happen between now and then. Meantime, what is everyone else doing?

rekterx said:

This team has serious potential. I would look for things to start coming together in a a big way at the end of January.

Rutledge. Remember Rutledge.

He may be the best of the bunch.

I yield to our resident Texan. I haven’t talked to anyone who knows much about him as a player. Also, I haven’t talked to many people about him as a player.

KMS said:

Whoever plays the best defense starts games. That’s just a basic Huggs rule.

Agreed, but that’s no fun for the purpose of this conversation. When have we ever kept it so simple?!

Bill said:

Mike – since we are in the beginning of the most agonizing period in college sports, can we take the time here to hear your summary/recap/opinions of all these new faces on our hoops team this coming year? I’ve read a few blurbs on all these guys but dont remember too much.

I’ll hang up and listen.

Thanks

I’ll try it on, sure. This is a blend of things I’ve read and conversations I’ve had. I have to exclude Rutledge because, again, I’ve heard and read almost nothing about him except he’s from Newark, bounced around JCs and redshirted at West Texas CC this past season. He’s probably a low post guy.

Jabarie Hinds is expected to grow into a very good point guard who can score, but is capable of playing and mattering right away. Huggins thinks he’s one of the best guards in the entire recruiting class. He’s slight in size right now, but he’s a player and he came from Mount Vernon High, which is a strong, strong program that really prepares players.

Gary Browne is a little small, too, but also a little bigger than Hinds. He’s played older than his age for years, too, as part of the Puerto Rico national program. People I’ve talked to really, really like his poise and his potential, but say he’s just going to require a little time to get used to a lot of things. But he understands the position and once he moved to Jacksonville to play high school hoops, his team became better in almost every statistical category.

Aaron Brown is a tough shooting guard/small forward from Philadelphia who kind of carried a team that maybe wasn’t as good as he helped make it. Average shooter, but a player who can score on the move. Good frame, too, and he can become a good defender.

Keaton Miles and Tommie McCune, I’m told, are somewhat similar and actually a little bit like a young John Flowers, who likes them both. They’re good slasher types, which WVU needs, but which also means they need to develop mid-range games to diversify.

Pat Forsythe might be the true sleeper. He’s exploded in the past 18 months and should probably keep rising with Huggins. Some good schools looking for a fundamental center were interested, though after he picked WVU. Before he was injured in his senior season, the thought was Forsythe might be the player of the year in Ohio.

Homer said:

It will be interesting to see if Truck’s shooting improves any if he’s moved to glorified SG and doesn’t have to handle the ball so much. Like most players he’s much better catching and shooting.

Yep and that’s why there’s some merit to playing the three guards or playing Hinds/Browne with Truck, who really needs to be good this season.

jjefboc said:

I think Rutledge and Noreen are going to shock people this year.

It wouldn’t suprise me if the >Hinds/Truck/Rutledge/Jones/Noreen< lineup ends up seeing a lot of meaningful minutes this year.

And with that lineup, you have a really solid bench of Pepper, Kilicli, Miles, Brown1, Brown2, McCune and Forsythe.

Not to mention three point walk-on specialists Paul Williamson and Aaric Dickerson.

Glad you reminded me: Don’t forget Aaric Dickerson.

overtheSEC said:

Mike any truth to the rumor that WVU Sports Marketing will be resurrecting their 1991 “timely” slogan, “The New Kids on the Court”?
(This is the actual slogan they used pimping the six incoming freshman: PG Greene, Lawrence Pollard, Mike Boyd, Marsalis Basey, Ricky Robinson, and Phil Wilson)

Yes.

The 25314 said:

Gonzaga is my first instinct, but they haven’t been in the NCAA tournament “a lot,” they’ve been in it every year. George Mason came to mind, but Jim Laranaga is in Miami now, so the comment about the coach probably doesn’t fit. Butler is another team mid-major team that I think is better than “in the NCAA’s a lot” – they’ve been to two straight finals. I also think you’d have to consider a Missouri Valley Conference team like Creighton or Northern Iowa are solid programs. VCU is a possibility, but I don’t think you could say they have a history of a lot of NCAA’s.

However, I think it might be Xavier. Calhoun said it was a good program (check), good coach (check, he didn’t say household name, just really good coach), a lot of NCAA’s in its history (check – Gilliam, Prosser, Matta, Miller), plus it is Huggs’s old rival which would have people buzzing and would surprise people that they’d want to play him.

Buuuuut, I have no idea.

Well, remember first the quote I keep teasing people with is from January and before coaching changes. George Mason, by that logic, would be within the realm. Paul Hewitt keeps it as a possibility, too. Also, I can tell you with some degree of certainty it is not Xavier. I can’t tell you why, though.

hershy112 said:

One other reason I would guess Gonzaga is the comment of “We were pretty surprised they wanted to play.”  Since Gonzaga is on the other side of the country and all.

I get that and I remember there was talk about matching those two up as part of ESPN’s 24 hours of basketball … two years ago? But WVU doesn’t consider Gonzaga a mid-major.

JP said:

Butler

Same as Gonzaga. Not a mid-major, according to WVU.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

I have no idea, but would throw this one out there for consideration…..VCU. Close proximity and definitely a lot of buzz after the F4 this year.

I like where your head is at.

Dr Love said:

Creighton

That would be nice, too, but I think it’s outside the geographical circumference.

SheikYbuti said:

“We looked at the top mid-majors again and looked at the location and some relationships we have.”

That tells me that we might be talking about a neutral-site game in a familiar area where we like to recruit. Something like WVU vs. Temple at MSG. But I’d still love to see it be Memphis.

Memphis is a major program, but I’ll stick with your Temple pick. Well, not Temple, but the city. I say St. Joe’s — and I’m making just a very educated guess.

Rick said:

Hokies in Charlotte makes way too much sense for Beamer. Play it @ noon the same day of Florida-Georgia in Jax @ 3:30.

As much as I’d like to see the Virginia Tech series renewed, as much as the fans would  interchangeably and equally love and hate it, WVU has a bunch of ACC games coming up with Maryland and Florida State. Can the Hokies fit?

Tim said:

How about BC, ND, Army or Navy in Philly? I love the thought of neutral site games – its like an extra bowl – win or lose the team makes some cash & the fans get to see a cool matchup in a new place.

I can get with any of those, but I can see another angle here. Why does it have to be a big-time opponent? Why, for example, couldn’t Luck pull on some of his connections and get WVU v. Stephen F. Austin at Reliant Stadium? If WVU takes its show on the road and hits the right market, it’ll sell tickets. The game might not sell out that stadium, but that stadium only seeds to sell a certain amount of tickets to begin to make a profit. WVU might get 50,000 for a FCS school and make close to the $2 million it generates at most home games, but a neutral-site game against the FCS team might guarantee as much and more money. And WVU with Luck and Holgorsen and the need to get in that particular area as TCU packs its boxes makes a lot of sense.

pknocker40 said:

“I’m going to coach and recruit guys from Spain and deal with people as mentally unstable as I am.”

There’s something wrong with that boy’s Mazzulla Oblongata!

I’m just glad he’s playing. He can hang up the sneakers be dragged off the floor when on his own schedule now.

The 25314 said:

How would he blow out his shoulder interviewing with N. C. State?

I hope people get that. And I hope people enjoy the weekend!