He said that Holgorsen’s formal contract still isn’t finished, but “would be done before the season.” Huggins’ contract has a clause relating to the veteran coaches staying in the upper half among Big East coaching salaries. “Obviously, that has to be redone,” Luck said. “I’d imagine we’ll get it done by the start of the (2012-13) school year.”

Asked if Holgorsen would have a “non-compete” clause in his contract that would prevent the former Texas Tech and Oklahoma State assistant from leaving for another Big 12 job, Luck said he didn’t think that was necessary “and I doubt Dana will go for a non-compete … but there will be a buyout in there.”

He said WVU ranks “mid-tier … upper-middle … fourth or fifth” among 10 schools in Big 12 football assistant coaches’ salaries. The nine Holgorsen assistants total $2.45 million. Texas is at the top, at $3.2 million.

Luck said he wants to do coaching contracts relating to the Big 12 salary scale, and try to rework operational and recruiting budgets in similar fashion.

“Just a few days I ago I asked one of our people to run all of the Big 12 baseball coaching salaries, operating and recruiting budgets,” Luck said. “We’re woefully behind in those, way behind. I think (Coach) Greg Van Zant makes about $60,000. I think the lowest baseball coach’s salary in the Big 12 was about $200,000.”

(Lots of good stuff in there. The roughneck Inspectah JackBo on the set. A rebel, he makes more noise than heavy metal.)

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t be silly.

Mack said:

Your book is doing very well considering Amazon searches for “waiting for the fall” and for “casazza” do not bring up your book.

It’s a phenom, in that regard. I don’t understand how those search operators work, but I know the entry “waiting for the fall” brings up a list of options and “waiting for the fall casazza” is one of those. So why wouldn’t separate searches of the title or the author do the same? Here’s what does help. Leave me a review. If you’re read the book — and I can really look the other way on that — go here and leave me an honest review. I can take it. The attention, be it good, bad or indifferent, helps me end up in “might also like” or “also bought” lists.

Dann White said:

Oh, (sheepishly) excuse me. I thought I was on the WVU Sports Blog. I’ll see myself out.

Look, that’s all the book stuff I’ll do in today’s F Double. Promise. But you’re out of your mind if you think I won’t use this here WVU blog that we’ve built to sell the WVU football book I wrote. Imagine walking past your Benz with the vanity plates to take the bus to work. Sorry to say this, but I’ve got a big old rear view mirror here and I don’t want to look up into it in a few weeks, months or years and see I didn’t do everything I could.

Conservative Mountaineer said:

And, for those who will (undoubtedly) b*tch and moan.. Who would you rather see.. Temple or Texas? Memphis or Oklahoma? Big Least vs Big XII. No contest.

Full disclosure – I don’t have season tickets.. simply cannot justify giving up so much time to go to home games, especially since some were on Thu night or some time other than Sat afternoon.. Also, I prefer my Fall golf way too much.

Interesting …

Dave said:

If I can see Temple but can’t see Texas, I’d take Temple.

It’s not that I don’t want to see Texas, but it’s just easier on television.

Didn’t we just get an enormous revenue upgrade from television … and beer sales?

… but this is exactly what I was talking about. A wonderful and circular debate. I love it. There’s only two types of money. Your money and more money. Everybody needs both.

Mack said:

When they increased the donation required (and I paid it) I half-wondered if they could/would increase the ticket price. On some level, I thought it seemed strange that they could say, “You have to donate x amount to buy tickets” then you “donate” the amount and then they say, “Oh by the way, your tickets now cost $1,000.00.”

One other issue from Luck’s statement is that he says it’s “still the best value” or something like that. This is not true. I know of people who have season tickets to other things and sell those for twice the face value. For WVU, if you sold all of your season tickets, you would be lucky to turn a profit. Without getting into the ethics of that, it shows that it’s not the best value and, in actuality, WVU is essentially charging as much or more as it should for the tickets.

With all that said, I will pay it. If I don’t like it, I won’t buy season tickets. To complain about ticket prices is a waste of time/effort though.

You know what, I get that “street value” gripe a lot and it’s starting to make more and more sense now. I wonder if this is another byproduct of the secondary ticket market and I wonder if a school can or will try to do something about that. Can a school do something to control how their season tickets are peddled? Could they hold a season-ticket holder accountable?

Patchy said:

The ticket increase is a pittance compared to parking passes obtained in exchange for a ‘donation.’ How do they say that word with a straight face?

And thanks to Gussie Busch, er, Oliver Luck, the increased price of that blue lot pass has been devalued by 1/3 since you can’t take advantage of it at halftime.

Ah, yes. The great unspoken dichotomy of civility in the parking lots. Now, the easy counter there is that the stadium ticket is more valuable because the stadium has a better environment. That’s the point I want to see made with a straight face. (Edit: Sorry, lcj, saw that you followed up with a similar point … but I’m not buying it.)

Dann White said:

Morgantown Brewing Company, are you buying Mike?

DW

Yes. Free beer.*

Dave said:

Thanks Mike … didn’t attend the game, “worst defense” and “never been beat like that” came out of Huggins’ mouth afterward.

Coincidence?

Wait … we’re blaming that Gonzaga loss on me being off of work? Damn it, that does fit.

NCMountaineer said:

Huggs said everything I’ve been saying about Noreen all along. You need guys that know how to play. I still say with him healthy we win at least 3 more games.

We have plenty of bigs back next year with Noreen, Murray, Rutledge, Forsythe, Kilicli, and Macon. Keaton Miles could be a good rebounder if he puts on about 20-30 lbs. The question is which one of those guys is expendable? Huggs needs to be searching the juco circuit to find a shooter. My opinion – Deniz or Forsythe probably won’t be here next season. If that brings a shooter in like a Casey Mitchell, so be it.

That 2012 team is going to look very different. Potentially, I should say. Not because of roster turnover, but because it could play unlike any of the other teams Bob has had here. WVU could and should be huge. This year and in past years, WVU has been at its best playing small with three guards or two point guards. I think they’ll have that option next season. Browne, Hinds and Staten should be able to play together, if need be. But two of them can play and Terry Henderson would be able to bounce around and shoot, too. If it’s just two guards, that’s fine because the frontcourt could have six legitimate contributors. Seriously, what if Noreen was your 3 and Kilicli and Murray played the 4 and the 5? Actually, I like the idea of Noreen at the 3 because of his, um, unique set of skills and smarts. They’ll need guys who can get the ball inside to enable Murray and Kilicli and they’ll need guys who can draw inside and kick it outside for shots or slashes. Lots of parts at the coach’s disposal. As for disposable parts, Huggins was on his radio show this week and said no one’s leaving. Is that true? Who knows? Right now, WVU is even on scholarships for next season and he says he’s not adding or subtracting. A kid could change his mind and want out. Macon, at the very least, was an academic question mark when he arrived at Huntington Prep, and though he’s said to be safe, who knows? Things can change and Huggins was looking at junior college guards. If there remains a need, it is size and toughness on the perimeter and a 6-5 juco shooting guard could help.

Rugger said:

Huggs claims this is the worst defensive team he’s had in 30 years after last night’s embarrassing loss. Was this another motivational tactic or was it blame displacement 101?

These are Bobby’s recruits and his coaching staff and we ended up w a team that can’t shoot, can’t make free throws and can’t play defense.

Bobby can blame the kids all he wants but there are less experienced coaches still in the tournament with lower ranked recruits. If he doesn’t take responsibility and learn from this season to get high bball IQ guys in here who can shoot, he will be passed by, it happens.

To be fair, Huggins said this was his worst defensive team before. That stage wasn’t the same, so the reaction wasn’t as grandiose. It wasn’t born out of the frustration of the loss or the ability to let it fly with no more games to play. What it was was plainly honest. Also, I think we’ve been over this, but if not, let’s go at it: I agree with what you’re saying. I think most everyone else does, too. And that would include Bob Huggins. What I means is, isn’t his role in this understood? I’m positive he knows it’s the guys he recruited or the coaches he hired recruited and that his instruction and his staff’s instruction hasn’t had the intended impact. Do we really need to inform a 30-year guy the buck cannot be passed and that he can’t have another 2011-12 in 2012-13? I think he knows it. Maybe it’s unspoken, but I think it’s understood.

ccteam said:

Tell you what, I’ll take Huggs opinion over any of anybody on a blog (including my own). Can’t believe people are down on Huggs. He has taken the Mountaineers to the tourney every year. Without his scheduling expertise and connections to get games this year’s team wouldn’t have sniffed the big dance. Recruiting was not good last year or the year before, but I think this year’s class will end up pretty good. Besides, he’s a home town boy who came back home, and a hall of fame coach. In this down year with 7 freshmen he still got them to the dance. In Huggy I trust.

Had to get somebody in from the other side. Here’s something: We can’t say Huggins is underrated after this season. He got his 700th win, he scheduled a team to the NCAA Tournament, he juggled youth, injuries and attrition and somehow got those guys to win 19 games and get a bye in the Big East Tournament — and I think we can agree WVU was given pretty fair  treatment by the NCAA’s selection committee. That’s … that’s actually good work and quite likely the result of a positive reputation. But he’s also been unlucky. Recruiting is often times hit or miss. Maybe he’s had a history of hits, but for two years, he had some misses and eventually that starts to hurt. It happens. It’s happened to him.

Sam said:

At the beginning of the season, I’m relatively certain we had collectively agreed that there was no chance this team was making the tournament. But it did. It was a hell of a season given everything the team had lost and what little it had replaced. I know it doesn’t feel that way, but if you offered me 19-14 and a first round exit in October, I would have laughed at you. We need to recognize that this team was capable of doing little more than it actually did.

I’m with you. It reminds me of the first season, a little bit. Different scenarios, I know, but I think at the start, no one expected a Sweet 16 appearance. Then I think everyone was thinking big after beating Duke and was then disappointed with the way the Xavier loss happened. Not everyone thought this was a NCAA team — remember, the Mountaineers lost to a D-II team! — but when you’re 15-5 and knocking on the door of the top 25 polls only to see it fall apart, it’s hard to take.  I don’t know, but I think if you’re WVU, a NCAA season is a good season. From there, it’s escalating degrees of good.

Dave said:

I thought we rarely showed what was being taught on a consistent basis. An example is the @Pitt game, where we seemed to play with a lot of determination throughout the entire game.

It just wasn’t consistent enough … sometimes we ran the floor, sometimes we switched, sometimes we made the extra pass … how many times did we hear the players themselves talk about not having the team together for an entire game.

Yet, against our schedule, they did pretty well. I think they left a lot on the table and an easy 5-6 wins were just blown, but that puts you at 25 wins or so against a tough schedule.

How much do you put on youth and inexperience? How many times will Deniz talk about effort when he’s the one loafing down the court on several occasions (btw, I really hope that is not the case next year).

Dave! Well said.

MooresvilleJeff said:

A quick observation: KJ, while obviously a good guy, just doesn’t have the talent level to carry a team. Purely as a player, he has flaws. Pedestrian athleticism, not much for creating his own shot and decent to so-so from mid-range to the arc. Great effort guy and a very heady player who maximizes the talent he has. We were very lucky to have him on a team that was utterly bereft of talent. Yeesh!

I don’t see him playing in the NBA.

Hate to quibble, but he did carry this team this year. That said, I think I see your point and I’m perhaps the worst when it comes to projecting NBA ability, but I have to think his rebounding gets him a look and maybe a spot in the draft. Two things worry me: His 3-point shot deserted him his last two seasons and — this was from a scout last season — he has a hard time against size. You saw teams put big guys on him late in this season and it slowed him because, as you say, he’s not much for creating his own shot. How’s this? I hope he gets to play in the NBA solely because he’s worked so hard at it.

Wayward Eer said:

I normally sit back and watch the commentary but a couple of things
strike me in this thread;

-The idea that another JC scorer is a positive for this team. First years of JC transfers under Huggs have not been succesful.
-Staten and Murray are transformers. While they will be very valuable additions, they will not elevate this team to a different level.
-KJ was a special person that could carry his team with effort and intelligence but he was not able to create (and Truck crashed and burned when he was the one who had to create).
-This team could have used Dalton Peppers (and really did miss Noreen).
-The belief that Macon will make a huge difference is misplaced (see above about Jc’s it applies to 1st year guys).
-This team can make the tourney again but the key is the improvement of Hinds, Browne, Brown, Miles and Forsthye.
Just some thoughts from a lurker.

Good stuff. You should get in more often. I wouldn’t hold Casey Mitchell against other incoming junior college guys. Without getting too much into it, he had a lot on his plate when he was here and we often wondered if he was always all there. When he was on, he was very good. And when he was off, boy, was he off. I think the addition of a physically mature player on the perimeter helps … and remember, Kilicli is the only senior on the 2012-13 team, so an addition is as much about next season as it is the season after. I have only heard about Staten and Murray, but what I gather is Staten is a pure point guard who facilitates, and WVU desperately needed that, while Murray is a pro who gives WVU its best shot blocker since D’or. Now, can they hit right away? No one knows, and we can extend that to a juco or Macon. I’m with you on that. But I’m sorry — and I’m not singling you out, but continuing a rolling dialogue we’ve had here on this topic — I still can’t buy the Pepper-as-the-savior hype. I saw that kid play a reluctant role for two seasons and do very little with the occasions given to him. Nice guy, very athletic, in possession of some good skills, but just never exhibited it consistently. I think the way he would have helped is he would have limited minutes for Aaron Brown and Gary Browne and probably minimized mistakes, but I can’t automatically project much beyond that. Also, he didn’t want to be here. It was a “him” thing, not a “WVU” thing. Can’t hang that one on Huggins.

Better Lucky than Goode:

Pardon me if this was brought up and I missed it in the postgame upheaval, but there was a very telling episode in the opening minutes vs. Gonzaga that — and I feel sick to even suggest this — maybe some players had given up and/or quit on each other.

KJ was at the free-throw line for two shots, and two teammates took their spots on the lane — Turk on the left side, and either ABrown or Miles (can’t remember which) on the right. KJ hit the first foul shot and stepped forward to give his teammates a low-five, and they both left him hanging.

Seemed to me that, from that point, it was bound to get ugly. Anybody else notice this?

Ask my wife … by the way, she hates watching games with me. Pretty sure the loose gun laws in Texas were a great danger to my life that night.

oklahoma mountaineer said:

How did our staff not see JD Collins’ little brother as a potential recruit for this past year’s class???? Contender (winner?) of BE Freshman of the year and I don’t remember even hearing interest in him.

Did the shakeup in the coaching staff before this last year result from not doing a good job of evaluating HS talent????

Heard the transfers are supposed to make a big difference, but isn’t that kinda like buying an older used car — buying someone else’s problems??

Sleeper. Lots of people missed on him. He didn’t commit until late March. And remember, WVU had Ryan Boatright and then Hinds in the fold. That was the plan. Took some time to land Gary Browne, who was, presumably, next on the list.

The Artist Formerly Known as EER96 said:

Let me get this straight: In 29 comments regarding a blog entry about an injured WVU basketball player, there have been references to soup kitchens, elderly women, crystal balls, Hamlet, Shakespeare, Kilicli, Kilicli’s apartment, Kilicli’s reading habits, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brent Solheim, Brent Solheim’s parents, a 30-something woman nailing a teen boy, and, Lord help us, Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog. Does it get any better than this?

Pound for pound, this blog entertains me more than anything else on this planet. I’m not sure how I feel about that…

I’m honored.

Better Lucky than Goode said:

Dear Stew,
Why did you leave your Circle of Death to Mike Carey?
Signed,
Gail Goestenkors

Hey, that’s a stunner. I was shocked when I saw she “resigned.” Her move from Duke to Texas was a pretty big deal in 2007. Carey’d!

Dave said:Is it really a “steal” if you’re just throwing the ball to the other team?

Yeah, we need another word to more aptly describe so many of WVU’s turnovers this past season.

jtmountaineer said:

Touche, Dave. As the Bard wrote in Hamlet, “You cannot take from me, sir, that which I will more willingly part.

Will we call them hamlets? I’ll work it out over the summer.

netbros said:

There’s something I never hear Holgorsen talk about. He has a well-earned reputation as somewhat of an offensive genius. I wonder if he uses the off season to work on inventing new offense. He obviously doesn’t want to stand pat, so does he tweak here and there, or does his creative brain invent new schemes? Inquisitive minds want to know these things.

… good idea. Consider it stolen.

glibglub said: