Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which, sorry to report, isn’t going to get into that story about the four players. I wrote a couple paragraphs about it, and they say all that needs to be said. Cited, possession, pre-trial diversion, charges dismissed. This is not to say it doesn’t matter. It’s four on-scholarship players who strayed from the responsibility that comes with privilege. I know that, you know that and I’m pretty sure they know that and will be reminded of that quite often in the near and distant future.

It’s news. I don’t think it’s headline news. I don’t think it’s something you bury, either. But there have been worse — far worse — things to happen to that roster this season and they got the coverage they deserved. I think this will, too.

So let’s move on…and perhaps we can even tie that to this. The four-year scholarship deal isn’t getting a lot of play even though student-athletes are now guaranteed a scholarship as long as they choose to stay at their school of choice for four/five years. (In case you didn’t know, the old scholarship model was a series of one-year pacts … and some places made their numbers, be they 13 or 85 scholarships, work by deciding not to renew replaceable players. No more. WVU wasn’t really for or against the idea that passed last week, but the Mountaineers didn’t see the need for it, either.

“It’s not a dramatic change in the sense that we have not taken anybody’s aid away since Dana’s been here based on athletic performance,” WVU’s Ryan Dorchester said. “I don’t think anybody would dispute that. It’s not a huge change from our perspective. I guess it gives a kid a little more security when it comes to the long term, but it’s still the same deal for us.

“If you’re academically ineligible or if you do something unlawful, those are situations where you can be removed from the team and your aid can be terminated. But for athletic or performance reasons, we haven’t done that. I think it’s important and I think it’s good, but for us, it was kind of like that anyways — just not on paper, which it is now. I guess maybe it’s kind of like Office Space. You just fix the glitch.”

The NCAA has been glitch fixing for a while now, and, since we’re in the season, we’ve long thought many of these student-athlete welfare initiatives would become recruiting tactics. Your stipends for cost of attendance will vary and thus be used as leverage. Further down the road, the you might see sports eliminated or the support dwindle noticeably, and some coach at some more affluent school will get in a recruit’s ear and whisper. Some leagues were going to offer multi-year full rides, and that would have been important to those programs, but that’s going to be the norm moving forward. Some of the other permissive legislation — like medical insurance, later education, etc. — will be used similarly.

This is the first signing day since the deregulation of eating and all the possibilities we thought that would provide.

Reality? The players on campus like it, and the ease of access is a major convenience. Walk-ons treasure the availability, to say nothing of being treated more like scholarship players now than ever before. The recruits? Hardly a factor at all, Dorchester said, when it comes to comparing one school’s training table to another and using that in the decision-making process.

“I would think we’d be pretty turned off if that was a big deal,” he said.

WELP! Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, have a code.

Rugger said:

Somewhere along the line Holton was conditioned to believe that pouting will get you out of a tough time. He’ll need to unlearn that before he can move forward. He’s clearly got the physical skills but he acts like Eron at 12.

With respect to Adrian, it seems that many of Huggs’ players develop confidence issues, perhaps from knowing they will get yanked at the first mistake. I’m not questioning Huggs’ methodologies, just an observation.

What happened to BillyD? Leprosy? Alien abduction? Extended Winter Break? Saving him for post-season?

Yeah, that Eron Harris comparison has merit. Holton carries fouls and misses and no-calls with him the same way … but I think he tries and wants more than Harris. That might be part of the problem, too. Every one of his teammates I’ve talked to said Holton wants to do something good so badly that he worries he’s letting everyone around him down when he doesn’t. More than anyone else on the team, he needs positive reinforcement because he sinks faster than anyone else. As for Adrian, I don’t know what to make of all of it except to say it’s a season-long slump with one 11-point deviation … when he was very good. But I watch him and I don’t see issues with effort or mental wherewithal. Confidence? Sure. But even when he’s not scoring, he’s trying to guard and defend and do something positive. Those things just aren’t happening. BillyDee has had problems acquiescing, so to speak. WVU really needs a scoring wing, no? 

hershy112 said: 

Billy D has had a little playing time this year. My only comment is, consider me unimpressed.

No offense to him, or to you, but what or where was the hype? And why? Did we really think he’d be a top- or mid-rotation guy? 

ccteam said:

Shooting touch comes and goes myteriously for some. Huggs motivation techniques may have been involved or not. But if you choose to blame him for shooting problems, then you need to give him credit for the energy and effort and team atmosphere that has been created with a whole bunch of new players too.

Two-way street, for sure. He fixed the energy and effort this season, but the shooting has been a problem for, what, three seasons now? (Also, would the energy and effort have been cured without a press that demands and rewards both?)

overtheSEC said:

The plan B needs to be Juwan and Devin on pick and roll action. Juwan can beat anyone off the dribble and needs to score or get fouled trying as first option. Or feed to a rolling Devin who needs to go strong with both hands to the hoop for option 2a or pop and hit that nice top of the key jumper he has for option 2b.

Agreed. Staten was dynamic with that last season and Williams was more effective in the final few games of the regular season with some of that. And Brandon Watkins is a good pick-and-roll player, too, which would give him a purpose beyond thinly posting up and airballing 3-foot hook shots. It might even work against a 2-3! For one reason or another, though, Staten is being guarded better this season. Might be the way the officials have changed the fouls they call. Might be defenses ignoring WVU’s shooters — and Staten’s jumper — and covering the lane. Might be some combination of effects of the ankle or the flu. Who knows? WVU could use a retro Staten, though.

av8eer said:

yeah, I’m not complaining about only having 3 losses because that doesn’t happen often. Just would like to see what our record would be if we would throw some curve balls sometimes when its obvious that our fastball ain’t good enough.

Right, and a short reliever or a closer can only go so many innings…

ffejbboc said:

Not playing zone defense against these poor shooting Mountaineers ought to be grounds for dismissal for opposing coaches.

I don’t know how we don’t see it tomorrow. 

Sid Brockman said:

As I said following the game, the lack of good zone offense is troubling to me. As I feel we’ve seen in the recent past, the ball doesn’t move fast enough to pressure the zone. We don’t reverse it much at all, and very rarely does the pass in the high post go to a “playmaker.” Devin isn’t one. It would be nice if Holton could play more than 10 minutes without foul trouble, since he seems to me to be the most logical fit as the man in the middle of the zone. As i recall, the staff loved his passing ability. I certainly hope (and assume) that zone offense is a main focus at practice this week.

Oh yes, I think Holton is a key against a zone because he’s so active, because he can pass, because he can at times hit that corner 3 and because he has above average touch at the rim with an array of goofy shots. Once he went south against Texas, you could see the avalanche coming. But WVU has to have a way around that. It can’t be built around one player who, of late, has been unreliable. It goes back to basics there and the passes and/or the movement could have been so much better.

smeer said:

without beyond-the-arc outside shooters, zones can pack it in.

if zones pack it in, there is no soft inside to play inside out to open up jump shots from midrange there are openings in a zone that can be exploited – but you have to have personnel capable of exploiting the holes you can swing the ball around the outside hoping to create a shot on the weak-side but that still requires a jump shooter

add texas’ length and it is problematic – just look what Boeheim does – he’s won a lot of games with a zone with length

we did at certain points get the ball into the paint and drew fouls by going up strong – doesn’t help that we sucked at foul shooting too

without having zone buster shooters, we have no distinct way of playing half-court against it. it’s surely not Staten’s game.

it will continue to be a mismatch nightmare for us Texas imposed their game on ours with help from officiating (home court helps) that allowed for a certain style of play. They continued to pass over not dribble around our press – the achilles heel of pressing so we lost any of our strengths.

I keep waiting for that state-of-art best in college basketball practice facility to start paying for itself.

then again – of course (not sure who said it) perfect practice makes perfect – not practice makes perfect. if no one is coaching these guys on proper shooting technique – they can learn some seriously WRONG muscle memory on their jump shots and at the foul line.

even Staten puts up an awkward looking jump shot that’s a view from 50,000 feet. this is still a very young team with only two guys with three years or more in the program. Devin with the body of a senior is only a sophomore

I like it. And WVU has a smallish team with tall and small players who struggle against size. It’s a tough matchup, but that can’t be WVU’s limitation.

Oklahoma Mountaineer said:

If our defense is like playing chess in a beehive, then is our halfcourt offense kind of like getting a pawn all the way to the end line for another piece…….I’m amazed that guys who are obviously very athletic have no consistency in their offensive games….

Huggs is using the excuse “we have a lot of new guys” — I’d think that instituting this style of defense correctly is way harder than getting a few bread and butter plays installed that we can run when we need to in order to break a run or a drought.

Pawn star, you are.

netbros said:

I agree with Rugger’s comment about Carter. Is he perhaps the next guy on Huggins’ roster to take it to another level during the off season? Think Joe Alexander, Kevin Jones, Juwan Staten, even John Flowers. These guys all had that HUGE off-season improvement that made you go, wait… is that the same guy? It seems Carter could be really, really good.

So hard to tell what his ceiling is. I thought earlier in the season he was sort of slow, or at least not water bug fast, and that might be true, but he guards. He’s really good on the ball, but he’s a great recovery defender. He chases down plays and covers when an opponent beats a teammate. That’s point guard stuff, but I haven’t seen him play the point or really go at the basket enough to make any sort of prediction. And while he got hot against Texas and Oklahoma, he was 3 for 10 against Texas. Just a curious season with more 3s than 2s and more 3s than FTAs. 

smeer said:

POINTS PER GAME – 78.8 – 19th
REBOUNDS PER GAME – 39.1 – 32nd
ASSISTS PER GAME – 15.2 – 44th
FIELD GOAL PCT – .426 – 234th

one of these things is not like the others what I like about the OU game is that it looked like they “slowed down” on O – weren’t rushing shots. it’s hard to speed up the game on D and then throttle back on O – one tends to lead to the other – helter skelter, but if this team can find its shots, watch out

Good point about the pace on offense, and that’s rooted in confidence. When WVU is disruptive on defense, it encourages transition and easy shots, but it has on rare occasions provided a calming influence. That’s been, I think, when WVU has been at it’s best. Imagine an offense that knows it can get layups, but also seeks some lengthy possessions to eat at the clock and the opponent. That’s why the half-court deficiencies are so major right now. The Mountaineers can be a different type of dangerous with that in their pocket. 

Shoot4Show said:

Keep in mind this is a very young team. It isn’t going to be a smooth, consistent upward trend. There will be bumps in the road.

You seen the second half of the Big 12 schedule?

Rugger said:

Holton, Philip and Adrian count as depth until you meet a top 20 team at which point they are reduced to quantity or fouls to give.

The “Our 12 is better than their 12” line sound great and looked even better in December. Obviously, it’s taking hits right now because of the Big 12, but does WVU have 12? Ten? The odometer spins faster here soon.

Foul Shot said:

OSU lost to V. Tech.
Oregon lost to Arizona.
Bama lost to Ole Miss if memory serves me right.
TCU lost to Baylor.
Baylor lost to WVU.
Still, I can figure out how they determined who should be in the playoff. Still think that the playoff is flawed as to who got in.
OSU proved they are champ of this current system, which still has flaws.
As long as they want a 12 game regular season and wont cut it back to an 11 game season with expanded playoffs, people will continue to wonder if this system is legit.
As far as I can tell, TCU or Baylor should have been given a shot over Fl. St.
With this year’s 4 team system, it seemed that politics still wins the day. Or tell everyone up front that winning your conference is the key to entry, so the B-12 can declare a conf champ.

If Florida State was undefeated but wasn’t the defending champ, is it in the playoff? That’s impossible to answer and probably unfair to ask … until you consider what happened last year shouldn’t matter. It bothered me to hear Jeff Long talk about the winning streak and how the close games were a byproduct of being the champ. Based on the end of the regular season and the title games, I would have had Ohio State in before the Seminoles and TCU in before both of them.

Drew said:

I don’t know how anyone can look at the playoff this year, see that OSU, who barely got in, dominated a couple of top teams and won it all, and still think the committee can determine who the best teams are. Expand the playoff! Settle this on the field. It makes the most sense and it’s the most fun to watch. I still want to see what TCU would have done. TCU is at the very least one of the best three teams the way they were playing at the end of the year. It’s a shame is has taken so long for us to even get a 4 team playoff.

I like four teams. I hope it doesn’t change. I’d probably like eight teams, but I don’t think the first season should cause us to change the whole thing. Two years from now we’ll be salty about Nos. 9 and 10 and asking for 16 teams. 

Clarence Oveur said:

The narrative will read that Oregon was “soft, not tough enough” for Ohio State. In reality, Ohio State’s freakishly large and athletic backfield makes any team look soft.

Ya, not only that, but Ohio State went athlete-for-athlete with Alabama and Oregon. There was a lot of talent on both sidelines in both games. A lot.

Oklahoma Mountaineer said:

I would think Crest is the guy if the shoulder has healed properly. Mike, I know health privacy laws restrict on this, but is it possible that you can do a story on what is known on his arm issues?? God Help us if we have to open the season with a fresh-out-of-the-box Freshman, a guy who can’t see over top his line, or a guy who doesn’t throw as hard as I can at QB for this team…….and I’m not even sure the weak arm is there after Spring practice.

He took a bunch of reps in bowl practice, which was a quiet development that was also promising since he was on track in his recovery. No surgery, as far as I know, and they’re going to stick with a program and see where he’s at as we get into winter workouts and then spring football. Remember, though, that Dana said this was something he’s had for a while and that WVU had to shut the kid down for the season because of it. That’s an arm/shoulder. They’re delicate. They don’t often age in reverse.  

smeer said:

I remember Burchette transferred in when he didn’t have enough arms to practice with in HCDH’s first year (or was it still OCDH/HCIWDH that first Spring (early foreshadowing of the Stewart cupboard being bare?)) – i remember less about him leaving

so the Cogdell experiment didn’t/isn’t work/ing? and how does the two and done affect his relationship with the WVU and recruiting? did/will the Miramar pipeline shrivel up at this status change? sum – did he do for more us as a high school coach than being on staff?

Same Burchett. And I wouldn’t say the Cogdell experiment isn’t working because I don’t think he’s leaving. One year, too.

Dirty Frank said:

“Did he do more for us as a high school coach”? Over time, he did. but over time, he’ll likely be a very good recruiter in south Florida. The “Miramar pipeline” doesn’t appear to be shriveling at all. We have 4 commits from Miramar right now – 5 before McFadden’s decommit (which was probably mutual, as it looks like he’s not going to have the grades/test scores). I’ve heard that Anderson and Lewis are looking around, too…not sure of the reason for that. Still, Cole and Durante look really good – and I think that would qualify as keeping the pipeline open.

Assuming nobody leaves (and I’m still thinking DeForest might go somewhere else after signing day), I think Cogdell moves to H-Backs/TE and Bradley keeps his role as DT coach or something similar (maybe split the LBs).

The reality is: this is a pretty good recruiting staff balanced nicely in our major recruiting areas…and without much in-state talent, that’s exactly what we need. and everybody recruits – you didn’t hear much about Cal Magee or Casteel’s exploits as recruiters. or even Jeff Mullen for that matter. Dawson recruited JCs, which is important, but you didn’t think of him as a big-time recruiter.

Burchett is interesting. Sounds like some smart “Air Raid” coaches wanted him as a GA. I wonder if Neal Brown offered him a full time job at Troy or just a GA job. Either way, he sounds a bit like Spavital when he first came to WVU. If the staff stays the same, we have no full-time offensive coaches with more than 2 years experience in this offense (other than Dana). Of course, that’s assuming you consider this offense to be a variant of Mumme’s offense…which I’m not so sure about any more.

Anderson is no longer committed and Lewis is examining his options (I’ve heard Cincinnati is a possibility). My guess is Cogdell works with the defensive line only because Bradley hadn’t been a DL coach before and the 3-3-5 is so different that he probably has more value somewhere else. I guess it’s easier to ask Codell to learn than to ask Bradley to unlearn and then learn, if that makes any sense. As for DeForest, I can only tell you what  I know. He agreed when the others agreed, but still hasn’t signed … and even I’ll admit you have to wonder why at this point, and that the possible explanations are right there  in front of you. But I know Dana wants him back. I know Gibby could have hired any position coach, and he hired a DL coach and not a safety coach and he didn’t move himself to safety. My hunch continues to be that he’ll be back.

I love you, Doug! said:

A game must “make sense” to both teams to occur. How does playing Marshall “make sense” for WVU? Gee has a history of thinking before he speaks at his previous universities and he’s done it again. At least this time he didn’t insult any Poles or Catholics.

I sort of read between the lines on this one. Yeah, Ohio State did play a lot of in-state teams. At home. Because that made sense.

avb31 said:

Gee is just being politically correct in this article. The last paragraph of the article tells you all you all you need to know. “That is the reason I hired an athletic director. They have to figure that stuff out.” – we aren’t playing Marshall.

Gee’s pretty smart. He spoke and made some noise and also made it clear he’s not necessarily the one to be spoken to. I like it. And for added context, he was down in the southern part of the state for some business that involved Marshall. He had to hit certain marks and was wise to do it.

SheikYbuti said:

We’ve been through this before, ad nauseum. Unless Marshall is willing to agree to one game at the Joan for two at MPS, the conversation is a non-starter. And MU is not going to agree to that, for the same reason that Yul Brynner just couldn’t let Charlton Heston lead Edward G. Robinson and the others out of Egypt. At least not without taking a bath.

Exactly the same. 

netbros said:

Didn’t they also try an experiment at NBC where there was no announce crew at all, just sounds of the game? http://athlonsports.com/monthly/was-there-nfl-game-1980s-had-no-play-play-commentary

SWOON!

Mack said:

Yes, they did. Obviously it wasn’t received very well since they haven’t done it since. I’m amazed at how little thinking outside the box there is. Why not have Jim Ross go do some of these random games? I think it’d be hilarious. Why not randomly send Bill Burr to a game to do color commentary?

You know who’d hate this idea? Broadcast crews.

Mack said:

I put this out there to IMG Sports as well. Why not send a blog commenter to be the third wheel who does nothing but question everything that Caridi and the other guy say?

I don’t think Caridi or The Other Guy would dig that, either. Actually, I bet Dwight Wallace would. He’s seriously the nicest man around. He’d probably have a blast with it. I say we get this idea moving … and I have one man for the job!

(Dave!)

Patchy said:

ESPN has missed a massive trick by not copying Sky Sports’ Fan Zone, in which a supporter of each team was placed in the booth and commentary – as well as cheering – was exchanged. Were there some duds? Of course. But a lifelong follower of Team X will always be more knowledgeable than the suit doing three games a week, flying in with his media guide and TelePrompTer, and when the shouting subsided the fan could often provide context as well as some clever, but playful, banter.

ESPN’s efforts these days are dedicated to stoking the fires of mindless tribalism at Gameday football sites and basketball gyms. Why not remove the middleman with his superficial knowledge and let the fans exchange views during a live game directly without the need for third-party hardware and/or apps? A delay and a mute button would be necessary evils but in Disney’s penny-pinching world surely paying union scale to students is cheaper than paying on-air ‘talent?’

The talent would protest, mostly because we would soon realize they were surplus to requirements all along. Fan Zone has run its course on Sky but given ESPN’s appetite for gimmicks (e.g. the CFB Playoff multicast) it seems an obvious avenue.

That’s the precedent, and the multicast might be a toe in the water, except the channel replete with people I have no use for eating snacks. Fan Zone was fantastic. Seriously, spend some time on YouTube today. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfObWmjh2Y0 

Mack said:

Three-step plan:

1) Employ commentators that are so bad that no one wants to listen to them.

2) Stop sending the commentators to the games because they’re so bad that no one cares or will notice the difference.

3) Screw it. Just play Clay Aiken music every so often during the game.

Enjoy the weekend!