Welcome to the Friday Feedback, on time but ridiculously over budget.

Fun little weekend on tap here, what with the town recovering from a March snowstorm, a senior day that could feature three seniors and not one in uniform, a population teeming with postseason madness and the possibility of some football news.

The search for the ninth assistant coach, I’ve heard, was or is tidy, and maybe we get an identity here soon, one way or another. If not, hey, we’ve got a spring football preview luncheon Monday. Practice starts a week from Sunday. Before that, I’ve got a hunch Juwan Staten plays tomorrow, and it would be cool if Kevin Noreen could be in uniform. But it’s been a while since a home crowd happily, gratefully sent a team off into the tournament season, too.

And what of tomorrow? Oklahoma State could use the win, just to be safe, and WVU could use the win, just so it’s not three-game sliding into the Big 12 tournament. We know the Mountaineers play hard. I’d say the Cowboys are just as endeavourous. They’ll bring something fun out of one another, and you can safely presume Phil Forte will have a better game than he did in Stillwater. For starters, he’s better than 1 for 3/0 for 1. Second, and most importantly, Gary Browne might not be around to chase and harass Forte like he did last month.

But who guards Le’Bryan Nash? Jon Holton has been going the right way for five games now. The exception was the Oklahoma State game. It wasn’t solely Nash, who only had 12 points, but he did give Holton some trouble … but he gives lots of people trouble. Nate Adrian can’t match up well with Nash. Holton, as you’ve seen, needs to play minutes for WVU to be effective, and Adrian has some games that are better for him than others.

That seems like the key, because Nash is an outside-in power forward who’s attempted and made more free throws than anyone else in the confernce. Remember, last season he scored 29 against WVU on 10 for 13 shooting, and he have five three-point plays. Bob Huggins says over and over Nash is the hardest player to guard in the Big 12.

“He’s probably playing better than he even did a year ago,” Huggins said of the 6-foot-7, 235-pound Nash. “He’s a very difficult matchup. He can make perimeter shots and he’s as good as anyone at bouncing it to the goal.”

Nash, who will be the seventh player in school history to average at least 10 points per game in all four seasons, is second in the league in scoring (17 points per game). He’s shooting 45.9 percent and has been a little more active from 3-point range, though he’s still only 2 for 18.

“It’s shot selection and me wanting to get the best shot I can get for my team,” Nash said. “For me, taking great shots in the game and taking what the defense gives me and being patient so the game comes to me, that’s what it’s all about now.”

Nash started out as a small forward at Oklahoma State, and his spot on the floor made the 3-point line hard to resist. He’s a power forward now, someone who can post up defenders and unleash an array of effective moves near the basket, but also someone who can pose a threat when he floats out to the perimeter.

“My versatility comes from developing all aspects of my game on the offensive end,” he said. “I had to adapt to the position, but now I have bigger guys guarding me, so I use my quickness on them. I can still make jump shots in my mid-range game, so they have to play me honest, but my will to drive — I don’t think anybody can keep me from driving.”

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, take aim.

Mr M said:

I miss the FF. We’re “owed” several, so I suggest — even if it doesn’t arrive until mid-March — that we get one! Make it a February Feedback; you won’t even have to change the monogram towels in the guest bathroom.

It’s not a terrible idea, but I play the ball as it lays. I don’t feel good about blank spaces, by the way, but what’s that they say about absence and the heart? Maybe it makes the F Doubles a little more special. And good news! F Double made the cut for the 2015 WVUSBWMC football schedule. There was a casualty, though, among some maneuvers. 

SheikYbuti said: 

Well, you know, I can sort of understand why the press liaison, or the Associate AD, or whomever, put that note on the podium, given the coach’s proclivity toward that particular word during The Press Conference. The coaches, like those of us who post regularly on this blog, are more or less entrusted to police themselves. When that doesn’t happen, decorum and civility go to s__t. We have a pretty good idea what’s coming on the blog, and we give lip-service to scouting and preparing for the kind of s__t our fellow participants are likely to bandy about, but sometimes, when the time for comment is upon us, we merely go through the motions and the result is that the typing of our thoughts results in s__t. For some of us (like smeer lately), the actual typing is s__t, but I really don’t want to single anyone out. It’s more than one person; it’s several, and there are a couple who are doing things the right way and not being s__tty and sloppy with their blog product. I thought to myself just today, “S__t, if we want to qualify for the Blog Dance later this month, we had darned well better get our s__t together in a major way.” Because, frankly, there is way too much in the way of bulls__t being posted here these past couple of weeks. It’s on me. It’s on me, man, and I’m going to fix it. I know I’m sounding like Coach Huggins, but s__t is getting real around here. Any other questions?

Just one: What the __k?

Oklahoma Mountaineer said:

Getting into the dance with a team in rebuilding mode is a giant feather in Carey’s cap in my opinion.

I’m thinking they lose in the first round as they are literally the last one into the field, but I’d think WVU would be happy with that.

They’ve got a chance, but losing on the road to TCU and Kansas State late hurt, especially after beating them earlier in the season. They were probably one of the last few teams in before the K-State loss, but so was TCU, and TCU lost to Texas Tech. It seems they need to win two in the conference tournament.

ffecbboc said:

We need Juwan’s leadership, obviously, but this team is really going to miss Gary’s toughness more. Browne is the guy you assign to man up on the other team’s best player. Closest thing to Joe Mazzula that we have.

Outside of Gary, who really brings any toughness? I think the JUCOs might, eventually, but not yet. You would hope Devin and Holton, but I haven’t really seen it. The freshmen? Adrian?

Honestly, I would probably name Brandon Watkins. He showed a Lester Rowe-ish streak in the game where he hurt his knee.

Agreed, and Browne’s accepted that role, if not in name, than in presence, within conference play. He really did a number on Forte. I think WVU missed him most at the foul line against Kansas. You know who’s getting the ball there. Browne isn’t scared of anyone or anything.

jtmountaineer said:

DePaul never gave anyone scares. The only schools scared by Rutgers, Providence, and Seton Hall, at least during Huggins’s tenure, were Rutgers, Providence, and Seton Hall. I’m not including our own final year in the Big East because most teams gave us a scare that year.

I don’t know about TCU for certain, but every other team in the Big 12 this year has beaten a top 25 team at least once. But I wholeheartedly agree these are all middle-of-the-pack teams with respect to the larger college basketball landscape. I wouldn’t be surprised to see 3 teams from the Big 12 in the sweet 16, but I’ll be very surprised to see more than one in the Elite 8, and absolutely shocked to see any of them, including Kansas, in the Final Four.

Every Big 12 team beat a top 25 team this year. Eight of the 10 were ranked (K-State and Texas Tech were not). No conference had a better record in non-conference play, and the Big 12 won 61 percent of its non-conference games against high visibility leagues. Those are strong numbers, and yet I can’t go any further than you in predicting the NCAA tournament. Would you be shocked if Kansas lost in the first weekend or if WVU won three games?

Karl said:

Seton Hall is often cast in with DePaul and Rutgers in discussions on this blog about bad Big East teams, but I don’t think they belong in that category. They certainly were no worse than Kansas State, TCU or Texas Tech. Seton Hall put together winning teams four of Huggins’ five years: 17–15 (7–11), 17–15 (7–11), 19–13 (9–9), 13–18 (7–11), 21–13 (8–10). They always had a couple of really good players, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. Case in point, in those years, Jeremy Hazell was a highly underrated and entertaining player to watch.

I’d agree, but don’t forget he was something like 29. But he put up numbers and he would carry that team from time to time, and the Pirates were sometimes on the bubble in March. 

overtheSEC said:

I’m glad you gave well deserved praise to Jeremy Hazell, Karl. I hear that he hears everything within a 3,000 mile radius.

I don’t get it.

hershy112 said:

overtheSEC,

Ha. Thank you for that. I heard he flew himself to away games…

Wait, was he a pilot?

Karl said:

Hazell may have looked like the Weekly World News Bat Boy, but he was a hell of a player

…bad teeth?

overtheSEC said:

Even Paul Finebaum thinks Jeremy Hazell has enormous ears

Oh. Oooooh.

TAFKA as EERS 96 said:

I think you would have several thousand George Mason basketball fans agree with that DI coach that Paul Hewitt sucks. I work with a Mason guy who can’t wait till they fire Hewitt. I’m telling you with the right guy, that program could be Top 25 on the regular. Great area to recruit, alumni with money, etc.

Iffy hire, I always thought. A big name where a big name wasn’t needed. Schools like that need niche hires, people who know the high schools in the area and what it’s like to run a place at that level and how to build toward playing in that conference. More likely than not, you have to win the CAA to get into the tournament, whereas you could be all right in the ACC and get an invitation. Big difference, and Jim Larranaga, people forget, was a very god assistant at Virginia for many very good years (knew the area) and then a winner for more than a decade at Bowling Green (understood small schools) before killing it at George Mason. Hewitt was an assistant in the Philly/New York area and then very successful for three years at Siena before looking like a future star at Georgia Tech, but that faded fast. He had a pair of 20-win seasons with the Patriots, but hasn’t done much these past two seasons with his players. They can do better. 

jtmountaineer said:

Technical foul for eye contact? That’s a first for me.

Happened right in front of me. There was nothing. And Watkins, who if nothing else owns his fouls, couldn’t believe it. Sometimes officials are looking for a way to cool down a game — and they miss blatant push-offs.

Shoot4Show said:

One thing about the absence of the seniors…  These young cats are just letting it rip.  You get space and you’re feeling it?  Let it fly.  They are shooting loose, and Holton is gathering what they miss.  They are ballin’ and having fun; so far it’s working.

Let’s face it, though: They got tight late. And I have no idea why, except for the obvious, which is to say the moment got to them.

Drew said:

And of course the most offensively incompetent player on the team gets the rebound. We have no chance in OT.

Not a good moment for Adrian, but it was so good before the part that mattered. I had this wonderful panoramic view of the play from my baseline seat that’s so hard to describe, because it happened to fast and because so much happened. The ball just fell to Adrian, and I’ve thought all season Adrian gets sort of lost when he rebounds. Watch him sometimes. He either fades or leaves the door open, and both are why he goes over the back so much. But he did right on that shot. Kansas put two bodies on Williams and Adrian sneaked in behind it. I don’t know why, but I was watching him and he started from the perimeter and played it perfectly. There was a collective gasp. The white jerseys pounced, and what remained of WVU’s bench that wasn’t already standing jumped up. Staten’s hands went in the air, because I spotted a gray sweatsuit in my periphery. And Adrian put it up quick, too. No dribble. No fake. I’m not even sure it was a soft move. It was quick, which it had to be, and Landen Lucas swallowed it whole. I think if he had to do it over, Adrian puts that ball up without ever coming down with it, but that’s the only critique I have for that play. Sometimes a good play falls to a great play.

Clarence Oveur said:

None of the officiating matters if we make the damned free throws.

Inexcusable.

It cost them the biggest win of Bob Huggins’ WVU career. They’re, at best, a mediocre free-throw shooting team, and that’s a big-time worry for close games you know are coming.

netbros said:

They left everything on the floor. Nothing to be ashamed of. Disappointment? Sure.

But all of those newcomers grew up quite a bit tonight.

I feel less concern if Juwan and Gary can’t go anymore this season.

Amazingly improved from Saturday, and remember they didn’t go home between games. There was no practice facility. Just a local gym, some film and hotel ball rooms. 

The 25314 said:

If I were fouling a non shooter 40 feet from the hoop and throwing the ball out of bounds on an inbound and fouling on a free throw when kansas is in the double bonus and all you need is for clock to run, I would be ashamed.

Amid all the good, there were some major, major mistakes you can’t dismiss. Kansas needed a lot of help to win that game, and WVU gave quite enough. Carter’s free throws, Miles’ horrid inbound pass, Paige’s hurried 3 and Phillip’s perimeter foul were ways you lose a game like that. Really, why was there a trap? It left someone wide open on the perimeter, and you just cannot allow a 3 when you’re up two on the road.

The 25314 said:

And I saw more wilt than growth when I compare the halves.

Hard to dispute that, either. Growth between Saturday and Tuesday, but regression, whether because of fatigue or pressure, for certain after halftime Tuesday. Likely both. Carter, I though, looked spent. They still played hard, tough. I don’t think they quit. I think, for whatever reason, it was harder for them to conjure up something ferocious when it mattered. 

glibglub said:

It never hurts to know what you’re capapable of, and what you have to get better at.

Hurts to watch, though.

There you go.

neil cohen said:

Enjoy your posts and articles. A couple of questions about WVU’s most successful team — rifle:

1. what’s the status of Meelis kiisk? He’s listed on the roster and his name appears on meet statistics, but there’s never a score.

2. What’s happened to the small bore shooting? They shot a couple of 2340’s early in the year, and now they’re shooting around 2325. At the GARC, they set a national record for air rifle and were still 11 points under their record last season, because of a low small bore score. In November, WVU was about 30 points ahead of the other rifle teams. Since then, Alaska’s improved by about 20 points and WVU has declined by approximately 10, due to small bore. As a result, the two teams are very close and the national championship, which is at the U. Alaska range, will be a very tough event.

Kiisk is redshirting this season. The roster is loaded with seniors, and he’s taking this year to refine his shooting, build for a monster 2016 and also get his academics and his life in order. It’s a win-win for everyone — remember, there’s no professional rifle opportunities, so getting that education lined up and post-college plans shored up are important. The small bore is puzzling, and it has to have Hammond’s attention because it does jeopardize their title defense. Opponents are covering ground there, and WVU isn’t ringing up the big scores like before. You wouldn’t know it, but there’s drama in the rifle postseason.

Peter B said:

My hunch is that the project was already behind schedule, as observed by Mike a while ago, and the silver lining to the recent spate of bad weather is that it provides the cover for explaining the construction delay.

But I’m not saying I’m right, so don’t hold me to that opinion

It’s certainly curious that a blizzard in March, with the university closed, is when WVU chose to say, “We can’t finish on time, but come on, look outside!” Sort of brlliant, actually. That said, I heard Wednesday night the date was bumped back and there would be meetings Thursday to discuss what to do. It was that obvious the deadline was in trouble.

hershy112 said:

That’s what I was wondering. I mean, they planned to build a ball park through the winter in Monongalia County, West Virginia. Guess what guys, you’ll probably have some bad weather. How was this not built into the schedule? Your target completion date should have been mid-January. That gives you two months to account for weather days. It’s always easy to point to weather issues on the back end, but they should have been taken into consideration (with a significant cushion) up front.

Sympathy for the devil, I suppose, but this has been an especially bad winter. I can’t remember who it was, but I think it was an engineer who reads the blog, so it might have been one of you. But when this started (late, if I recall) he emailed me and predicted WVU would regret not staking the completion date in November/December. Clearly, we need more of us in the real world.

JC said:

In my business, when deadlines are missed and projects not completed, people find new employment. Wonder if that happens in this case?

Certainly that was discussed as well. There are usually automatics in events like this.

MontanaEer said:

Having experience in the construction/architectural biz, I know it depends on the contract. Usually, though, the construction company eats the time beyond the completion date. Materials, labor, etc. are still the same. Just as, if finishing ahead of schedule, the construction company benefits from labor costs not used up but figured into the contract.

Like so. And just in case, that’s why there are lawyers, before, during and after the process.

Foul Shot said:

Wayne Tinkle and no Huggs, that just pisses me off.

I’m not trying to be funny, but Wayne Tinkle’s been great. Oregon State was a mess, and 17 wins isn’t less impressive than what Huggins has done (Beavers were 16-7/7-4 earlier this season, but they’ve lost 6 of 7). I have more of an issue with, forgive me, Bill Self, for example, than Wayne Tinkle. I don’t think Huggins should win the national award. I’m not sure he’ll win the Big 12 award. I can’t understand a spot among the 15 finalists for the national award, though. 

Josh24601 said:

That. Picture.

It’ll have a place here for occasions like this one, when we’re at a loss to explain or understand things. Speaking of pictures, here’s the Big 12 summed up in one frame.

MontanaEer said:

Ask Casazza about Sweet Briar.

Virginia’s Sweet Briar College is closing. Time to bury the hatchet, I suppose. pic.twitter.com/SFIkpeffXs

— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) March 5, 2015

What’s your point?

pknocker40 said:

I’m going to flip the heck out when Jae Crowder wins Big XII Coach of the Year

Enjoy the weekend!