Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which honestly doesn’t have much to say here. I haven’t seen the football team, and won’t put eyes on it this weekend, so I can’t say for sure what’s going on there. Men’s basketball is in the past. Baseball is not yet on our plate. I’m not sure what the interest level here is for the WNIT.

That said, WVU’s all in on that thing. The WNIT has weird requirements for hosting home games. Teams have to pay for home games, and it starts to add up the longer a team lasts. There are two ways to go, and the simple way is the most common way. A first round game costs $6,500. The second round is $7,500. Then it’s $9,000 for the third round and $12,000 for the quarterfinal. The semifinal costs $15,000 and the final costs $20,000. That’s 70 grand right there, and WVU’s going beyond that by paying $5,000 to rent out the Charleston Civic Center and then, let’s say, maybe half of that to rent buses, travel to Charleston and get a block of hotel rooms for the night. Let’s call it, what do you think, $77,500?

The other way to do it offers a variable. The Civic Center and the transportation and housing there remains the same, but the WNIT can dig into your pockets if you do well. The per round guarantees are minimum guarantees. A school has to pay the WNIT 85 percent of the first $30,000 of net game receipts and 55 percent of the net game receipts above $30,000 if that sum is greater than the minimum guarantee.

That doesn’t often happen in the WNIT, and WVU hasn’t done that yet for the first five games and probably won’t for the final, but how nice of the WNIT to give itself that benefit when it does nothing to help teams advertise locally and spread the word so that a cooperative effort might benefit the sport or, heaven forbid, the student-athletes. The WNIT website, by the way, is proud to say it does all it does “because the WNIT is financially committed to promoting women’s basketball.”

To be fair, schools pay no more than $10,000 combined for all their road games in the WNIT, which does help a school like UCLA, which was 13-18 in the regular season and played at San Diego in the second round and at Michigan in the semifinal Wednesday. So there’s some assistance for high-cost travel, and that lets teams budget responsibly for their postseason play and not suffer financially for being successful.

Nevertheless, postseason basketball, and in particular ticket allocation for the NCAA tournament, is the biggest racket in college sports, and you figure it’s only a matter of time until the schools get around to rolling up their sleeves.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, get your story straight.

Dann White said:

Rod was a classmate of my sisters, and occasionally visited the White household with other teens. A popular story is that while I was being potty-trained, I ran to the kitchen to get my pee-jar, (a Mason-Jar provided for me to prevent accidents) and proceeded to relieve myself in the presence of this dozen or so high-schoolers.
Hundley, who was among those in attendance, was totally cracked up by this, often reminiscing about the incident when he met up with my sisters later in life.
Imagine the contentment that Fred Schaus must have felt, having coached both Hundley and Jerry West in both college and the pros. I doubt there was ever a hoosier who could compare with the awesome talent of these Mountaineers, one of my life-long heroes has gone to play hoops with the angels.
God bless you, Hot Rod
Dann

Bless you, Dann.

Shoot4Show said:

If there is a Friday Feedback and Dann’s last post isn’t included, there is no justice in this world. I’d like to hear a journalist’s and author’s response because I’m at a loss. Where do you go with that?

I stared at the screen. Went back to the beginning, because sometimes I skim through comments, and read it again. Stared again. Laughed again. Committed to doing the F Double this week. Laughed some more.

(Before we get going, I need the lawyers for a moment. I’ve got question about a contract I’d like to ask you. E-mail me if you think you can help, though I might not get back to you until Sunday. Thanks!) 

Barblo Escobarb said:

If I were Daxter I would never give outside media coverage an honest answer again. And I don’t mean giving the politically correct answers either. I mean some truly off the wall bs. At least until they caught on to that. Then when they ask why he won’t cooperate he can remind them of this week when the national media made the story instead of reporting the story.

Personally, I don’t disagree. I’m all for vindictiveness. Professionally, I hate the idea. We’re being made to suffer because of the way outsiders pounced on the answer, because though I understand your suggestion seeks to separate outsiders and the regular reporters, there will be occasions the crowds are together. The simplest solution here is to make a list of the people and places guilty of doing Miles wrong and simply ignore those offenders from here on out … and nobody has the nerve to do that. That’s the truth, and that’s a part of the problem, too. 

phillip said:

lessons are hard. so are growing pains in front of the media. that said, don’t ever change, dax. keep being you.

I’m not trying to be dramatic, but I can’t think of a better word: He’s at a crossroads. He’s going to come out of this as a different person, no doubt jaded by the way he was treated. I can’t ask him to do anything, so I just hope he’s comfortable with whatever decision he makes. 

TAFK As EER96 said:

WVU did what they were capable of this year. They made it to the 2nd weekend of the tournament. I’m more than satisfied with that. I think Huggs has things moving in the right direction. Is everything perfect? No!

I really liked this team. They were fun to watch. I am expecting a return trip to the Sweet 16 or better next year. I can’t wait to see how Macon develops in the off season. Williams will continue to improve and the freshman are just getting started. The future is bright my friends! Now, how many days till kickoff?

There was a redeeming quality to this year’s team, and that, next to the Sweet Sixteen, ought to be the legacy it holds. Agreed on Macon, too. There’s a lot to work with there, and as big and long as he is, I thought he was a little light and could stand to add weight and muscle. For some reason I can see him and Williams playing together in the future, if Williams continues to evolve and can slide over and play that Holton position from time to time (offensively, not defensively). Macon projects to be a pretty good rebounder and a sound defender, and his ability together with Williams’ is sort of intriguing. I don’t know if it ever happens and/or if Bob Huggins is interested in Williams diversifying and spreading himself thinly rather than concentrating his skill and leaving Macon as his backup, but I watched and wondered this season.

netbros said:

Another example of why your blog is so popular Mike. All of your commentary above demonstrates that you are simply a nice guy. You always are. You take the high road. You are fair with the student/athletes, the kids.

You could have followed the crowd and piled onto Miles, but instead you chose to put us in his shoes, to get the sense of what it’s like to be a first year player on such a huge stage. Thanks for that. I find it refreshing.

Now, feel free to totally excoriate the multi-millionaire coaches.

I’ve got time.

I love you, Doug! said:

Can’t blame the media for reporting what a player said. Surprised the NYPost (no dog in the fight) blew it up, but that’s what they do.

Next time, Dax might say, “They’re a great team, but we think we’re a pretty good team, too. We’ll be ready to play.”

This was a team that could do one thing — press. When that weapon was taken away, they had nothing left. Can’t shoot, can’t pass, etc. as Huggs knew in the summer. He took them farther than they deserved to go given their skills.

And no number of incremental improvements — less-biased officiating, better WVU shooting, some Kentucky turnovers — would have provided victory. It might have a provided an 10-point loss, but WVU was simply overmatched.

With a scorer and new swingman coming in and so many players returning, this team looks really good for the next two years. I wonder if Huggs will keep the press next year.

I’m blaming some media for turning it into a “How dare he?!?!” story. That was shameful. And it’s not up to Miles to be aware of what outlet employs tabloid style journalism, what outlet is a fan site looking for page hits, what outlet is legitimate, so on and so forth. All he’s required to do is 30 minutes in an open locker room. And they’re going to press next year. Myers pressed in JC, Bolden is very quick and what comes of Ahmad on defense ought to be interesting. I’ve not heard great things about his defense, but as Huggins always says, what high school coach wants his best player in foul trouble? He blocked a large number of shots, but what 6 foot 8 state player of the year doesn’t? He’s got ability, make no mistake, but it’s harder for bigs to pick it up as freshmen than it is for guards. 

Rugger said:

Where was the NY times when Dax had Dez Wells wrapped around an axle? Dax’s style was very helpful in that win. If UK needs his talk to get them up and play their best in a Sweet 16 environment then shame on them.

Grown men and women looking to skewer an freshmen inner city kid for talking a little smack is ridiculous!

I think something we all either underestimated or just failed to anticipate was how much it meant to Kentucky. It mattered a lot. The Wildcats started in another gear, and I can’t help but think WVU went in worried about that and then reacted unfavorably. I thought they’d care, because there was no way to digest the questions they were being asked and absorb the coverage the day of the game and not care, but I didn’t think that was the reason they’d win. It wasn’t why they won, but it was a reason they were so inspired. 

abpriddy said:

I think a distinction needs to be made between 2 things that Dax said and how it effected UK. First his comment about “36-1″ was water off a duck’s keyster. Aaron Harrison said as much when they were relayed to him – “what do you expect him to say?” If Dax stops there no UK player cares.

The part that got to them was his comments about effort. I’m still foggy if he said “they don’t play hard” or “they don’t play as hard as us” but regardless the Cats took it as the former and more importantly took offense to it. I’ve head from someone who was in the room when the quote was relayed to them that their ears perked up and it made an impression. If I’m Huggs I do care about that – no reason to ever question someone’s effort and thus insure you’ll get the full measure of it.

That gave WVU problems because as dominant as this UK team has been, they’ve been guilty of slow starts, slow finishes and lazy periods in between. They would fly out of the gates and then take their foot off the gas. WVU’s best chance would have been to weather an early storm and then hang around and wait for some good things to happen. The questioning of their effort insured that wouldn’t happen. On a day WVU needed about 18 different things to go their way to have a chance, Miles took one of those off the table before the ball was tipped.

Bang. WVU’s locker room was open before Kentucky’s. I left WVU’s a few minutes earlier than normal. The hallway outside of Kentucky’s locker room was packed, and people were frothing to ask about Miles’ comments. It was going to be a big deal before those doors opened. I remember standing inside after only a few minutes with Greg Madia and we were both alarmed at the “don’t play hard/don’t play as hard” juggling and the veracity with which the 36-1 was being reported. 

Karl said:

Re: Dax, that sort of thing matters. It does. Haven’t we all been in a brawl, a game or some other kind of competition against someone who made fun of us or ran their mouth before? You get fired up and show them no mercy. Kentucky came out determined to humiliate us. With 45 seconds left in the game, they weren’t running out clock, showing sportsmanship and respect. They were still running full speed alley oops. I don’t begrudge Miles for what he said, and I’m fully with Mike on the out of town media’s role in blowing his comments up. Hopefully, it was a learning experience for the whole team. They may be a top 10-15 team next year. The microphones aren’t going anywhere.

One more locker room tale: Kentucky didn’t have name plates in its lockers, and I couldn’t differentiate between Harrisons. I was also looking for an assistant coach, John Robic, who played for Huggins at Walsh and was off in another room. To get help, I was trying to find a Kentucky employee in the locker room. Trouble was, there were so many people in the media wearing Kentucky jackets and polos and I couldn’t tell who was media and who was sports information. That ought to give you a clue about what Miles’ words caught fire. Ask @gfcoyle about his experiences.

Mack said:

Finally, I don’t think I know everything, but I’m pretty sure I know the things I think I know.

And Steve Lavin being proclaimed by the national media as the savior of St. John’s was laugh out loud ridiculous when they hired him. They fired him today.

He came from the media. So did Mark Jackson. Who’s going to critique them? Their friends?

abpriddy said:

Another thing that killed WVU – the UK perimeter defense is insanely long. It felt like even if the Mountaineers did want to chuck 3s, the open looks were very few and far between.

I’ve got this poster from the 2010 Final Four, and it’s a photograph you’ve probably seen before: A panorama view inside Lucas Oil Stadium before WVU and Duke jump. It’s awesome, and you can see me on press row checking a text message from Colin Dunlap, who’s way down the row to my right complaining about the stench coming from the guy next to him. Here’s a better panorama: I was in the front row on the sideline across from WVU’s bench, which meant I was on the other end of the floor the Mountaineers attempted to play offense on in the first half. When Staten or Brown had the ball up top and Kentucky fanned out to guard, I was stunned by how little room WVU had to operate. Guys cutting through were disappearing. Guys with the ball were being towered over. It was visibly impressive how long Kentucky was and how little WVU was. I knew right there the Mountaineers were in danger. I mean, I knew it before, but that vantage point was breathtaking. I don’t think Kentucky is soft, but they don’t have to bang around to rebound. They use their arms and legs. They lean and they reach. Because they can. Their help defense was amazing. And the biggest problem WVU had was Kentucky could sag to deter drives and then swallow up the space when someone tried a jump shot because the strides and arms were long enough to recover whatever space they’d yielded.

jtmountaineer said:

All I know for sure is this: if Kentucky’s players need a Daxter Miles, Jr.’s comments to play their hardest or best basketball, I weep for the NBA team who drafts them.

That sounds sharp and smart, and it’s both, but the truth is it mattered eight days ago and it has nothing to do with why seven guys go in the first round.

Foul Shot said:

After watching ND almost handle KY last night, you can see how far WVU is off the basketball map to try to contest for a national championship unless we have some more ringers coming next year.
Yes, we made the sweet 16, but we were not competitive on Thurs.
That game was over within the first 5 minutes.
KY looked like the varsity with us being the 8th graders. That was a total butt kicking.
And Miles – that was not a good move with the trash talk. And I am speaking of Sunday night, that guy from Maryland was eating WVUs lunch and only by him getting hurt, and not on the pick from Adrian, but by his own guy kicking him, did we get a chance to push out the lead vs. the Terps.
So, let’s try to focus over the summer on getting stronger, perfecting the outside shooting, and hoping we can get an additional, bigger guy down low who can consistently score when needed. Because as this team is after the Thursday debacle, we are pretenders with big mouths and a gimmicky D, not contenders. The tough Big 12 was a total mirage, we could not even beat the top Big 12 teams who bowed out opening day. Huggs, you got a lot of work to do.

The defense is fun. It makes a difference, and it makes up for some offensive shortcomings, but offense reigns and efficiency is the king. Notre Dame played beautiful basketball, was unimaginably efficient and gave Kentucky its biggest scare. WVU is a long way from being a top-tier offensive team, though it relied on a lot of shooters and freshmen, and the combination, especially when shooters are freshmen, is a suboptimal plan. As for the Big 12, it was tough this season and could be loaded next season. Absolutely loaded. Check out the all-conference teams here. Outside of the seniors — and there aren’t many — almost all those players are coming back. (Hogue, Gipson, Anderson and Williams are seniors on the honorable mention list, and Marcus Foster is no longer on the K-State roster.) Word is Hield will stay. Myles Turner is going pro, as is Kelly Oubre, and those are big deals at Texas and Kansas, but you’re looking at about 75 percent of the all-conference performers coming back next season.

lowercase jeff said:

i dont know foul shot.

i have never followed the line of thinking that what happens in one can/should be compared to what happens in other games.

i am absolutely certain we are better than texas a&m and ole miss, and we saw how we compared to lsu. all three of them gave uk legit scares.

also, notre dame played the game of their lives.

we got our asses wooped, we agree on that. but i reject this completely, and any notions it leads to:

“Because as this team is after the Thursday debacle, we are pretenders with big mouths and a gimmicky D, not contenders. The tough Big 12 was a total mirage, we could not even beat the top Big 12 teams who bowed out opening day. Huggs, you got a lot of work to do.”

not buying this one bit.

Here’s a question: Does WVU stand a chance against other possible Sweet Sixteen opponents? That’d be Duke, Wisconsin and N.C. State. I would vote no, no, yes. Matchups really begin to matter the deeper teams progress, and WVU didn’t match up with many of the remaining teams. Out of the other 15 teams, WVU is favored against, what, three teams? N.C. State, UCLA and Xavier? Maybe Wichita State? (I don’t think so.) The road was only going so long, and if an end was coming, then sure, don’t put too much stock into that ending.

JC said:

Kentucky played poorly for 30+ minutes while ND played nearly perfect for that same time frame. Then Kentucky made their last 12 shots…..

Yeah, I didn’t think Kentucky played poorly. “Ordinary,” is probably a better word, and Notre Dame had much to do with that. The finish was fantastic, though. Stuff of legend.

jtmountaineer said:

Can anyone think of a single candidate Texas would want to replace Barnes who would actually want the job? What a thankless post. Unless someone good is just looking for cash and prestige vs. their current job, you’d have to be crazy to go there with those irrational expectations at a football school.

Disagree. Gregg Marshall declining isn’t a story that has to make a “bigger” school look bad now. He’d getting more than 3 million a year and he’s got a private jet in a league that doesn’t keep him from the Final Four — and he just beat Kansas. You’ve got to get the right coach (I don’t think they did), but Texas is a top-10 job. The resources are there. The league is there. There are players throughout the major parts of the state, but people recognize the Longhorns in any high school and AAU gym. And Texas is getting a major facilities overhaul. That can be a winner, and the expectations for basketball are never what they are for football. 

Karl said:

Weird firings for Texas and St. John’s. Last year it seemed like Texas wanted Barnes gone, but he had too good of a season to justify it. Although this year didn’t meet expectations, they did still make the tournament. The guy won a national championship there, put a bunch of kids in the NBA and put top 25 teams on the court every year. Lavin made two NCAAs and two NITs in his four years. You could do worse. The Chris Mullin hire looks like a reach.

Weird firings, but I can get with both. Texas needed a change, and the new AD has a lot to do with that. I thought it was odd they extended Barnes last season, but that might have been a reward more than anything else. (Never won a title, but the way, but got close with the T.J. Ford-Brandon Mouton-James Thomas trio in 2002-03.) There were trends and numbers there that couldn’t be ignored. As for St. John’s, Mullen is a reach, but he’s in the Fred Hoiberg mold, and Mullen hired a Hoiberg assistant. If you’re St. John’s, why the hell not? The money wants change and has a chance to make a splash. The “Big East” is a different animal now — and though its in the ACC, Syracuse’s trouble is a factor that can be used — and there’s no reason the Red Storm can’t get a bunch of metropolitan talent and get hot. That’s an irresistible story, if it happens. You’re not getting there with Lavin. New York City has a lot of potential, which is why I want to see what Jeff Neubauer has up his sleeve at Fordham.

JP said:

Is Holton coming back next year? I have heard conflicting reports on whether he’s a junior or a senior. Also, Billydee? Is he going to stay around?

News to me: Freshman season at URI, sophomore season at Palm Beach State College, redshirt season at WVU, junior season at WVU and presumably a senior season at WVU.

ccteam said:

This is definitely not a knock on Staten, but it did sometimes seem like WV was standing around on offense waiting for Staten to create. I would like to see more motion in the offense. With the two seniors who were very good now gone, I hope that motion and passing are better used in next years half court offense.

Absolutely valid. Staten and Browne were cogs, but neither is irreplaceable. Staten’s productivity is a loss, but WVU is well-armed at guard. Browne’s grit and leadership were his strengths — and he became a reliable shooter — but replacements will grow into that role.

smeer said:

Mike – discounting the Kentucky game, how did this team do the last ten games of the season? (or the last ten games when the seniors were healthy?)

and it would be interesting to see the numbers were with and without the Seniors in that little stretch

because it was either my imagination or it looked like the team actually ran offense for long stretches toward the end of the season

agree S4S – i don’t see fatigue – in fact the team ran helter skelter on D and then used up most of the shot clock on O (lots of standing around). Staten’s shot is just ugly in form. My thoughts were that the time between junior and senior year would have him working on that – because his jumper was going to limit his ability to make the NBA – but it didn’t get better

and THAT (the shot clock thing) frustrates me – was the O so bad, that running the shot clock down was preferable to failing at scoring earlier in the clock? Just seems to me that if a good shot presents, you need to take it.

they have a year now to learn each other – where they like the ball and where they can score from. they didn’t make certain passes that probably would have worked because they had no confidence. there should be marked improvement as these guys get to know each other better AND they learn how to get their shot off against college competition. hopefully the game slows down a little. You can see it did for Devin. Watkins and Billy Dee both show promise. Holton will be Holton. Macon needs to do two things – rebound and catch and shoot – because every time he decides he knows how to dribble . . .

as for the press – how well will the new guard(s) be able to work it? Remember how much Huggs pulled out of it with Browne and Staten out – lack of depth at guard this year will translate into losing those two next year. I think the kids like it.

Not great. I can’t link to it because it directs to the most recent stats, but mess around with the calendar at the top of the stat ranking list. Click through to the mornings after WVU played. (That’s extra scoring chances per game, but if you want offensive efficiency, go here.) For example, WVU beat Texas at full strength on Feb. 24. A day later, WVU led the nation with 14.5 extra scoring chances per game and was averaging 13.3 in the last three games. At the start of Big 12 play, WVU was No. 1 with 18.7 extra chances per game. On the morning of the first day of the NCAA tournament — that is, the last time WVU didn’t play without Staten and Browne — WVU was at 13.2 per game and 4.7 in the past three — each played without both Staten and Browne.

The 25314 said:

So is the brown turf, too? Are there sliding pits?

The brown is turf. No dirt, and it seems that’s not unusual, either. It’s cost effective, too.

Karl said:

Hold on … For UCLA to be 18-18 now means they were invited to this tournament with a 13-18 record … and a team with a record that poor made the finals. I don’t follow women’s hoops closely. Is the WNIT that bad? On the men’s side, the tourney at least has respectable teams — teams that either couldn’t get over the hump in very good conferences, good teams in small conferences that couldn’t win their auto-bids …

Not a typo. The Bruins were 13-18 after the Pac-12 tournament. The selection process is interesting, but believe it or not, teams turn down the opportunity to pay for games and travel even more at the end of the season. Hard to fill out a 64 team bracket that way. Imagine filling out the WBI bracket. Seriously!

JC said:

I guess it’s a classy thing to do, but do you think it makes Ms. Leer happy to get to that milestone knowing the last point was handed to her? I know she still had to make the shot, but seems like maybe the player may not have wanted it to go down that way…..or maybe it’s just me.

I had an enlightening conversation about this with an inebriated woman following the game Wednesday night. 

That’s all.

Oklahoma Mountaineer said:

I’m not sure that classy is the proper term — I’m not really sure what is. I do know this — no one will remember 5 years ago at Nova or here that she got the courtesy foul to reach it. She will go into their books as a 1,000 point scorer.

It’s a more impressive feat for a high school player as there are so many more games in college than high school, but I would think that there aren’t that many who do it.

Here’s my take: It’s more about four years than one game, more about a career than a gesture. She needed 29 points in a game to get there, and she needed to help her team win three times to get to the game she needed 29 points. Those are things we shouldn’t take away from Ms. Leer. I get all the counterpoints, but I think two coaches who are really good friends and one player who’s been a model player and influence for a program are allowed to come together at moments like this. Referencing the postgame conversation, the concern was that it really was handed to Leer, and she might not appreciate that, which is a good point. I can’t say for sure what happened, and I haven’t read Leer’s comments on the display, but going by the video, she didn’t seem to know she was at 999. What if she did and she said, “Not uh, not like this!” and bricked the free throw? That’d be a moment.

Mack said:

I feel like this kind of thing happens more in women’s basketball than it does in any other sport.

It’s not uncommon.

Down South said:

Brett Favre and Michael Strahan don’t agree with you, Mack.

Enjoy the weekend!