Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is not about to tell you a joke. A punter, a guy with a knee and two early entries will walk into the NFL Combine. It’s Feb. 23-29 in Indianapolis, and as you can see, West Virginia did all right. Only Oklahoma had more players invited in the Big 12. I have to think the Mountaineers’ best pro prospects were invited, although Kyle Rose is glaring at me, and I would have to agree.

Still, it’s good news for WVU. It’s great news for Smallwood and Worley, who have the stage to justify their decisions to skip their senior seasons, as well as Karl Joseph, who will get a useful once or twice over by interested teams, of which there are already many, and could see his considerable stock solidified and even elevated.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, watch where you’re going.

lowercase jeff said:

hey guys, check out this cool new thing i learned to do with pictures!

Rad!

Mack said:

Zero chance Stedman Bailey plays another down in the NFL.

Among the many reasons why I can’t understand how Jeff Fisher has a job: He was like the first person to say Bailey wouldn’t play again. Ultimately, he might be right, and I know his answer was in response to a question, but was there really a need to say that before the guy was out of the hospital?

netbros said:

Wishing all the best for Stedman, one of my favorites to watch in the old gold and blue.

Kudos also to Geoff for putting this feature together, updating all of us on Stedman’s progress. And a nod to you too Mike for sharing a compatriots work on your blog.

Big week for kudos.

ccteam said:

His catch, stiff arm and long td against Pitt is one of my all time favorite WV plays. Best wishes Steady!

JP Young said:

Lets just hope Miles still has the hot hand tonight!

Nope. I don’t know, maybe I’ve been around this too long and I look too hard, but Devin Williams throwing a “kudos” at Miles and Jaysean Paige saying Miles “owed us one. I can say that. He owed us one” seemed and seems odd. When Miles gets trigger happy — and it’s almost exclusively from 3 — or stuck on the perimeter, you can see that affect the people on the floor. I thought he showed signs against Iowa State and was a big part of beating Baylor and its zone, but I do wonder if that was a one-off performance. He was way off against Kansas and continued to miss layups, and the only thing that changed, really, was he made the shots against Baylor he takes and misses in other games. 

Drew said:

We don’t have the athleticism to recover from those double teams with Macon and Ahmad in. Kansas had great spacing all night and made us pay when we got out of position.

Man, a month ago Macon looked like a bendy, bouncy difference in the post. He’s hasn’t been the same and just looks, I guess, stiff most of the time. And this is really where they missed Holton. He moved without the ball. He could draw defenders out on the perimeter. He created space and discouraged constant doubles. WVU had to play Macon/Watkins and Williams in this stretch, which shrinks the court, and the offense has looked very good when that’s happened. 

DirtyFrank said:

Gotta make shots. There were plenty of good looks there. Only Nate and sometimes Paige made them.

Kansas was prepared to stop dribble penetration. Switched every pass on the weave and sagged the wings in on any penetration. They kept us out of the lane in the first half and we didn’t make them pay. Had to make shots to win.

Rebounding was poor. Kansas wanted it more, I think. More aggressive – and got most, if not all, of the 50/50 balls.

Adrian took zero shots in the first half. I had a problem with that. He’s been too good to keep it holstered.

I love you, Doug! said:

I’d like to go on record as changing my opinion on Adrian. Up until this year, and maybe several games into this year, I saw him as being nothing contributory, only harmful: Couldn’t shoot, couldn’t defend, couldn’t even enforce. Over the past several games, he’s really turned his game around and is playing very well. I’m happy to be wrong.

His defense has been good, and not solely in the Jon Holton role in the press. He can’t defend nearly as well as Holton when isolated in space, but he’s a good inside defender who does well to keep opponents off the glass, which is a part of playing defense. I’m glad people notice that. But he’s been a useful part of the offense, even when he’s not scoring. He moves the ball and hasn’t had a turnover the past three games. He has two in his five starts.

jtmountaineer said:

I just audibly sighed.

“Does he start at Texas?” What about Saturday vs. TCU?

This isn’t an important part of the game, but have you noticed how good Holton is in tip-offs? We’ve lost maybe one or two all year with him and lost every one of them without him.

Holtons’ quick off the floor. That’s why he’s such a good rebounder, particularly on offense. His second jump is quick, too, so, yeah, he’s a nice asset on the opening tip. (Can’t explain my guffaw with Saturday/Tuesday except that as I was preparing that post, I was trying to book my flight for the Baylor game and was looking at Austin … and even that doesn’t make sense.)

Sid Brockman said:

He starts. Nate has played well, but Holton changes everything when he is in the game. His energy, rebounding and defense on the top of the press all are completely different. Hopefully, Nate continues to give great minutes and probably more of them.

This is where the Holton/Adrian thing is interesting. Adrian’s splits as a starter (27 games) are much stronger than they are as a reserve: 6.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 44.5 percent from 3-point range (33-for-74, including 10-for-12 the past two seasons). His career numbers, including his starts: 4.1 points 2.8 rebounds and 31.5 percent from 3-point range. It really, really seems like a matter of confidence or sense of belonging with him. Maybe he was out of place as a starter as a true freshman, but his game and body are much different now than they were then, and he looks like he believes he ought to be out there. He’s stuck himself into some big shots and big plays these past few games, because he knows he should be out there. The question, I suppose, is whether he can feel and thus produce the same coming off the bench. I think the bigger thing to watch is whether he’s playing the meaningful moments, and if he is, who’s sitting? Is he playing for Holton in the clutch or is he playing for Ahmad.

smeer said:

with those numbers Nate played himself into starting over Holton and Holton lost his status due to suspension

if it were just injury, then yes, Holton holds his spot, but it’s not.

others would know better than I – how many games off before you lose your game conditioning?

then there’s chemistry – as Nate has built it quickly with the starters and I think it would be so fun to have a fresh Holton off the bench to lead the press against tired first stringers or second stringers

but that’s probably the rub – we’ve seen far less press virginia with Nate in the line-up – does not have the wing span or foot speed to disrupt like Holton

all that with the disclaimer that Huggs knows more basketball in his little pinky than I know in my entire body and he knows the chemistry of this team and the personalities on it, of which I have no clue.

I don’t think reducing the press was as much because Adrian can’t play it. I think it’s because Iowa State and Baylor had a history of success against it, and then Kansas was good on Tuesday. So consider that and Huggins knowing he was a player short and traveling with, shall we say, players who were not performing up to expectations. He managed minutes better. But the chemistry point is a good one. Adrian’s played a lot with Phillip and/or Paige, and the ball just moves better when those guards are in the game. But those two come off the bench, too.

jtmountaineer said:

Tell Holton he’s jumping like crazy and playing great D.

He says thanks. (By the way, I say Holton starts. Adrian’s been good, but Holton’s a better fit in just about every regard. And if the concern is the gap in Starting Adrian’s productivity and Bench Adrian’s productivity, consider the difference in the Starting Holton and Bench Holton gap.)

JAL said:

They got outplayed by a good team. When your opponent takes something away you have to adjust and take advantage of what they leave open. WVU kept driving into the lane and either missed the shot or had the ball taken away. If you want a positive then take the fact that as poorly as they did some things they stayed in the game.

Here’s something: Give me more surprising final scores across the country this season than Florida 88, WVU 71. There are some, but that one was one-sided for all but about four minutes. I really believe this: You’re not blowing out full-strength or somewhat compromised WVU. That group plays too hard and will find a way to either get to your level or bring you down to theirs. (Here’s where you say, “Uh, Virginia? Jimmy V?” WVU controlled that game for much of the first half.)

ffejbboc said:

BTW, did you notice the exchange with Justin Jackson? He of the “Mess Virginia” story?

I can’t think of many professional relationships that are more passive-aggressive than that of a coach and reporter. It is truly something to behold at times.

Eh, this stuff happens a lot. Huggins likes to turn up the volume every now and then, and we have no reasonable recourse, but there are so many of these stories that you don’t know. That’s not a humblebrag. I’m just saying it’s pretty common and rarely as recognized. But we’re around one another a lot and we’re going to say and do things that will conflict just because of the nature of our jobs. You learn to let a lot of things slide. And while we’re on the topic, the A-10 line was, in fact, good.

Mack said:

It’s college basketball. If you have to state that a team is “beatable” then they are clearly the cream of the crop because there isn’t a team in college basketball that could even claim to be unbeatable.

Kansas winning 11 straight (or whatever it is) Big 12 conference titles is unbelievable. For that alone, they deserve any kudos they get. It would be a big achievement for WVU (or anyone else) to take that away from them this year.

Kudos! But it ends this year. Right? 

The 25314 said:

You can’t get much more gracious than complimenting Coastal Carolina in defeat.

Enjoy the weekend!