Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is booked through … well, we’re here today! And then we’re not next week. Same deal for basketball season as it was for football season: If I’m not traveling, I’m F Doubling. So, here we are, and before we begin, let’s tie up the loose ends around the football scheduling.

Youngstown State in 2018, JMU in 2019, Florida State in 2020 and Indiana State in 2021. FCS schools are going to be a way of life now, and the Penguins and Dukes are playing for their national championship Saturday in Frisco, Texas. If you’re going to go that route — and to repeat the position here, WVU should — it’s hard to do a whole lot better than those two. The Mountaineers are paying each $550,000, and that’s roughly half, give or take, what it would cost to get a game against a Group of 5 team. Indiana State is not as good, though the Sycamores should be able to fetch a good head coach and are better than 2017 soup can Delaware State. They’re getting $500,000 for their trip to Morgantown.

The financial fun is to be had in the Chick-fil-A game.

Translation: PBI, which is the game organizer, Peach Bowl, Inc., is writing WVU a check for $4,250,000. WVU also has to buy this arrangement of 30,000 tickets. If it sells all 30,000, that’s cool. If it sells fewer than the 30,000, that WVU’s problem and not PBI’s. Good thing PBI “strongly urges” the schools to sell those tickets. The last time WVU played in the Kickoff Game, it wound up clearing about $3 million. That’s still $1 million more than a typical home game.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, maintain a stream of consciousness.

I love you, Doug! said:

Indiana State — if only Larry Bird would attend!

So tree — uh, true.

SheikYbuti said:

Other than Stanford’s, the Sycamores are the most famous trees in college football.

They’ll spruce up the schedule.

jtmountaineer said:

Is there a league other than the Big 12 comprised of more schools in towns with small airports? Other than TCU with DFW and UT in Austin, the air travel to any of the other “cities” has to be less than convenient, Morgantown certainly included.

The SEC is not replete with metropolises. Big Ten has some issues. Same for the MAC and Sun Belt. Your point is clear, though.

Sid Brockman said:

Not sure I understand the three-day break between two road games either. The Saturday-Monday double that the league gave the team the last three years made sense, since it saved WVU a trip out west. This year’s opening was stupid, since the team can’t spend three days away, especially with the TT women’s game on Monday night. Lord knows this WVU team needs to practice free throws in between games, if nothing else.

It made no sense, until it made perfect sense…

OhioMike said:

Huggs & his players have a right to be pissed about the scheduling – and AD Shane Lyons needs to make the case, strongly, to the league.

Lyons can and should do that, but it’s on ESPN, and Huggins isn’t going to say that. But the Big 12 isn’t going to go after ESPN, either. There were a bunch of Friday games. Why? Saturday belonged to the College Football Playoff. College hoops isn’t winning that one.

Mack said:

All you need to know about college athletics is that the football national championship game is played on a Monday night.

Smackdown Live celebrates.

Michael Lucas said:

Makes us look like whiny crybabies. Travel sucks and nobody cares that your travel sucks more. That said, Huggs is right. The schedule was big “[fiesta] you” to our kids. It’s good he didn’t let them think it went unnoticed.

Why don’t we have a big, decked out Airbus 380 with physical treatment areas, food rooms and sleeping arrangements? I mean, are the costs THAT unreasonable for a jumbo jet and its benefits as an investment (and in recruiting) versus nickel and diming it thousands of miles several days a week? Our sports program is in a unique position to justify such a move considering our distance from… Everything.

I’m not a fan of the “crybabies” allegation when it comes from the coach and not the players. It’s a popular reply, but the travel matters. It adds up. I don’t think it cost WVU Tuesday, but I don’t think Huggins was solely speaking about the Friday-Tuesday. I think he knows three 9 p.m. road starts in five games and 14 days and three Saturday-Mondays in a row are bills his team will have to pay.

The 25314 said:

I doubt complaining about how unfair the schedule is helped WVU at all. Maybe next time Huggs can bite the bullet and hang out in Texas for a whole day instead of flying back and forth across the country.

Bill Stewart would have had the team at Frontier City for a day. I wonder if Huggins wants a do-over. It doesn’t seem like an enormous undertaking when the semester hasn’t started.

I love you, Doug! said:

On an unrelated but bizarre note that will doubtless be of interest to the eclectic nature of this blog (and apologies if Mike has reported this and I missed it), apparently Will Grier has two brothers, Nash and Hayes, who are “internet personalities” that get hundreds of thousands of clicks by posting videos like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPUQtveGG3g

They’re Vine famous, and Vine is no more, so the Griers continue to transfer their talents.

smeer said:

winning on the road is never a gimme – especially in conference

i expect a win, but they play the game for a reason

so Mike – now that we’re #1 on the ESPN BPI, do you have an thoughts on it? agree with the metrics?

remembering a few years ago, we talked some about NBA analytics and assembling teams – I think I remember Huggs poo-pooing that stuff, but if not mistaken, this team surely is assembled with a lot of different strengths that work well together – even getting a big like Sags who if nothing else can muscle when needed, West who can shoot the three (with some guys on the bench as well who can be zone busters)

Unless we’re talking about my secret checking account in Manila, I don’t know what the BPI is, to be honest. I mean, I know it’s a college basketball version of their Total QBR, which is eschewed in many circles, but I’m pretending if I’m sitting here describing it to you. The funny thing about analytics at WVU is they used to never even chart tipped balls before they pressed because it wasn’t a steal, so what was the use? Now they rack up steals like nobody else, but they also track tipped balls. Huggins doesn’t pay much attention to the shooting percentage his team allows, which I think is smart, because he focuses more on points per possession given the way his games feature an excessive number of possessions. Now I need to get his thoughts on true shooting and eFG%. I’ll let you know how that goes, especially after the Dan Dantoni comments from last week.

Dan D'Antoni is a national treasure that must be preserved at all costs. "I haven't finished my damn analytics story yet." pic.twitter.com/ze3QUkQYxx

— Craig Meyer (@CraigMeyerPG) December 29, 2016

jtmountaineer said:

Strategic reasons? Is that the journalist’s equivalent of “checked into Cedars-Sinai for exhaustion”?

Deadlines, mostly.

Woodwork Inhabitant said:

The ESPN broadcast is almost impossible to listen to me. Maybe it’s just me, but they’re positioned right next to Beard who is just screaming random animals words like “Shark!” when TTU is playing defense.

Do they always say “Press Virginia” in sole place of West Virginia? Because that got real old.

Foul Shot said:

They mentioned Huggs wonders if this is his best WVU team. How about 2010?

Huggins is great at getting a talking point over.

JP said:

Looked like a lot of ticky-tack foul calling to me. I don’t know the explanation, but WVU didn’t turn Tech over nearly as much as usual and that hurt scoring. Couple that with not being able to hit shots or make free throws, ugh.

Probably an explanation for that…

hershy112 said:

Bad rotation on defense, poor foul shooting, and terrible officiating. If any 2 of those 3 are different in this game, we win by double digits. There really is no excuse for being a poor free throw shooting team. None. Watkins is our best big man and not having him most of the second half hurt. I thought he was playing pretty well before the injury.

A lot went wrong, or at least didn’t go right, and WVU could or should have won. It’s January, and Tech really, really needed that one. I suspect we’re not talking bracket woulda-coulda-shoulda in March and puzzling over this loss.

Sid Brockman said:

I’m not concerned after last night. Playing a team with 12 juniors and seniors, who plays a bunch of guys, on the road, after travelling to and fro for a week, and the result is not surprising. The announcers mentioned that Tech had the recipe against the press (which they did), but I’m not sure how many teams have four guys that can handle the ball, the experience to not panic, and the ability to space the way that team did. They also hit just about every big shot they needed throughout the entire game. I think that’s a pretty good team. They should be 13-1, except for some Hilton Magic.
Free throws have to improve (never understood how you can’t hit 60%. I was a total benchwarmer when I played, but hit at least 60% of my FTs).
In basketball, everyone loses a weird game. The beauty is if you make the Dance, you always have a shot at glory.

I’m OK with all of this. WVU wasn’t going to go 16-2 in the Big 12. Right?

Drew said:

This game only confirmed Tech is not good. Not sure we’re a top ten team. For a supposedly great defensive team, we played some awful defense giving up wide open threes in overtime. No reason for three guys to crash the lane when you can survive a two, but not a three. A lot of low bball IQ plays tonight.

I’d like to see if Tech’s game travels. That’s going to be a tough team to beat at United Supermarkets Arena, but can they play like that on the road? They did and did not to build and lose a 14-point lead at Iowa State. Interesting squad that’s going to get better if Beard keeps a veteran team on the hook. 

StraightOuttaNorthCentral said:

If Nate was doing what he did against my team, with that hair and head band, I’d hate him too. It’s been a while since we had a good hateable player. Gansey? Maybe Ruoff? Was Butler hateable? Sometimes it’s hard to tell if your own player is hateable, but it’s obvious with Nate.

Bingo. I’d go with Joe Mazzulla. You could make a case for Gansey, Ruoff and Butler, and maybe even Truck Bryant, too, but I think there’s a distinguishing quality. What those players did to beat a team was obvious and easy to appreciate. Adrian’s not beating you with jumpers and free throws or outward displays of emotion and bravado. He’d quietly going about his business and filling a statsheet with simple and critical contributions. You watch a game and you understand it’s hard to stop a scorer. I think most fans watch a player like Adrian and wonder why teams can’t keep him and his brand off the shelf.

JAL said:

Brad Underwood is high on Carter “Jevon Carter is maybe one of the most underrated players in our conference,” OSU coach Brad Underwood said. “Nobody talks about him when they talk about some of the elite guards.”

That’s fair. No one on WVU’s team plays enough minutes to rack up enough stats to draw the “elite” description.

Ohio Mike said:

“Press Virginia” is not causing the havoc and turnovers it did in the past, but half court defense is better and – i agree – passing (and shooting) from this year’s squad is the best it’s been in a while.

Absolutely. Gaudy stats against inferior opponents, but I think the halfcourt defense has some flaws, too. Carter, Adrian and Dax Miles have to be out there together a lot to max it out. Everyone else is behind those three, and WVU really misses whatever interior presence Jon Holton and Devin Williams provided. Brandon Watkins is a suitable presence and Sagaba Konate is going to have to stay in the game longer to help out back there. Opponents — prepare yourself — shoot 53 percent on unblocked 2-point shots, but the Mountaineers block and need to block a good number of shots.

Foul Shot said:

This team has no one who can take over when needed like Butler could on the 2010 team.
This year, we have some flashy guards but not seeing the guy who can take the game into his hands.
Have watched Adrian for going on 4 years now. Nice to see him as the leader, but not buying into him being someone to get us over the top when needed.

I mean, Butler was a singular talent and personality. But this is not wrong, and I think it’s worth tracking.

jtmountaineer said:

We don’t have the “one guy” who can take over a game, but we have, by my count, four guys, maybe more, who have taken over in the past: Dax, Jevon, Tarik, and Esa. None of them is THE guy, but I like having the hydra offense this year. I just wish guys like Dax and Tarik and even Ahmad were consistent enough at the stripe to trust them in end-game situations.

I think Tarik’s the closest thing WVU has had to Butler since then. They’re even from the same place. But Phillip can create his own shot. He has a knack for getting to the rim. He’s 100-percent unafraid. I suppose there’s a value in having a few players who could step forward and win a game. It’s unnerving for an opponent. Not sure what that does for the team itself, though. I think there’s greater value in knowing you have A Guy who’s going to take the ball, and I bet you that spooks an opponent, too. When Butler got going, teams and fans were shook.

tom sirk said:

Mike – very good analysis work (as usual)! After reading your in depth look into the game, I was tempted to reiterate supporting point from earlier post game blog input.
However, as you pointed out at the top – it was what it was. But I will repeat a previous point (for which I was taken to task by another knowledgeable blogger), based on reading your material today: Miami was a “step up in weight class” for this year’s team. As has been pointed out, the team (especially QB) struggled with opponents with slightly more talent on the field – we had no answer (OK, OSU, Mi).

But in the end, the 10-3 record was far beyond my predicted 7-5–kudos to the team and coaches for that. Two hundred forty six and counting – Let’ Go Mountaineers!

I didn’t say Miami as a team was a step up in weight class. I said the defensive line was a step up. It was as good as Oklahoma State’s. Probably better. We agree on that, right?

Mack said:

Every time WVU wins with a running game, people say WVU changed its offense. But didn’t it run the ball a billion times against Texas (and others) last year? Didn’t Holgorsen coach the top 3 (or so) single-game rushers (Tavon Austin, Dustin Garrison, and Justin Crawford)?

Holgorsen takes what his team and the opposition gives him… something RichRod was never able to do but luckily RichRod had the three best possible players for his offense all at the same time.

It’s been happening for almost three seasons. Maybe from the moment WVU saw Clint Trickett take a hit and wondered, “Should we have a backup plan?”

William Lewis said:

Great column as always Mike, I really hope you do it again next year. This was the first year I knew this existed.

On the draft, I agree that Nwachukwu’s play was way bigger than his numbers this year. Such is life as a DL in the 3-3-5. But do you think a 6’2 end with limited stats is going to get drafted before Douglas, a 6’2 corner who led the nation in picks (regular season at least, not sure after bowls)? I suppose the combine will play a role in that but I would be surprised if Noble goes before Rasul. Would you be willing to further expand on why you think Noble goes first? Thanks.

Just my take. I’ve only heard from a few scouts, but there are critiques about Rasul and how high he goes. Same folks really like what Noble offers. What do I know? What others confide.

JP said:

If you have a reason to travel from Morgantown to Blacksburg, go south until you smell it and east until you step in it.

Enjoy the weekend!