The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

“Over there is the Casazza water fountain…”

June 5, 2008 by Mike Casazza

(I probably won’t have time to devote a post to this before the press conference happens, but Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese will announce retirement plans today. No need to go into great detail here about what he’s done for and meant to the conference. It’s obvious and should be written with deservedly more detail. Replacements? I’ll throw a name out: Dan Gavitt. Going out on a limb, yes? Anyhow, this is likely the only post of a busy day, but I think we can have some fun. I know you won’t let me down.)

WVU’s life as a self-sustained athletic department can be tricky. Finances typically depend upon gifts and donations and those are frequently linked to success on the field/court. Imagine going through life when you have to generate your income.

That said, WVU has been very good at keeping things afloat. Oh, there’s been a little luck with massive donations from the Mike Puskars and Jo and Ben Statlers of the world willing to hand out millions, yet the WVU Foundation and the Mountaineer Athletic Club have been very creative and ambitious in getting out there and securing the gifts and donations needed to get projects going.

And so it is that we look at the new basketball practice facility, which is going to cost around $25 million. Donations and gifts are rolling in, but there is a pretty cool way to generate additional resources for the project. You.

Sharp said money would not come from other areas, like increased tickets sales.

“The intent all along has been to raise all the funds for the building,” he said. “We think there’s going to be a building at the end of our set of plans. We don’t want just a nice set of plans.”

Of great benefit to the project is what Sharp called “endless opportunities” for naming rights within the practice facility. The building will have, among many things, a basketball court for both the men’s and women’s teams, offices for both sets of coaches, locker rooms for both teams, an equipment room, a weight room, a training room, an athletic training area and a doctor’s examination area.

Well, seeing as if WVU has accepted small tokens in the past — one of my all-time favorite pieces of propaganda — and Sharp did say endless opportunities, we could assume that any reasonable item may bear one’s name for a price. So let’s have some ideas. I’ll get it started…

> The Rich Rodriguez Rear Exit (double entendre!)

That’ll be all, Charles Pugh

June 4, 2008 by Mike Casazza

This from WVU…

Pugh Dismissed From WVU Football Team
 
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.,  June 4, 2008 — West Virginia University Head Football Coach Bill Stewart has announced that senior defensive back Charles Pugh has been dismissed from the Mountaineer football program for a violation of team rules.
 
Stewart will have no further comment at this time.

Look up “solid verbal” …

by Mike Casazza

… in the dictionary and you’re probably going to see this:

That’s Tajh Boyd on the left and Logan Heastie on the right and they are two of the very best at what they do, which is throw and catch a football in high school. They are, of course, committed to WVU and we’ve previously explored the depth of their pledge.

Continue reading…

Hey, how about some laughs?

by Mike Casazza

OK, so the news of late hasn’t given you a lot of reasons to smile with arrests of current student-athletes, eligibility concerns for potential student-athletes, depositions of friends and foes of the football program and other maladies. Yet if a dreary place like Seattle can smile, why can’t you? You should at least feel better knowing one of your own has them in stitches.

Pugh’s plight

by Mike Casazza

Charles Pugh — and apparently others — will be arrested as part of an investigation into the theft of credit and debit cards at the Mountainlair last week.  Bill Stewart, who has been nothing if not calculated and considerate in his personnel decisions to date, is conducting his own inquiry, though it appears the Pugh’s future with the team is settled. In the meantime, the advice flows freely.

Put quite simply, let Stewart be advised he is out of mulligans.

The state university is not in a position to accept another scandal, considering the Heather Bresch affair and the mess surrounding Rich Rodriguez’s defection and buyout.

The school’s reputation nationally has taken a hit from those scandals to go along with the horrible image the football program gained through the misadventures of NFL players Pacman Jones and Chris Henry, along with assistant football coach Calvin Magee’s charge that he was told by an administrator he wouldn’t be considered as Rodriguez’s replacement because he is an African-American.

An out-of-control football program is completely unacceptable and the time for the compassion Stewart has shown to date is over.

The pendulum gets closer

by Mike Casazza

Charles Pugh is expected to turn himself into the proper authorities as early as today. He’ll face a felony charge of fraudulent schemes after needlessly putting himself into trouble’s way. University police Chief Bob Roberts said the investigation is not closed and that he believes “there will be more arrests.” Meanwhile, WVU Coach Bill Stewart is evaluating the situation, presumably with a heavy hammer in hand. He maintains silence.

Roberts did not mention Pugh’s teammate, Quinton Andrews. More to come once our news hits the Internet… 

Flash: Alexander runs fast, too

June 3, 2008 by Mike Casazza

The NBA released the top secret results of the predraft camp physical evaluations a little bit ago and we learned what we suspected: Joe Alexander was doing work.

The wingspan and standing reach raised an eyebrow and the bench press was better than guys named Beasley, Mayo, Love, Padgett, Lopez, Jordan … OK, better than everyone in the camp but Xavier’s Josh Duncan. What impressed me — and, for sure, teams like Golden State, Phoenix, Toronto and others who like to run — was the three-quarters court sprint. Alexander did it in 2.99 seconds and only Arkansas’ Sonny Weems was faster — and by just 0.03 seconds.

Continue reading…

Logo: Lakers-Celtics ‘interesting paradox’

by Mike Casazza

I’m not entirely sure what the headline means, but if 44 said it, I happen to believe it’s true. As it is, the NBA Finals open Thursday with what has to be the most appealing matchup since … oh boy … the first Bulls-Jazz series in 1997. I guess.

Anyhow, this is the 11th time the teams have met in the finals and Jerry West was on hand for six … all losses.

“You may not want to think about it, but it’s impossible not to think about it,” West said Monday from his suburban Los Angeles home. “When you’ve competed at a high level, and had a great measure of success like we did, you feel the hurt of losing even more.”

In his 14 seasons as the Lakers’ backcourt star, Los Angeles was 1-8 in the NBA Finals, beating the Knicks in five games in 1972. West and Co. was 0-6 against Boston from 1962 and ’69.

Play it again, Sam Jones?

“The pain of knowing we should have won at least a couple of those (series) against the Celtics still hurts,” West said. “When it’s happened again and again, it’s not real fun to relive it. I know we always felt scarred by that. I know I did.” 

Continue reading…

Meanwhile, the pendulum swings slowly

by Mike Casazza

Patrick White was named Alabama’s amateur athlete of the year Monday and, quite surprisingly, loquacious football Coach Bill Stewart is not on record in any local story on the subject. WVU football is conspicuous by its silence — unless it’s selective when, how and with whom it breaks its silence — but it sure seems as if there’s a huddle monitoring an incident at the Mountainlair last week.

(If you like color with your vague, you’re in luck!)

States battle for Patrick White’s affection

June 2, 2008 by Mike Casazza

It wasn’t long ago when Bill Stewart introduced us to the “soldier dog” as he introduced Patrick White as the state sportswriters’ pick as the amateur athlete of the year. For the second time. Perhaps wanting to witness Stewart’s oratory brilliance, to say nothing of finally recognizing a native son, Alabama has dubbed White its best amateur.

He’s been named the state’s amateur athlete of the year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association and will be honored at the group’s annual convention Sunday night at the Birmingham Sheraton.

“It means a great deal to me to know that, even though I’ve been gone from Daphne four years, I still have the support of the state of Alabama and people are still following me down there,” White said. “It’s really special considering I’m at West Virginia, and they have such a great tradition of football right there in Alabama.”

White is the second straight player to take home the honor after leaving the state to play college football. Former LSU star and Mobile native JaMarcus Russell was honored last summer. Four of the last five ASWA amateur winners have been quarterbacks.

“It’s a honor for Pat that his home state has recognized him as the state amateur player of the year,” Stewart said. “He is a great young man with outstanding character and leadership ability. He deserves any accolade he receives because he works hard and wants to continually improve himself.”