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

WVU phinishes, off to Phoenix

March 22, 2008 by Mike Casazza

The most unintimidated, unwavering and unquestionable performance of the season.

Duke-WVU notebook

March 21, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Bryan Messerly is West Virginia’s Sports Information Director so it was fitting that he directed Jonnie West to some sports information Friday.

Three people with ties to West told Newsday yesterday that the Hall of Famer would be interested in running the Knicks if the job were offered to him.

“He would definitely take the job,” said one of the people, a former executive in the league familiar with West’s thinking as he weighs his options almost a year after retiring from his post with the Memphis Grizzlies.

This was big news in WVU’s locker room. Jonnie is The Logo’s son. He hadn’t spoken to his dad as of Friday afternoon, and while he thought his dad’s retirement was for good when he stepped down as the Memphis Grizzlies President of Basketball Operations last year, this news wasn’t a great shock.

“It doesn’t surprise me that his name is being brought up for the job,” the redshirt freshman said. “All I know is that as of now, he’s still retired, but peopel are obviously still interested in him and what he can do for a team.”

Sitting to West’s left in the locker room was sophomore Da’Sean Butler, a Newark, N.J., native who absolutely loves the Knicks and the idea West may soon take over.

“I’d love to have Jerry West over in New York City,” Butler said. “That’s a chance for Kobe Bryant to come and for other great NBA players to come and to bring back that Knicks prestige.”

Sitting to Butler’s left was sophomore Joe Mazzulla.

“What prestige?”
“The championship prestige.”
“Yeah right.”

It’s not easy being a Knicks fan.

“It’s very difficult,” Butler said. “It sucks”

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Your anger management tool

by Mike Casazza

You know you’re pretty established when a Web site is dedicated to tearing you down.

Solution for putting up with Duke

by Mike Casazza

It’s going to be a difficult 24 hours for you, I know, so step away from the television. If what a network says bothers you, change the channel because that message isn’t changing. You know that one guy loves Duke and thinks the Blue Devils are going to win. The game, the tournament, probably even the presidency. You can’t change that, so change the channel. Don’t let it ruin this for you.

Ask yourself a simple question: Does what one guy says really matter? After all, didn’t one entity almost universally proclaim Arizona would beat WVU? And look what happened. Why worry now? Players play the games. Everyone else discusses them … and yes, I understand how hypocritical that sounds.

I do understand the complaint that factual inaccuracies need to stop and cannot be allowed to live on as realities. Let’s dismiss this notion that opponents can simply attack Joe Alexander and get him in foul trouble because Alexander tends to get in foul trouble.

Alexander is rarely in foul trouble. Last night was an anomaly created by a needless foul at the end of the first half and an odd call late in the game the officials needed to discuss. None of that was done by attacking Alexander. He choose his spots and it seems WVU does a good job protecting Alexander. He means too much offensively to risk losing him defensively.

We’ll agree this Joe Alexander was born after the loss to Pitt, a game in which he was benched and scored just five points. Since then, Alexander fouled out once. That was the following game against Rutgers and, quite frankly, it didn’t matter. He’s had four fouls three times. One was last night. The others were at Villanova — quite frankly, that didn’t matter, either — and DePaul — when he was probably the best player on the floor. He’s been otherwise safe and has played large minutes while on this streak.

That’s not foul trouble and I’m having a hard time understanding what one voice meant by saying Duke will attack Alexander in transition. What, they run right at him? Isn’t the easy counter for Alexander to run out of bounds and lead the player with the ball into a turnover?

Friday Feedback

by Mike Casazza

Not happening. Not today at least. As you can see, it’s been a long night spent writing and wondering where that Alex Ruoff has been … but I’m pretty sure someone some people saw this coming. The plan is to opine in some manner today from interviews that set the scene for Saturday afternoon’s Duke-WVU game.

Until then, let’s have your thoughts on Thursday night…

I don’t know what it means, if anything…

March 20, 2008 by Mike Casazza

… but Ryan J. Boyd is here with the pep band.

Simon says “Remember this?”

by Mike Casazza

Simon’s 70-footer

downs Cincinnati

By Staff Reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 12, 1996

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Way back when, Cincinnati and Arizona were two of the best teams in the country every single season. They played twice during those years and twice Lute Olsen’s Wildcats won, including a memorable 500th career victory the last time Huggins coached against tonight’s opponent.

A smashed chalkboard in the Cincinnati locker room testified to the bitterness of the loss.

Huggins: the guy or that guy?

by Mike Casazza

Arizona’s interim Coach, Kevin O’Neill, said Wednesday he thinks WVU’s Bob Huggins is “probably the most underrated coach in America at any level.” True, they’ve been friends forever and coaches will sometimes engage in hyperbole when it’s their turn to take the stage — example: Huggins saying during his interview session that his team wasn’t very good.

The urge, though, is to agree with O’Neill, at least for this season. This in no way as easy as it was made to look with the nonchalance the Mountaineers exude when explaining their ascent to this point.

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Well, that settles it. Bo Ryan has spoken.

March 19, 2008 by Mike Casazza

I happen to think Wisconsin’s head coach is one of the best in the country. That program shouldn’t be as good as it is, but every year it’s right there and without the wealth of NBA players you see elsewhere around that conference. Some say the Big 11 is down, but just maybe Wisconsin’s root canal style has something to do with it. A perception versus reality sort of thing. It can be hard to watch, but if one appreciates good half court offense and defense, the Badgers are pretty good.

Anyhow, Ryan called a time out from apparently coaching his son’s Little League team so that he might collect a paycheck from Sprint and then donate two cents to the WVU-Arizona matchup.

* Pardon his slight inaccuracies regarding WVU’s recent tournament history.  

O-ver-rate-ed?

March 18, 2008 by Mike Casazza

The Oakland Tribune released the results to its annual Pac-10 writers poll last week and Arizona’s Chase Budinger was considered the Most Overrated Player.

WHO IS THE LEAGUE’S MOST OVERRATED PLAYER?

On Arizona’s Chase Budinger:“Seems to disappear a bit too often when games are on the line.”

“Lute Olson called Budinger the best freshman he’s ever had at Arizona. Those words have made it hard to figure Budinger’s brilliance one moment, sloppiness the next.”

“World-class athlete who doesn’t seem to have enough fire in him to be a dominant player.”

“Inconsistent, mediocre defender and rebounder for his size, too often shy away from taking the ball to the basket.”

“Scores a lot and has the big rep, but how many games has he won for the Cats? How many big shots has he made? He’s not a game-changer.”

This sounds familiar. Good thing Boeheim wasn’t around.  ( ” … is there a fine for that?” )

To be fair, Budinger has handled this pretty well.

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