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

What’s expected of this?

June 22, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Say you sink money into season tickets. One. A pair. Four for your family. We’ve been over the non-conference schedule, and I’m going to assume, based on past patterns, it won’t be too deep into the season before some crowds are thin and Bob Huggins voices a displeasure funded by a frustration his fans aren’t showing up to see his team.

But all of that aside — and conceding Virginia Tech should have been on the home schedule — WVU has to go 9-0 at home in non-conference play, right? It’s essentially a one-game slate, and the Mountaineers seemingly have an edge by being at home against Texas A&M, which could be in for an understandable dip this season. It’s not a terrible loss, but wouldn’t 8-1 feel different than 9-0, especially when the rest of the non-conference is a preseason NIT field with Temple, Illinois and Florida State, with only the Seminoles considered a fringe top-25 team, and a game at Virginia?

A little muscle flexing from the Big 12

by Mike Casazza

Not confident Baylor, a private school, will do anything to satisfy the request, but the Big 12, after some delay, is no longer watching and waiting as something ugly happens beneath its roof. More importantly, I think we can consider the other Big 12 presidents somewhere between mad and outraged that Baylor can act so insulated here, whereas if another (public?) school was in this situation, such silence would not stand.

The response and whatever comes of that are the story here, though this is a start.

Big 12 Requests Full Baylor Information

Irving, Texas – The Big 12 Board of Directors is gravely and deeply concerned by media reports about activities involving the athletics program at Baylor University.  On May 24, 2016, the Big 12 Board requested a full accounting of the circumstances surrounding the sexual assaults at the University.  At this time the Board is only privy to information that has been made available to the public.

Today, Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby sent a letter to Baylor University Interim President David Garland once again requesting all documents associated with the investigations of sexual assaults at Baylor.  This request is for written materials as well as any information that has been conveyed orally to University leadership or to its Board of Regents including, but not limited to, the unedited written or verbal information from Pepper Hamilton, omitting only the names of any involved students.  Internal documents pertinent to the investigation have also been requested.

Because many of the incidents at Baylor reportedly involve student-athletes, the Conference is appropriately concerned with discovery of the facts.  The Big 12 is primarily configured to facilitate fair competition among its members and compliance to the rules of both the Conference and NCAA.  To that end, full disclosure is vital to assess the impact on the Big 12.

“All of our member universities consider student safety and security to be paramount among institutional responsibilities,” said Bowlsby.  “The Big 12 Board of Directors, each member of the Conference and its student-athletes want to convey that our thoughts, concerns and sympathies are with the Baylor survivors and their families.”

‘I will really consider West Virginia.’

by Mike Casazza

Photo credit

We are in the dead of the offseason and the thick of camp season, so there is a particular nuance needed to pay and maintain attention to the current proceedings. I mean, look at how campy this calendar is! Football has three camps Friday. I might fit in three meals.

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More rankings, this time of your own doing

June 21, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

I was thinking how lists are, at their worst, a fun diversion for us as we trek through camps and coaches on vacation and not much in the way of news this month. Then I remembered something we always seem to talk about here, which is that whatever happens to West Virginia, and quite likely to Dana Holgorsen, in 2016 is tied to Skyler Howard.

That’s heavy, but that’s what and how a lot of people feel. Let’s see what that might mean as we look forward.

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Sixth in the Big 12, first in your hearts

by Mike Casazza

 

Athlon is in summertime mode with a series of offseason sustenance pieces — ranking the games on Georgia’s schedule, examining over-under win projections for the American Athletic Conference, 14 ACC stats you need to know, etc. — but here’s a good one to get your lips moving.

Athlon ranked all 128 coaches, from Mike Jinks to Nick Saban, because “(e)ven if a program doesn’t have the resources of the nation’s elite jobs, a good coach can elevate a program into national title contention.”

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‘He is Mr. West Virginia’

June 20, 2016 by Mike Casazza

The ceremony has come and gone, but this Jerry West Collection will remain, and if you’re ever around with some free time during open hours, it looks like something you need to see.

Heck yeah

by Mike Casazza

Not going to turn this into a preliminary parade down Euclid Avenue today — unless you want to! — but this is great to see.

Happy West Virginia Day!

by Mike Casazza

 

One can only imagine what Jerry West is feeling today. He is an executive board member — think “treasured consultant” — for the Golden State Warriors, and the team that put together the greatest regular season in NBA history lost Game 7 of the NBA Finals last night to, ahem, Cleveland.

For West, it was the seventh Game 7 in his career as a player and an executive and the sixth time he lost the game. For a man absolutely consumed by competition, that cannot feel good.

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Friday Feedback

June 17, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which admittedly is not one who should critique scheduling. One more of these after this week, and then things get really weird and infrequent here in July because of vacations. I was thinking of filling this spot on the schedule by outsourcing the feature, because it was oddly terrific last summer when Sheik stepped in a performed a spot-on impression in the comments. (Those comments no longer exist, and I have no idea why that happened…)

He’d be, like, Florida State on the schedule. Good pedigree. Logical connections. Power conference. Dann would be Georgia Tech. Obtuse as heck but tough as a rusty railroad tie and darned effective. The 25314 would be Alabama. Unrelenting, unapologetic, but you can’t argue with the results. Remember Thacker? Army. Dave? Quinnipiac, but it doesn’t exist. I think Karl would be Rutgers. One of the originals. Elicits good memories and seeing him on the docket is always a win. overtheSEC is, I’m sorry to say, Tennessee. Used to be great, but hasn’t been in primetime too much lately … but is this the comeback? Clarence Oveur? I was going to say anyone from the Sun Belt. Underrated and fun to watch, but, nah, it’s the University of Western Ontario.

I could go on and on, but as I did we’d all still wonder the same thing: Who is Mack? I’ll hang up and listen.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words … nope. In the interest of keeping up the theme, I will let @realbbbb handle this one.

netbros said:

Frankly it’s AMAZING to me that the assistant coaches are still on staff. By all appearances there were some of them even more complicit in this mess than Briles.

It never made sense, until we got the idea this might be a one-year suspension. In that case, you plug Briles in again next summer and play on, which is difficult to stomach. Also, that’s not happening. Not now.

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You might not like it, you might not have a say

June 16, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

West Virginia is going to pound Delaware State in 2017. I say that with a certainty I would not assign to Liberty last season and will not assign Youngstown State this season. But the Hornets have been a below-average FCS program for a while and don’t figure to be all the way out of the muck by next fall.

As such, that’s the blemish on the 2017 schedule, and though you may not like to see WVU playing FCS teams, you might want to get used to seeing one every so often.

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