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

Contract amendments for three assistants

March 31, 2016 by Mike Casazza

AP photo

Shane Lyons remains busy, this time tinkering with the contracts of three assistant football coaches: Offensive line coach Ron Crook, defensive line coach Bruce Tall and first-season safeties coach Matt Caponi.

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Unfortunately, the schedule gets trickier

March 30, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Eleven walks — and killers in the 10th inning of a non-conference loss to a light-hitting, sub-.500 team — will make a baseball manager say some weird things. West Virginia’s Randy Mazey is not exempt, and he was not pleased after last night’s performance in a loss to Canisius.

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Football is sort of back!

by Mike Casazza

Tuesday was the fourth day of spring practice at West Virginia, and the Mountaineers got back to their list of tasks, which includes developing a pretty experienced offensive line and enhancing one area of need.

“We are really good at coming off the ball,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “We stack up against anybody out there being able to do that. We need help in the pass-protection area.”

This spring, Mountaineer Field isn’t available to the team, but the refurbished practice facility is. You’ll remember, this was a dysfunctional space before, and Dana Holgorsen doesn’t like practicing in his stadium because it takes away the game day wow factor.

Now? It’s pretty nice with more space and features than before. Championship!

Does Karl know?

March 29, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Louis Riddick is pretty sharp. And Jalen Ramsey is considered a certain top-10 pick, which doesn’t happen often for defensive backs.

In fact, in the past five drafts, only six defensive backs — and five cornerbacks — went in the top 10. Those six: Patrick Peterson, Mo Claiborne, Mark Barron, Stephon Gilmore, Dee Milliner and Justin Gilbert. Gilmore and especially Peterson have been good pros. Barron has already changed teams. Claiborne and Gilbert have tested the patience of their teams. You find far better stories in the defensive backfield in the middle and later rounds.

Devin Williams is going to be OK

by Mike Casazza

Earlier this year, when Devin Williams was rolling and I was wondering how Jaysean Paige pried No. 5 from his broad shoulders, we learned a little about the big fella. “Well, there’s a story,” Williams said. “My brother passed away. He actually got shot — murdered — and he wore No. 41.”

From that point forward, when Williams talked about his family and specifically his nephew, it started to make more sense. Today, there’s added context with Williams announcing he’s entering the NBA draft. Here and there I see a lot of people saying, flatly, it’s a mistake and that he should make use of his final season of eligibility.

With respect, I ask, “Why?”

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And there goes Devin

by Mike Casazza
CHRISTIAN TYLER RANDOLPH | Gazette-Mail WVU's Devin Williams (41) hangs his head as Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks bring the ball up court for the final position as time expires in the second half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Friday March 18, 2016.
CHRISTIAN TYLER RANDOLPH | Gazette-Mail
WVU’s Devin Williams (41) hangs his head as Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks bring the ball up court for the final position as time expires in the second half in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Friday March 18, 2016.

Earlier this morning, WVU announced Devin Williams plans to enter the NBA draft. (Aside: “Ready or not” is an … interesting choice for the highlight reel’s soundtrack. More on that in a minute.)

“This is something I’ve thought about over and over, and I believe that this is the best decision for me and my family,” said Williams. “I can’t say enough about the three years I have had at West Virginia University. At the same time, I’m grateful to be in this position to be able to fulfill a lifelong dream.”

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Purchasing new real estate

March 28, 2016 by Mike Casazza

WVU photo

This is probably all stuff we’ll get into more when WVU has a full coaching staff — and then, like, two weeks pass without another change — and we can discuss such matters knowing the decisions have already been made, but where the Mountaineers recruit and who leads those operations is always and again apparently changing.

There are three and soon four new coaches on the staff, and Joe Wickline, Matt Caponi, Blue Adams and Lonnie Galloway’s replacement will know areas that perhaps other WVU assistants do not or maybe the Mountaineers haven’t touched before. Other times, a guy knows a guy and WVU looks to, say, Detroit and nabs one of the best running backs in the state. It’s never static, and when there’s this much change in an offseason, and when someone like Galloway departs with his connections in Atlanta and Maryland and North Carolina, you need to add or replace to offset the subtraction.

Permanent or otherwise, the Mountaineers seem to have a way around that.

The Final Four plus one

by Mike Casazza

Getty image

So we have our Final Four for the tournament and the Final 13 in our bracket challenge, that being the number of people with their champion still standing: 10 for North Carolina, three for Villanova and three for Oklahoma.

Ah, but of those 13, only Ryan Rinker (Oklahoma over UNC), Matthew Harvey (UNC over Villanova) and Mike Schultz (Villanova over UNC) can get three wins next weekend. There are other ways to win, of course, but those three have the best look at it.

We’re near the end, but it’s sort of interesting that West Virginia’s season has been over for a while and the Mountaineers remain relevant. Take the Kansas loss to Villanova Saturday night, when the Wildcats defended the full length and width of the floor with great results.

“They did a great job just kind of being everywhere,” forward Landen Lucas said. “It’s hard to simulate that, and I guess the closest thing to it would probably be West Virginia. But we just didn’t do a good job playing our basketball, and that’s what’s got us here and we kind of got away from that today.”

Villanova takes on Oklahoma Saturday, and in two games during the regular season, both wins, the Sooners did well as anyone against the WVU press. The third game in the Big 12 tournament? That was different, and now it’s up to the Wildcats to do the same, which would be terrible news for Mr. Rinker and great news for Messrs. Harvey and Shultz.

Best basketball weekend of the year

March 24, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Photo credit

The 12 games over the next four days typically makes for the best overall basketball theater of the season, so enjoy the feast, and we’ll be back at full speed here Monday. Our bracket pool is wide open, which is the result of the wild first weekend. Mr. Burns has been excellent, but eight others are within four points and 34 others are within eight points.

Then again, 12 of those contenders have no chance thanks to West Virginia’s early exit, and that’s … big … well, at least it’s apropos. The Mountaineers ruined some brackets, and now it appears Kansas and even Oklahoma will decide a lot of things. Those are risky propositions, too, because the Big 12 just hasn’t been good in the NCAA Tournament this year and hasn’t won a Sweet Sixteen game since 2012!

But if Steve Prohm wins tomorrow and Iowa State tops Virginia, the Big 12 then has nine coaches with an Elite Eight appearance now that Jamie Dixon is at TCU. The conference is tough, and you can safely assume the regular season and/or conference tournament costs teams in the postseason, but recent hires make it even tougher.

And while we’re on the topic of changes, there seems to be an idea every now and then about re-seeding the NCAA Tournament when we reach the Sweet Sixteen. I’m wholly against this — I think it punishes teams for getting in and having the audacity to advance, and it takes away the benefits of surprises in tournament play — but it isn’t universally unpopular.

So two questions: Are you for this? And if it were in place today, how would you seed this Sweet Sixteen?

And now, the comeback begins

March 21, 2016 by Mike Casazza
SAM OWENS | Gazette-Mail The WVU Mountaineers cheerleaders and mascot take the court during a time-out in the second half of the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY, on Friday March 18, 2016. The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks, a 14-seed, rolled over the WVU Mountaineers, a two-seed, 70-56.

So let’s try to clean things up here and steer the comments back on track, if that’s OK with you. Hopefully, it is, because I’m going to be out of the office for a few days.

Anyhow, at this time last week, you first formed or acknowledged a line of thinking that said Stephen F. Austin was like West Virginia. That was pretty providential come Friday night. But in the wake of the loss in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, how about this for a look into the future? Maybe the Mountaineers will be like the Lumberjacks.

Williams, Adrian and Watkins are the only players who had spent more than one season on WVU’s roster, one that’s experienced two Big 12 and two NCAA tournament wins. Underwood, who is 53-1 in the regular season and 6-0 in the postseason in the Southland Conference the past three seasons, had three players who won an NCAA Tournament game in 2014 and seven who were in the field last year.

“I think that’s what happens,” Huggins said. “I think when you can keep a group together like that — you know, I think the good thing about being at a mid-major is you’re not losing guys every year.”