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

Dana Holgorsen had a news conference today

March 2, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Some information here and there about the roster, including who’s on it, who’s moved and exactly how many whos there are.

WVU has a visitor today

by Mike Casazza

The cart is way ahead of the horse here, but if Will Grier ends up at WVU, he sits out a season, of course. I’m not sure whether his NCAA suspension expires along the way or if the penalty bleeds into 2017.

(Update: According to the rules, he’s supposed to sit out the 2016 season as a transfer, and the six-game penalty is to begin again in 2017. That makes the most sense, because it doesn’t reward him, so to speak, for transferring. There could be alternate avenues, though. Grier’s new school could pursue a waiver to make him eligible in 2016 and then his start his suspension at the beginning of the season, or the school could have him sit out the 2016 season and appeal to remove/reduce the suspension at the start of the 2017 season.)

Simplified: Just win

by Mike Casazza

Oklahoma and Baylor tried so hard to add some finality to tonight’s WVU v. Texas Tech game. The Sooners, on their senior night, led by 26 points in the first half. They lost the lead in the second half. In the end, though, Oklahoma beat Baylor, 73-71.

Had the Bears finished that one off, a WVU win tonight would have clinched the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament. As is stands, that Texas loss — is loss a strong enough word? — at home to Kansas Monday moved a lot of pieces in WVU’s favor, and a win tonight guarantees the Mountaineers no worse than the No. 3 seed. As the standings suggest, though, a loss tonight makes the Friday and Saturday games insanely and, perhaps at the end of this season, fittingly interesting.

On Friday, Texas plays at Oklahoma State. A day later, Oklahoma plays at TCU, WVU plays at Baylor and Iowa State plays at Kansas. A five-way tie for second seems unlikely, because of TCU and Kansas, but multi-team ties for seeds are certainly on the table. As long as the Mountaineers win, they avoid the ties, because even a win/loss or loss/wn finish locks up no worse than the No. 3 seed.

Karl Joseph’s limitations prevail

March 1, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Karl Joseph, of course, had the most compelling experience at the NFL combine. There were six West Virginia players in attendance for the lengthy event, but Joseph was the only one working his way back from a significant injury. (I continue to hear he’ll be fine for mini-camps and his recovery is being viewed like Todd Gurley’s last year.)

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Five weeks, two dates

by Mike Casazza

Hi! Happy March. Today is the first day of the best month of the year. March 1 is always the beginning of the end and the end of the beginning. It gets real now.

And five weeks from today, it’s all over. I know this not because I looked at a calendar. I’ve been around WVU basketball for a long time this season and I’ve seen probably all the players wear a T-shirt — gray or black, short sleeves or no sleeves — with this printed across the chest:

HOUSTON
4-4-2016

That’s the site of the Final Four and the date of the championship game.

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Meawhile, baseball

February 29, 2016 by Mike Casazza

West Virginia’s baseball team is 5-1 with five straight wins. The starting pitching has been dynamic and the offense, led by a freshman shortstop from Preston County, crossed the plate 31 times in a three-game sweep at UNLV.

Because the Mountaineers are out west and spring training is underway, WVU will play a scrimmage against the most buzzworthy team in the offseason. It’s Ken Kendrick’s Arizona Diamondbacks — and a lot of big leaguers — against WVU, and I have no idea how you follow along unless you use social media.

One more Paige

by Mike Casazza

The legacy of Jaysean Paige’s 2015-16 season is his scoring. He’s the best off the bench in the Big 12 and the best on a team that today is ranked No. 9 by the coaches and No. 10 by the media. We know about the heat checks, and he and I have laughed about the two times he’s been mad about the arrival of halftime, most recently against Iowa State, spoiling something special.

But when and where he’s scoring has been significant, too. He made two big baskets Saturday at Oklahoma State, pushing leads to eight and then nine points, and more and more Paige is the player Bob Huggins runs plays for when West Virginia needs points.

He’s good on the dribble, oddly and especially when he goes left, and he has a pull-up he really likes to trigger from the elbow. He’s also become quite comfortable on the left side of the floor, and he’s seeking a familiar spot along the baseline from where he can loft and admire that majestic jumper he hit twice Saturday, once when he somehow managed to avoid the rim and the net.

This was not what Paige did last season, which means nothing is more noteworthy than how he’s getting his points this season.

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Can Jaysean hold the page?

by Mike Casazza
paige_MMORAES-5

We’re in the final week of the regular season, and ballots for the all-conference team and the Big 12 superlatives are due Saturday, presumably and ideally after all the games have been played … which isn’t a universal. But as we arrive at the bottom of the slope, it seems like it’ll be hard to keep Jaysean Paige off the first team.

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No. 14 WVU 70, Oklahoma State 56

February 28, 2016 by Mike Casazza

For starters, I kicked the game post yesterday. The No. 1 seed gets the 8-9 winner and the No. 2 seed gets the 7-10 winner. I knew that, because I’ve covered a zillion tournaments, and I still bobbled it. So WVU is in position right now to play the 7-10 winner, though two games remain, including one Wednesday against a team that looks like it might be the 7 seed, Texas Tech. That’s your cheat sheet going forward, and maybe I should subscribe to less is more. Proceed with the idea that the No. 2 sees is best, and it is probably not happening in a scenario that involves a tie.

For substitutes — ie, after starters — let me clear this up, too, because it went further on social media than I intended: I did say this, but never did I say I disagreed with who Bob Huggins is starting. That’s silly.

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WVU v. Oklahoma State: Piece of cake?

February 27, 2016 by Mike Casazza
cupcake

You are looking live at what’s at stake for West Virginia today.

Texas and it’s quizzical home-court advantage scored 22 unanswered points as part of a 25-5 run that finished today’s 13-point win against Oklahoma. That left the Sooners and Longhorns tied in the standings with 10-6 records. Baylor can join that group today with a win at TCU, which is to say the Bears will join that group, but WVU can push those three into third place with a — let’s call it — winnable game here against Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers would be 11-5.

(Here’s where I doom everything and everyone: Someone from the Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU basement is going to win a game in the final eight days … by default, I guess, because the Wildcats and Horned Frogs have to play one another, but one of those three is going to beat a top-seven team before this is over.)

Kansas, of course, already has its hands on a share of the Big 12 title by virtue of today’s home win against Texas Tech. The Jayhawks, who were once teetering at 5-3 in the league, have won eight straight. The Red Raiders had won five in a row. Should WVU lose today to a team that’s lost three in a row and six of seven and is playing without Phil Forte and now Jawun Evans, then Kansas gets the outright title. Either way, Kansas has a magic number of one, and barring an 0-2 finish at Texas, where the Longhorns are 14-2, and against Iowa State, it’ll own the crown by its lonesome.

So everyone is playing for second, and right now WVU leads the way bye half of a game. Winning out does the trick, and winning out is optimal because just about any tie that involves Oklahoma and/or Texas is bad news because of the tiebreaker procedure. If WVU gets the No. 2, it also gets a nice line on its resume for finishing second in the top-rated RPI conference with a head-to-head win against the perennial champ. The selection committee will like that.

WVU would also get a day off in the Big 12 tournament, which has been a given for a while now, and a game against Kansas State/Oklahoma State/TCU. Those three are guaranteed to finish in the bottom three places, and the No. 2 plays the winner of the 8-9 game. Kansas plays the winner of the 7-10, which today is Texas Tech v. TCU, though Iowa State, believe it or not, could end up as the 7. The No. 2 seed is, in a way, safer, because the No. 6 could finish four or five games clear of the No. 8, which is amazing.

If WVU gets into a tie for second and finishes third or fourth — and fourth is basically the same as fifth, which is as low as WVU can go — then it’s looking at a bye and a game as the No. 3 against a stiff No. 6 or in a 4/5 game. The road to higher NCAA seeding gets much more difficult outside of the No. 2 seed, is what I’m saying. The advantage is there for the taking today.

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