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

Stop me if you’ve heard this

February 2, 2016 by Mike Casazza
weather

Point 1: West Virginia — now ranked No. 14 by the media and No. 12 by the coaches — is playing a basketball game today. And it’s snowing. I don’t think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite a while. That said, there are no plans to postpone the game, which would be an option because neither WVU nor No. 13/No. 14 Iowa State plays again until Saturday.

Additionally, I want to keep my eyes and ears on two things. First is the crowd. I expect the Hilton Coliseum to be packed. It’s all they know. And we like Hilton.

(Man, he was shaken that game. Nothing has gone right for WVU here.)

The second is how Bob Huggins reveres the crowd. If it’s snowy and a mid-week game and the place is packed, that’s going in his file.

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Bob Huggins is not Lee Majors

February 1, 2016 by Mike Casazza
hugginsheat

Dug this out of Bob Huggins: Pressed for Success. He details his dealings with the Miami Heat as well as his relationship with Chuck Machock and his time at UCF. Click on “Look inside” and use the search field. There’s some pretty funny stuff that didn’t have a place in Saturday’s story on the topic.

(Also, there is no change in Jon Holton’s status. The team will practice before it travels today, and Holton’s eventual reinstatement will be announced in a press release.)

Joe Wickline makes a splash

by Mike Casazza

You entered the weekend wondering about two big names in West Virginia’s recruiting repertoire, and you emerged from it with two big commitments — and the Mountaineers are in the final dead period before Wednesday and still waiting on, or withholding, word on where Brendan Ferns and Kyzir White stand.

Those worries were at least eased when WVU picked up commitments from two junior college All-Americans: running back Justin Crawford and offensive lineman Craig Smith.

Crawford comes with heavy credentials: first-team All-America, national offensive player of the year … and no wonder. He’s a big, big reason why his team won the national title.


There’s a good bit of Charles Sims in there, no? And I guess I’ll say it: He doesn’t shake or run away from many people (either). But his offensive line is running a lot of power plays in the highlights, and that’s something he’ll see a lot with the Mountaineers.

And if there’s some Sims, there’s then some Smallwood, and that’s important. A month ago, Crawford wasn’t coming to WVU. The backfield back then was going to have Smallwood, Rushel Shell and Donte Thomas-WIlliams and consider freshmen Martell Pettaway and Kennedy McCoy, who’s already enrolled. Smallwood’s dash for the NFL changed things, and Crawford, who committed to Louisville two years ago, is a pretty good replacement with three years left to play two seasons.

Like Crawford, Scott wasn’t going to be with the Mountaineers until recently, either.

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Florida 88, No. 9 WVU 71

January 31, 2016 by Mike Casazza

If you think Bob Huggins had a miserable time yesterday, you should hear about the 1983-84 season he spent as a coach in the Sunshine State. “I hated it,” he said.

In 41 seasons now as a college player, graduate assistant, assistant and head coach, Huggins has spent two outside of West Virginia and Ohio. One was the 2006-07 season at Kansas State, where he would probably still be if not for a phone call from WVU. The other is the true outlier, a season at Division II UCF.

There were other battles UCF couldn’t win, and those bothered Huggins deeply. It was a small school back then, so small that Huggins remembered one dorm. There weren’t many anchors to keep people on campus, and basketball wasn’t one of them.

“On Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays,” Huggins said, “you didn’t see a soul on campus if it wasn’t somebody riding a bike through it.”

The arena was tiny and attendance was even smaller, which didn’t make much sense to Huggins at first.

Machock’s predecessor, Torchy Clark, won 20 or more games seven times, had his team ranked in the top 10 in seven straight years and made the postseason six times in his 14 seasons. Clark’s sons, Bo and Mike, both played for him and are still the school’s top two all-time leading scorers. Bo once scored 70 in a game and led the nation in scoring as a freshman in 1976. The Clarks were even profiled in Sports Illustrated in 1979.

Still, the sport hadn’t caught on in that region.

“There’d be a big national game on one of the networks and they’d play it everywhere but Florida,” Huggins said. “They were playing an old war movie. It was just unbelievable. There was a huge emphasis on football. Nothing against football, but there was a lack of passion for basketball.”

If yesterday was any indication, don’t expect to see Miami, Florida State, USF or anyone else from this state on the schedule soon.

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WVU v. Florida: The nick of time

January 30, 2016 by Mike Casazza

You are looking live at highlights from the 2007 NIT semifinal, the penultimate game in the John Beilein Era and the most memorable moment of the Darris Nichols Era. Degree of difficulty: High. We forget that shot because Frank Young was silly in the final, but that never happens if this doesn’t happen.

Anyhow, Nichols, as you may have known, is an assistant at Florida these days and remains one of Bob Huggins’ favorites, even though he was the point guard’s coach for but one season. But they were reunited in Huggins’ third season when one window closed and another opened for Nichols.

“Darris went and played a year and came back and said, ‘Coach, I want to coach,’ and we made him a G.A. here and obviously helped him get started at NKU,” Huggins recalled.

So to review: Four seasons at WVU, one season at Atomeromu SE Paks in the Hungarian League’s A Division, G.A. at WVU for one season, two season as a full-time assistant at NKU as the Norse transitioned from Division II to Division I (you remember one Nichols cameo in the Coliseum), one season at Wofford, one at Louisiana Tech and now his first at Florida after following ex-Bulldogs coach Mike White from that sideline to this sideline.

“Darris, for his age, has more shirts in his closet than anybody else,” Huggins said.

To think, there could be more. Nichols has risen quickly — and busily — because he’s pretty good at this, but he’s been somewhat picky, too.

“Darris once turned down a job that was a step up from where he was,” Huggins said. “He called me and said, ‘Coach, I don’t feel comfortable.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you feel comfortable?’ and he went through the rationale why he didn’t feel comfortable, and I said, ‘What do you think you should do?’ He said, ‘Coach, I like it where I am.’

“He hasn’t taken every step up. He’s been really level-headed about it, and that was a big pay increase, as well. I think he’s doing it for the right reasons, and I think he’s been very thoughtful and gone to places where he can be successful. He’s doing things the right way.”

Follow me right this way…

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Definite dilemma

January 29, 2016 by Mike Casazza
Holton_MORAES-5

We heard about this Wednesday and tried to chase it down all the way through Thursday night, when finally Bob Huggins ended his radio show just before a press release confirmed some bad news for No. 9 West Virginia: Jonathan Holton has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.

A source said Holton will not play in Saturday’s Big 12/SEC Challenge on the road against Florida (13-7) and is not expected to play Tuesday at No. 14 Iowa State and at home Feb. 6 against No. 17 Baylor.

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And now rip off that rear view mirror

January 28, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Never too early to look ahead to the football season, and while that non-conference slate is tough, two of those teams are going to be going through changes.

The Tigers have a new coach and are now officially through with Mauk. Troubles aside, he was a player. Youngstown State is a FCS program, but it’ll be a handful in its second season with Bo Pellini. BYU follows, and though the Cougars also have a new head coach, it’s possible they, too, might have a new quarterback.

Tilt that rear view mirror

by Mike Casazza

If memory serves me correctly, I got a lot of feedback — good and bad — over a turn-back-the-clock piece about recruiting in May. Basically, we revisited the 2010 signing class, recalled how it was hailed on the first Wednesday that February and then pointed out there were two NFL players and just one draft pick in a class that had 19 names.

Twelve players signed and either didn’t make it or didn’t last. Not coincidentally, that was the year Stewart famously said WVU needed “16 to 18 scholarships each year and two to three scholarships at each position max.” The risky quality-over-quantity plan set successor Dana Holgorsen back a few years as he tried to load and reload the roster.

Well, we’re near signing day again, and ESPN.com decided to look back but four years at the 2012 class and then re-grade every Big 12 school’s performance. That class was the first WVU took into the Big 12, and it produced some pretty valuable players, whether longtime starters, all-conference or all-America picks or or even pros.

But it, too, deal with major attrition, and that led to just a minor grade adjustment.

The Bob Huggins postgame remarks

January 27, 2016 by Mike Casazza

Thanks to IMG College for granting me permission to use this excerpt. It sounds different than it reads, no?

No. 9 WVU 70, Kansas State 55

by Mike Casazza
Huggs_MORAES-2

Bob Huggins was in a mood last night from start to finish, as witnessed by an early technical foul and his postgame comments … on the crowd? We’ll get to all of that, but he seemed purposefully pointed, and you kind of wondered if he was again worried about slogging through a game against a team that’s not supposed to be on his squad’s level and/or what support his team could channel for a weeknight home game.

Yet the Mountaineers won and did a number on Kansas State. The Wildcats scored 89 points Saturday against an Oklahoma State team that’s No. 2 in the Big 12 in scoring defense. Three days after the school’s best Big 12 point total in five years, Bruce Weber’s bunch had a season-low point total, and Kansas State had a miserable run throughout the second half. (How about 0-for-10 from 3 after Texas Tech was 0-for-9 from 3 in the second half.)

But the nine-point halftime lead — first halftime lead since Kansas! — swelled to 14 and shrunk to seven before the Mountaineers put things away when Jon Holton air mailed an ill-advised lob to Dax Miles one on possession and then remembered he couldn’t throw it away if he kept the ball, which led to a half-court dribble drive and a layup on the next possession for a 15-point lead.

The ball was in a good place when it was in Holton’s hands. He was a force again and had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and his shot chart was something else.

jh shot

Three dunk/layups, three floaters, one contested layup miss, one 3-point miss. The Wildcats would not check Holton on the perimeter, and he was able to stand on the outside and find lanes inside. Sometimes teammates were able to find him. But his activity again yielded results on offense, and if he starts to hit 3s — this is why he can’t stop shooting them — defenses are going to have a riddle on their hands.

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