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Grabbed this on its way through the cracks

January 14, 2016 by Mike Casazza

I suppose we were preoccupied yesterday, but it looks like West Virginia completed its coaching staff Tuesday — and this tweet happened right about the time everyone was scrambling to get to the Coliseum. But that’s Matt Caponi, and that is the new safeties coach. The erstwhile University of Arizona assistant is from Pittsburgh and has worked with Tony Gibson before.

The Mountaineers haven’t announced this yet, but I imagine Caponi and Joe Wickline will be announced together. The hiring process takes some time, and let’s remember Mark Scott will be back, too. But as far as making it official goes, let’s revert to Twitter once more. Among his new followers: Dana Holgorsen and Kyzir White.

 

‘I was just living in the moment’

January 13, 2016 by Mike Casazza

The highlight of the night might — might — have been Tarik Phillip swatting a Perry Ellis shot off the backboard or Jaysean Paige dunking to punctuate the win. There was a Nate Adrian step-back 3-pointer over Ellis as the shot clock expired in the first half and Devin Williams stealing, dribbling and jamming in the second half.

But each pales in comparison to the marquee moment of West Virginia’s triumph over No. 1 Kansas. Someone handed Jon Holton a child.

“Some parent just gave him to me, and I held him up, a little like Simba in ‘The Lion King,’” Holton said. “It was cool, though. It was fun. But I almost dropped him, to tell the truth.”

The child was 9-year-old Turner Garretson, from Grantsville. I found his dad, Curtis.

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No. 11 WVU 74, No. 11 Kansas 63

by Mike Casazza

If you could make it there Tuesday night, you made it a memorable experience inside the Coliseum. The crowd of 12,096 grew from, say, a third of that at the tip to a full-throated, court-storming sixth man at the end.

WVU led for 33 minutes, 43 seconds and enjoyed a lead as large as 14 points despite — and this, I think, is the hallmark so far of this team — not doing any one thing particularly great. Not handled-No. 1-without-much-drama great. The shooting was just OK, and I might be guilty of morning-after generosity there. The rebounding margin wasn’t massive. The gaps in points off turnovers and second-chance scoring weren’t decisive.

But WVU was better in multiple areas, and in the end that made the critical difference.

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WVU v. Kansas: Are they able to attain it?

January 12, 2016 by Mike Casazza
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There were laughs in West Virginia’s locker room Saturday afternoon, which is not to say the Mountaineers were humored by Oklahoma State and what resistance the Cowboys offered in a game they never led or that WVU’s players were free of cares in advance of tonight’s game.

Quite the contrary, at least as it relates to the latter. You see, forward Devin Williams has a knack for speaking up and a flair for rallying his team in particular moments, and this was one of those occasions.

“He’s like a preacher,” forward Jon Holton said. “He’ll get going, and it sounds real. He makes you a believer.”

Williams was surrounded by his teammates and together they turned the page toward tonight, the first time WVU has had that nation’s top-ranked team on its home floor in 10 seasons. It’s just the fifth time No. 1 has visited the Coliseum. He knew what they knew. He’s never lost to Kansas at the Coliseum. They should have won at Allen Fieldhouse last season. And while the Jayhawks are No. 1, the Mountaineers are No. 11.

“From the starting five to the bench, we can play with anybody in the country, and our coaching staff can coach, you know, out-coach anybody in the country,” Williams said later, summarizing what he’d told his teammates. “We’ve just got to do what we do and come in focused.”

And his teammates were impressed, hard as that may be for a veteran and close-knit group that only takes so many things too seriously, which is one reason why Williams’ teammates couldn’t help but laugh at him.

“It’s more than attainable,” Williams said. “I said that in the huddle. They said I made up a word. I don’t know, but it’s more than attainable. It’s just going to be about how much we focus in and dial in and how much we do to prepare ourselves.”

Attainable, for the record, is a word.

“They told me it wasn’t,” Williams said. “They’ve never heard me use certain words.”

What other milestones await the Mountaineers?

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History and a brief history of WVU and No. 1

by Mike Casazza

Bob Huggins is 1-4 all-time against No. 1-ranked teams, which doesn’t seem like a lot given that he’s been doing this for 34 seasons now. But that’s the truth, and it underscores how special the occasion is to play No. 1. At home. Huggins has never had the top-ranked team on his home floor.

The above is the one win, the season after West Virginia banked Cincinnati out of the NCAA Tournament, and it was the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout. (DeCourcy!)

“I thought they were the better team,” Krzyzewski said. ”Certainly they played harder than we did for the 40 minutes.”

Duke got 30 points from Avery and 12 from forward Elton Brand. Levett’s last two points gave him 25 for the game and helped him break out of the slump that gripped him for the first three games. He was 11-of-14 from the field and made both his three-point attempts. Small forward Pete Mickeal scored 17, and guard Alvin Mitchell 14, six in the final five minutes.

”We had a lot of chances to pack it in,” coach Bob Huggins said. ”They’re a great basketball team. They play so hard, and they’re so well-coached and do so many things to win games. They’re a deserving No. 1. But I was telling my guys, when you’re ranked No. 1, there’s a lot of pressure to win.”

WVU is 3-7 against No. 1 and 1-4 at the Coliseum. The last win against No. 1 and against No. 1 at the Coliseum was nearly 33 years ago against UNLV, which Bob Hertzel reminds us was coming off a loss.

The 11th-ranked Mountaineers, of course, play host to No. 1 Kansas tonight on ESPN2. They’ve won the last two tilts at the Coliseum against the Jayhawks, and that matters nearly naught.

“I think it might be the best one we’ve played so far with the way they’re playing now,” Huggins said.

Kansas (14-1, 3-0 Big 12) is the fourth No. 1 team this season, following preseason pick North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan State. The Spartans are the only team to beat Kansas this season, but the Jayhawks have won 13 in a row since then.

“No. 1 ain’t always safe,” WVU forward Jon Holton said. “You’ve always got guys hunting for you.”

That’s hardly new to Kansas, the 11-time defending regular season conference champion that’s been No. 1 22 times under coach Bill Self. His team is second nationally in scoring offense (88.4 points per game), third in scoring margin (plus-21.1), eighth in field-goal percentage (50.1) and second in 3-point shooting percentage (45.9).

“They’re shooting the ball as well as anybody I’ve seen in a long time,” Huggins said.

Nine enroll early

January 11, 2016 by Mike Casazza

The list below will give WVU a little help with the unexpected departures of Daryl Worley and Wendell Smallwood. Today’s the first day of the spring semester at WVU, and I was told the roster was submitted with instructions to add the nine new names and remove the seniors and Worley and Smallwood. That’s encouraging, though not necessarily unassailable.

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Then there were 22, with another on the way

by Mike Casazza

Should everything continue downhill through background checks and human resources and the possibility another program swoops in and offers a bigger or better deal, Joe Wickline will reunite with Dana Holgorsen and be West Virginia’s next offensive coordinator.

This has been in the works for a few weeks now, and Wickline was on campus not long after he was dismissed at Texas last month. Before two years with the Longhorns, Wickline was at Oklahoma State for nine years, one of which was highly successful with Holgorsen as the offensive coordinator. The two had some fun together. That would include the diamond backfield, which, as Holgorsen once told me, was created with Wickline before that 2010 season.

There’s going to be some skepticism here, and I get that. Texas was not a juggernaut the past two seasons, when Wickline was the co-coordinator, and he and the other co-coordinator were fired last month. Also: WVU has an offensive line coach.

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The carousel spins

January 10, 2016 by Mike Casazza

 

 

No. 17 WVU 77, Oklahoma State 60

by Mike Casazza
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Probably should have seen this coming. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who was probably keeping his players on guard when he said he thought Phil Forte might play Saturday, spoke to the Mountaineers in a more deliberate manner when he repeatedly said energy levels were low and fading of late and that they needed to be restored Saturday or else.

Truth be told, I think WVU knew it was better than Oklahoma State, and the veteran maneuver by the coach all but guaranteed great verve from the jump — particularly with Jon Holton, who takes such comments as an affront.

“I feel like I bring the energy and start the energy and get the guys going,” Holton said. “I try, man. I try. But I guess I wasn’t trying hard enough.

“But [Saturday], when I started screaming and saying, ‘Let’s go,’ and started my countdown and they got 10-seconds calls and started to turn the ball over, their eyes got wide. Once we saw that, we kept attacking.”

Up next: Kansas, which will remain No. 1 after winning in Lubbock, Texas, last night. WVU has won the last two home games against Jayhawks and probably should have won the one in Lawrence, Kan., which might have ended KU’s streak of 11 straight shared or outright Big 12 titles.

It’s been a long time since the Mountaineers played host to a No. 1-ranked team and a longer time since they beat one, but color them unfazed by the occasion.

“They’re No. 1, but what does that mean?” forward Devin Williams said. “What if we were put in the top 10 when we first started? What would we be? So it’s like there’s nothing we can do about that number they’ve got right now. It’s more of who decides who’s going to be top 10 when the season starts. That’s just pretty much it.

“Just imagine if we were already in the top 25. We had to put ourselves in the top 25. At the end of the day, we should feel disrespected because we’re just as good as anybody in the country as a whole.”

WVU v. Oklahoma State: Recon is his … forte

January 9, 2016 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at the Coliseum, site of today’s home game against Oklahoma State, the team with the perimeter threat in perpetual motion named Phil Forte. Except that Forte has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow — you know that as the injury that necessitates Tommy John Surgery.

Forte is — and I mean this in the most polite and complimentary way possible — a nuisance. He doesn’t stop. He runs defenders through screens. He takes quick shots. He pump fakes. He drives. He scores. He gets to the line. And he’s a very good defender.

So consider the relief the Mountaineers feel about the absence they’ll encounter here this afternoon.

“It’ll be a relief to not have to run around and chase him all around the court,” Mountaineers guard Jaysean Paige said. “He’s a good shooter and a good all-around player. He can shoot the ball and attack the rim. Him being out makes it a little easier, but we wish he was out here. It’s nothing like beating Oklahoma State with Forte.”

So the Cowboys are prepared to move on without Forte, and they seem to finally be used to and accepting of that reality.

Except …

“The information I got was it was going to be a game-day decision,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s not going to play.”

With or without Forte, the Cowboys play at the Coliseum, and that figures to help the Mountaineers more than anything else. WVU’s press was not at the expected levels at Kansas State and TCU — credit the opposition — and the theory is the travel took a toll and the familiar surroundings will restore what which was missing.

Huggins doesn’t think the changes he made to the press before the season were issues late in the second month of the schedule. He didn’t change anything when the team was away from home and hasn’t made any alterations since returning early Tuesday morning.

He saw a team that was a tick slow and a step behind on some plays, that didn’t anticipate as quickly or break as sharply to make plays and cause problems.

“I think if we had to do it again, I’d have come home from Blacksburg and be home for a day or a day-and-a-half rather than go straight to Manhattan,” he said. “You fight with those things. What’s the right thing to do? I didn’t know.”

WVU won three road games in succession for the first time in 26 years, but Huggins believes the games and the days away from home added up and led to struggles that were more physical than conceptual.

“They were great,” he said. “Their attitude and everything, they were great. It wasn’t that. They had no bounce in their step, and the worst thing is we haven’t really had a bounce in our step since we got back. We were god-awful [Thursday].

“If we don’t have a bounce in our step [today], it could be a long day. We need to get to their shooters. They shoot the ball now. I think probably them and Oklahoma shoot the ball as well as anybody in our league.”

Shoot, we thrive in the post …

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