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

Friday Feedback

June 12, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is going to win. True, it’s one me/us to make that stick, but predictions are OK. Confidence is encouraged. Personality is a plus. This is why we like Daxter Miles.

Surely you know his story and that which he said on the eve of the Sweet Sixteen loss to Kentucky. I’ll not rehash my opinion here, but the way he was treated left a bad taste in my mouth, and my reaction was wrought with worry. If you poll the people who cover WVU hoops, Miles wins the vote for Most Quotable. He’s funny and willing, but he’s also good for good answers. He avoids cliches and thinks about his responses before giving you a reply that makes you think.

Would that experience change him? Tranquilize him? Silence him? Well, Miles is talking, thank goodness. He just spent a month home in Baltimore, the first time he’d been back since the loss to Kentucky, and he’s moved past what happened, but he’s not so far gone that he’ll never be the same.

Miles hadn’t been to Baltimore since the season ended in Cleveland. His friends and his family from Charm City could put him at ease in person after the game or over the phone in the time that followed, but being in their presence was different. It was better.

“Nobody brought any negativity to me,” he said. “They know what I’m capable of as a basketball player, and they know how I am, so it was basically love all around. It was great to surround myself with a lot of positive people.

“I’d never had a break that long in college, so it was fun to be around my people outside the team and outside Morgantown and to be around my family and to enjoy my friends and play basketball freely instead of having to obsess about every little thing.”

Life there was as he remembered it. His friends were fun. His family was welcoming. Those were the people he loved to be around, and it was refreshing to know they hadn’t changed. It was a reminder he needed to remain the same, too.

Miles wants to have fun playing basketball and to get the most out of his opportunity with the Mountaineers. He won’t shrink into a shell. He isn’t hiding from interviews. He worries only about being better the next time he’s in a WVU uniform.

“I’m going to be the same person I always have been,” he said. “Of course I’m going to make changes to my game to better myself and help my teammates, but as far as everything else, I’m still Dax. The only people I have to answer to are God and my coaches and teammates. If it’s not those guys, I really don’t care. I’m here to play for them.”

I know it’s not even Flag Day yet, and football will secure our attention before and for longer than basketball, but the basketball season just got better.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, have some pride.

Clarence Oveur said:

Re: Tyrek Cole, he supposedly tweeted on June 1 “Leave This Weekend 4 College”.

Interested to see how this plays out…

Well, another session starts at the end of the month, so he could be in town and hanging around because he wants to. Cole and Xavier Pegues were both in the student directory, but neither enrolled this week. That isn’t a prerequisite for any sort of ugly outcome, though. Let’s circle their names and see where this goes.

Continue reading…

A Jerry West scholarship, at long last

June 11, 2015 by Mike Casazza

The first thing you ought to know about Jerry West and his relationship with his alma mater is that he’ll do anything to help and anything to avoid the publicity that comes with it. He’s done tons for West Virginia University and people who have come through the halls through the years, and something that does come up from time to time when you talk to people who love to talk about West and what he’s meant to them is how remarkable it is that so little honors him.

There’s the number they retired not long ago, but years and years after he’d left. There’s the media lounge in the Coliseum named for him, and it’s located next to a really modest West shrine. There’s a statue of him outside the Coliseum. The boulevard on the street that runs past the building has his name, too.

That’s … isn’t that a lot? 

Is it? I don’t know. I do know that much has happened through the years — I’m talking north of $1 million in gifts, the last time I asked — and it’s been done rather humbly, which isn’t really surprising when you consider the NBA has never acknowledged West is the model for its famed logo. Gee, how’d that happen? The Mountaineer Athletic Club established the Jerry West Society (fitting, if you get the point of all this) and doesn’t brag about all he’s done but instead trusts people will respect the name and honor his legacy.

It’s really quite interesting to think of it that way, sort of like the Tooth Fairy or Santa Clause, except this one couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t put shinier quarters underneath pillows or deliver all the toys faster than you.

So yesterday, WVU revealed a Jerry West scholarship, and when I saw the press release in my inbox, I thought, “Wonder how they talked him into a press release.”

Well, they didn’t. The scholarship honors West and is the brainchild of three people who couldn’t believe a scholarship wasn’t already endowed in West’s name. Ultimately, it’s a pretty neat story about how it all came to be.

One gone, one may be going, one maybe never coming

by Mike Casazza

Perhaps this was not unexpected, but a year after WVU matched a school record and had six players drafted (and six regulars finish their senior seasons), the young Mountaineers had just two players picked this year in the Major League Baseball selection extravaganza.

This is not to say it isn’t an achievement for WVU or for the players, though. This is a program that had nobody drafted in 2012 and one player in 2011 and one in 2010 and nobody drafted from 1974-83. As for the players, Taylor Munden is quite a story. He was at a military college in 2013 and batted just .206 a year later at WVU as a starting utility player. This season, he hit .266 and led the Big 12 in home runs. He got the call in the 27th round from the Miami Marlins.

As for Blake Smith, he’s a junior and he has options and leverage after being picked in the 24th round by the Washington Nationals. He, too, was at a junior college two years ago and last season was his first at WVU. He found a hard fastball, became the team’s closer and had a team-high 20 appearances with a 4-1 record, five saves and a 3.64 ERA (and ERAs are usually exaggerated for closers). Plus, you can’t teach 6-foot-4 and 230 pounds.

He could be a pro or he cold be an all-conference candidate next season — and keep in mind his brother, Burch, was drafted twice by the Cleveland Indians in the 49th and 20th round before leaving in 2011 as a 14th round pick by the San Diego Padres.

And then there’s Connor Bennett, a strikeout pitcher who’s one of a bevy of stalwart pitchers at Georgia power Buford High. The school has two state titles, including the year’s, the past five years. He’s a 5-foot-10 starter the Mountaineers were excited about signing in November, but he was picked in the 34th round by the Cincinnati Reds.

A full nelson of nonsense

June 10, 2015 by Mike Casazza

I wrote about newly minted National Wrestling Hall of Famer Sammie Henson today because he has my attention. Quickly turn around a program, the curiosity is piqued. Send a freshman to the NCAA final, my brow is arched. Recruit at a crazy-elite level, that itch begs scratching. Make a Hall, I’m all ears.

Henson’s done all of that in an extremely impressive first year, so we spoke, and you can’t help but some away impressed with the explanation, much like you can’t help but be impressed with the results. He’s good at this, and he belongs to WVU. The combination is quite fortuitous because wrestling needed this sort of enthusiasm booster.

His second recruiting class — and the first he and his staff could devote a full year to — is ranked No. 5 by Flo Wrestling.

“When I was at Oklahoma, my first year we had the No. 2 recruiting class in the country,” he said. “My first year at Missouri we had the No. 2 recruiting class in the country. We’ve done it before.

“It was a lot of hard work by the staff and our athletic department and everybody behind the scenes, from academics to the strength coach and the nutritionist. We bought them in and made sure we showed them what we had to offer. I think what impressed them most was showing them the family atmosphere we had.”

Of the 12 signees, Austin Myers, Connor Flynn and Keegan Moore won national titles in April. The class also features a four-time state champion, two three-time state champions and four state runners-up this year. The recruits are from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia and Idaho. Each is already enrolled in summer classes.

“Just because I’ve lived and coached in so many different parts of the country, I know coaches in Pennsylvania like I know coaches in California and Missouri,” said Henson, an assistant at Missouri, Oklahoma, Cal Poly, Nebraska, Army and Penn State. “I honestly think we can go after the best kid in the country, no matter where he is.”

So there’s that story, which is not to say it’s the story or the reason we’re here right now.

Continue reading…

You missed!

by Mike Casazza

Thought I tossed a softball out there yesterday, but perhaps you trust me too much — though by now, I figured you knew better than that. Anyhow, the 2015-16 bowl schedule is official and also enormous, and I spotlighted two dates reserved for the Big 12, namely Dec. 29 and Jan. 2. That’s when the Big 12 has spots in five bowl games … and a sixth is on Jan. 1, which I completely misread. My bad.

But that’s not where you missed and where I thought we’d meet for intellectual congress. There’s a Dec. 26 bowl involving a Big 12 team and a Conference USA team and, well, the potential is interesting to say the very least.

Clear Dec. 29 or Jan. 2 on your calendar

June 9, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Eighty-two teams will play in a bowl game after this season. Eighty-two! That means … one sec … 41 bowl games populate our programming during the holiday season. That’s incredibly vast and possibly intimidating if you’re a fan of a particular team and want to make sure you’re not in a car or an airport or just in transit or a terrible environment when that team kicks off in its finale.

Fortunately for Big 12 teams, there are only the two dates to be concerned with, unless you’re in the playoff, in which case you’re cancelling whatever pre-existing plans were in place. The spouse should know this now, by the way.

Anyhow, the entire schedule is visually appalling.

My wife is scheming already and figuring out the day she’s dropping me off at the airport, the day of the game and the day she’s getting me at the airport all while mixing in a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy New Year. Care to tell her what day she should keep in mind as she plans?

Women’s rules > men’s rules?

by Mike Casazza

Yesterday was a big day for college basketball legislation, if only because it was the next day in this summer-long string of ideas and panels designed to improve the game. Two genders play at the NCAA level, though, and dare I say the changes finally and officially made to women’s basketball are more constructive than the changes to the men’s game.

The headline item is splitting the women’s game into four 10-minuite quarters, which is something the men might want to do but won’t because they’re still into pretending this isn’t about mimicking the professional model. What’s more transformative and more exciting and frankly more useful, though, is what’s buried beneath the headline.

The panel approved a rule that allows teams to advance the ball to the frontcourt following a timeout immediately after a made basket in the last 59.9 seconds of the fourth quarter and any overtime periods.

Teams also will be allowed to advance the ball to the frontcourt after securing the ball from a rebound or a change of possession. In these scenarios, the ball would be inbounded at the 28-foot mark on the side of the court where the scorer’s table is located.

The committee made the initial recommendation because it felt this change would add more excitement to offensive possessions at the ends of games because teams would no longer be required to travel the length of the court after inbounding the ball.

That was the best of a couple clever changes. It’s fantastic, and the men’s game ought to have this. March would have more madness, and we’d be done with this silly notion the decision-makers don’t want more offense and thus more excitement. More and more, you get the idea defense is passively discouraged in the men’s game, and what went into the wet cement yesterday only strengthens that opinion.

Continue reading…

Big day for WVU safeties

June 8, 2015 by Mike Casazza

It’s K.J. Dillon Day in dougitydog’s neck of the woods.

Elsewhere, NFL.com did a summertime slideshow and ranked it’s 15 most physical college football players for the 2015 season. No. 1 is WVU’s No. 8.

Joseph is not the most gifted safety when it comes to coverage skills. But when it comes to punishing opposing players, whether they be wide receivers, running backs, tight ends or quarterbacks, he has no peer in the college game. He excels in run support because it allows him to be physical. The bottom line: Joseph is a tough guy who loves to deliver a big hit (truthfully, he can get a bit sloppy at times because he always is looking for the big hit). He hits a ton; he’s a sledgehammer masquerading as a defensive back.

Golf, anyone?

by Mike Casazza

It’s been a little more than a year now since WVU’s exhumed golf program hired a coach, and Shawn Kovich is itching to get started in the fall. The Mountaineers make their return/debut at the Missouri Tiger Turningstone Invitational on Sept. 6-7.

“There’s been so much to figure out,” he said. “Like where you’re going to practice, who is going to be here playing. I really didn’t have a game plan to get transfers in here, but it just worked out to get some seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. That was my goal, to not have eight or nine freshmen that first year.”

The roster is taking shape. He has players from neighboring states Pennsylvania and Ohio, and of course he is mining the Mountain State for talent. He is looking abroad, and players from Canada, Korea and Australia are in the fold.

“I searched under any and every rock,” Covich said.

The hometowns of Covich’s first two waves of recruits cannot be overlooked. The Morgantown climate is a hurdle he must clear in wooing golfers who want to play year-round. Golfers from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Canada developed their games in spite of that.

“I’ve been focusing on Canada because we are warmer to them,” Covich said. “We’ve had success with that … hopefully we can kind of get a pipeline going there. I’ve got players from Ohio and Pennsylvania because they understand the region and the temperature and they’ve gotten good even though they’ve been up north.

“They’re not scared of it.”

This is extraordinarily interesting, of course. I have no idea what to expect from a competitive sense. It’s not like starting a football or basketball program, where teams need years and years to fill out rosters and build and develop facilities. This seems easier. With those two sports serving as the (wrong) comparisons, consider that there are a lot of scholarship opportunities and a lot of programs out there. There’s enormous competition for players. With golf, there aren’t so many opportunities, but there are players both here and apparently also abroad. Certainly there is competition for talent, but there are ways to find talent and thus win in a sport that isn’t as imposing as football and basketball. And unlike baseball, northern schools can win in college golf,  sometimes because those northern schools play so much in other places.

But having said that, consider that WVU can (and will) have a hat on the table, so to speak, when a very good player has to make a decision. I wonder when and how often a player takes a risk and opts for the project over the security of a known program. How long until WVU is a known program and not a project? What does it take to change that perception? WVU has disadvantages with which to deal. There are courses around here, courses that are good enough to wow recruits, but there is no home course. How does the team’s top player get used to all of this?

Again, the whole thing is fascinating and it’s probably unfair to predict ups and downs except to say we can expect both.

Newly arrived and enrolled for WVU

by Mike Casazza

Basketball:

Beetle Bolden
Lamont West

We knew Teyvon Myers would be in the next batch. If I had to have a response to Esa Ahmad not being enrolled, I guess I’d be surprised, but as far as I can tell there’s no issue there. Again, there’s another enrollment date in three weeks, and WVU has plenty  of practice opportunities before and then during its Bahamas trip. 

Football:

Jordan Adams
Rob Dowdy
Jovon Durante
Gary Jennings
Matt Jones
David Long
Colton McKivitz
Jah’Shaun Seider
Alec Shriner
Adam Shuler
Kevin Williams
Stone Wolfley

A few notes: One Adams is odd, I guess. Jacquez is part of the recruiting class, too. Jennings was one of those “don’t freak out if he’s not on the list” names because his high school has graduation Saturday. My guess is he’s all set and he’ll head home for that and then be back Sunday. Durante is indeed on the list, but Tyrek Cole is not. Let’s not imply anything unfairly, but they were both in the middle of that Miramar mess in the fall. Xavier Pegues and Rasul Douglas are junior college kids, and it’s best not to assume anything with their graduation procedures. Deamonte Lindsay graduated from Martinsburg late last month, but, once again, there’s another enrollment date in three weeks. 

(Update: Three walkons are in the Puskar Center today.

1. D.L. Knock, a 5-foot-8 receiver from Springboro, Ohio, who caught 38 passes for 789 yards and 11 touchdowns and has fun highlights. Knock was also named MVP at WVU’s one-day camp last summer.

2. Bradley Knotts, a 6-2, 280-pound offensive lineman from Ripley.

3. Ross Harvey, a 5-9, 215 pound linebacker from Lewis County who is probbly headed to the secondary, but he’ll be a linebacker in the North-South game this month.)