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

‘Ohio is Ohio’

March 19, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Way back in 2010, West Virginia started five players from the metropolitan New York City area, and there’s no way the Mountaineers win the Big East tournament at Madison Square Garden and then conquer Morgan State and Missouri in Buffalo and Washington and Kentucky in Syracuse without hearty contributions from Truck Bryant, Da’Sean Butler, Devin Ebanks, Wellington Smith and Kevin Jones.

This season, WVU has Ohioans Juwan Staten, Devin Williams and Elijah Macon, and this team isn’t here without a little or a lot from some and all. And where are they? Columbus. If one or two or three of them come together and help propel the Mountaineers to two wins here, they proceed to Cleveland. A year from now, Staten is gone (and NBA scouts are digging in, by the way) and Cleveland’s Esa Ahmad, the schools most regarded recruit since Ebanks, will have enrolled and played a full freshman season.

This, as you might imagine, has not gone unnoticed in the locker room. New York City isn’t out, but Ohio is definitely in at WVU.

This is a big state with the nation’s seventh-highest population. None of the 10 biggest cities in the country are within its borders, but four of the 75 biggest are. There are more than 1,400 high schools plus 13 Division I colleges that play sports in six different conferences. There are players. There are opportunities.

“Just being such a big state with so many players, there isn’t one style of player, but there’s a lot of talent,” Macon said. “I think there are a select few who might catch a coach’s eye because of his skill and talent and because of what we’ve done in high school and AAU.”

But this is also a state that’s left out of the conversation when the topic is recruiting hotbeds. And this is a state that really hates that in light of its successful, structured prep and summer programs.

“There are a lot of people around Ohio and in cities that don’t get the same reputation as the big cities, as New York or Chicago,” Williams said. “They have a different aggression, and as far as the way they were coached basketball on and off the court, I think everyone in Ohio plays with that chip on their shoulders because we’re not seen as New York or Chicago. We’re always going out to prove ourselves and show we can play with anybody.”

A word about Buffalo

by Brad McElhinny

The Big Dance and the big numbers involved

by Mike Casazza

Ever wonder how much revenue is at risk at certain colleges due to President Obama’s proposal to eliminate tax deductions tied to sports tickets? What are the odds of a perfect bracket? How many people aren’t filling out a bracket? How much beer are we drinking this month?

WalletHub had some fun with numbers this week and put its spin on March Madness with its NCAA Tournament By The Numbers graphic.

Some of brow-arching digits:

* $1.9 Billion – Hourly losses by companies due to unproductive workers during March Madness

* $10.8 Billion – Amount CBS/Turner Broadcasting paid for the TV rights to the 2011-2024 NCAA tournaments

* 2X – Easier to win back-to-back Mega Millions lotteries than it is to fill out a perfect bracket

* 19% – Increase in pizza orders by fans after losses vs. wins

More? Sure!

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‘Not Invited to the Big Thing’

March 18, 2015 by Mike Casazza

We’re prone to make a point and you’re prone to be concerned about a pretty obvious fact about this West Virginia team: So, so short on postseason experience.

I mean, seven straight postseason losses, a collective seven games of win-or-go-home postseason experience and seven players who will make their do-or-die postseason debut Friday against Buffalo. Eleven of the 12 Mountaineers who will be available in the 2:10 p.m. TNT game at Nationwide Arena will be new to the NCAA tournament, which is so thoroughly different from the NIT that the value of last year’s postseason can be couched quite a bit … but not completely, and more on that in a moment.

You’d like to joke with Gary Browne, he of the lone NCAA tournament experience, he who grew up in Puerto Rick and didn’t know the spectacle until he was a high school senior in Jacksonville, Fla., about how he’ll use his vast knowledge to benefit his teammates — but he’s serious about it.

“I told the guys that this is what you’ve worked for,” Browne said. “It’s the best experience you can possibly get out of your career — if you make it something special. You don’t want to take it for granted. My freshman year, we lost in the first round, but I had three more years, and I thought, ‘We’re going to make it happen.’ But look what happened. We didn’t make it back the next two years.

“Now we’re here again, but at the same time, we’re not talking about being in the tournament. We’re talking about winning it.”

But Buffalo, about to make its NCAA tournament debut, has even less this-is-it postseason experience. The Bulls played in the 2012 CBI and then-freshmen Will Regan (now a top reserve) and Xavier Ford (now a starter) were 1-1. That’s it.

So neither team is especially well-versed in what March Madness means, or requires, and we can likely ascertain it’s not that big of a variable when the ball starts spinning Friday. Still, WVU would seem to have one advantage and it is the otherwise forgettable NIT experience last season.

Turns out the Mountaineers sort of hated that and raged against repeating that reality this season.

“Want me to be honest with you?” Browne asked. “I didn’t even want to go. I did not want to go. You know the mentality some people have? ‘OK, we made the NIT. Let’s make a run.’ I felt like we didn’t have that mentality.

“I felt like we were frustrated we didn’t make it where we wanted to go and we didn’t do what we were supposed to do to make the NCAAs. To be honest with you, in my perspective, I did not want to go to the NIT because I was frustrated and mad we didn’t get the opportunity to play in the NCAAs.”

The road back to this point began as the Mountaineers walked off the floor at McDonough last season. They are very different. Players have departed and enrolled since then. Their attacking defense facilitates the offense. They survived a slip at the end of the season, where three losses in four games were defined by the absences of Browne and Staten, and made good on the promise they made to themselves after losing to Georgetown.

It’s not that WVU didn’t want to end the season with a loss. They didn’t want to be in the NIT.

“The NIT is the second-best tournament,” Staten said. “I feel like if you’re a competitor and you want to play on the biggest stage, you want to be in the NCAA tournament. This year we’re going to the NCAA tournament. Last year we were in the NIT. I think that’s kind of self-explanatory.

“I don’t think any team that’s traditionally been in the NCAAs wants to be in the NIT. Whenever that happens, it’s not really a disappointment, because there’s still basketball to be played, but you’re not as happy as we are right now.”

That’s all for me today. I’m on the way to Columbus, and Chuck and I have big things planned for the blog Thursday and the newspaper Friday. WiFi willing, we’ll be live during the game, too. Don’t forget to get into our bracket pool and/or to tell everyone you know and want to beat. Show them this link.

WVU, Marshall to scrimmage at The Greenbrier

by Mike Casazza

… a week apart. But the Thundering Herd and the Mountaineers are on the road for part of spring football. Marshall will go intrasquad April 11 and WVU will do the same a week later.

“There’s a lot of, believe me, die-hard fans that love WVU and love Marshall beyond all good sense that never will have the opportunity to see you in person,” Justice said. “They sit tuned to the radio or glued to the TV and could never fathom being able to see you, and you’ve given them that opportunity.”

The Mountaineers’ spring schedule had taken a barnstorming feel last year, when Holgorsen and the team practiced in Wheeling and Charleston. WVU’s coach said these teams visiting other parts of the state doesn’t just benefit the fans of those areas. It can expand the players’ minds, too, and allow them to experience regions outside their schools’ city limits.

“These kids get out in the state of West Virginia and see different parts of one of the best states in the United States, see some of the prettiest land in the United States and get to sit down and talk to some of the best people in the United States,” Holgorsen said.

“They really liked it,” he continued. “The next year we started talking about where we needed to go, and there isn’t a better place in all of West Virginia to be able to come and spend some time than here at the Greenbrier.”

The Mountaineers will also have a public practice April 4 in Shepherdstown and April 11 in Morgantown before having the Gold-Blue Game April 25.

The Chase is back on

by Mike Casazza

Chase Fischer got away from West Virginia — the state more so than the school … twice — but I’m not sure there was ever mutual interest between the former Ripley star and the Mountaineers.

WVU then landed Chase Connor, who Bob Huggins cannot speak more highly of at this point in his career, particularly because of the way he’s improved and how his future improvements track.

And then last summer, Chase Harler committed to the Mountaineers before his sophomore year at Wheeling Central. Harler’s one of the top scorers and players in the state, and he’s got a shot to finish in the all-time top five in career points, which is pretty good company. He can play, and you can see that for yourself, and he seems like the sort of shot-making 2-guard the offense has needed in the past few years, though he insists he’ll fit on both ends of the floor.

That’s an attitude that should fit in nicely in Morgantown in two years. While Harler opens with No. 1 Wheeling Central against No. 8 Charleston Catholic on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., his future WVU teammates will be en route to Columbus, Ohio, for the NCAA tournament. The Maroon Knights and Mountaineers could overlap with Friday afternoon games — Central in the Class A semifinals and WVU in its NCAA opener — if the Class A top seed advances.

“Coach Huggins did a great job recruiting,” Harler said. “I think he really got players who wanted to play for him. You can tell how much passion they play with for him, how hard they play for him.

“I think it’s great the way they play,” he said. “I like the up-tempo, get-in-your-face defense.”

Harler said he has gained 20 pounds from last season, going from 160 to nearly 180 pounds. It is hard for him to gain weight during the season, but he said he’ll hit the weights hard again before his senior season.

That’ll make him bigger, stronger, faster and tougher, and he is sure to continue to receive the best of the worst in gymnasiums around the state.

“Some people might take it personal, but I understand those people are just trying to have fun,” Harler said. “I’m in our girls student section yelling, too.”

That said, I want to hang out with Harler if this, from his YouTube page, is legit. It’s Harler and some of his guys dunking on area hoops, and it’s the best and brightest goonery ever. I need the lowered hoops, C.

About Buffalo

March 17, 2015 by Mike Casazza

What we know from a quick glance about West Virginia’s first round opponent Friday is that it’s a MAC school coached by maybe the best college point guard ever, and The State University of New York at Buffalo is making its first ever trip to the NCAA tournament. That last part would seem to put the Bulls at a disadvantage against a Big 12 school that’s been to a recent Final Four and is coached by one of the best still going, like West Virginia.

That may be true, but remember WVU’s current roster has a grand total of one game of NCAA tournament experience. WVU is No. 24 in the RPI. Buffalo is No. 28. The Bulls won 12 road/neutral games. WVU won 11.

Whoa, you say. One played in the Big 12 and the other played in the MAC. True, though the MAC was No. 10 in conference RPI, right below two-bid leagues like the American and West Coast and above a two-bidder like the Missouri Valley. The Mountaineers also played twice as many RPI top 100 games (19, 10-9 record) as did the Bulls (nine, 4-5 record).

What you find, though, is that these two teams are more alike than the optics suggest, and perhaps that is why this is a vaunted 5 v. 12 game. Just listen to one man’s description of the two teams.

“They really compete,” Huggins said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. I think they’ve adopted Bobby’s personality. They really come after you and do a great job gang guarding, and they play without any fear. That’s a team that’s already played Kentucky in Lexington and Wisconsin in Wisconsin. They’re not going to be in awe, I don’t think.”

Neither will the Mountaineers, even though senior Gary Browne is the only player who’s been in an NCAA tournament game, when he scored 15 points in the 2012 loss to Gonzaga. WVU went through the RPI’s top-rated Big 12 and was 10-9 against the RPI’s top 100, where Buffalo was just 4-5.

WVU played out the final stretch of the season without Staten for four games and without Browne for three games and most of a fourth. Huggins started two freshmen in the backcourt and used seven first-season players in his 10-player rotation in those games, each against an NCAA tournament team.

“I might be wrong, but it just seemed to me those guys played without any fear,” Huggins said. “They go right in there and stick their noses in there and go to work. The freshmen are probably as mentally ready as any freshmen I’ve had in a long, long time. They don’t care who it is or where it is. They just love to play.”

But this isn’t a place for quick glances, is it? Let’s go baseline to baseline.

Continue reading…

Meanwhile, spring football began

March 16, 2015 by Mike Casazza

It was a quiet start Sunday beneath the basketball headlines, but Dana Holgorsen had a four-minute press conference in a noisy area so polluted with sound no one heard him say he was promoting graduate assistant Mark Scott to a full-time position on the staff as the special team coach. Dead serious: The sports information people had to call over to the crowd at the Coliseum covering the selection show and make sure everyone knew what nobody heard.

At the news conference last week, Holgorsen said Scott was “a guy who’s been here, and you need to remember this name because he’s a bright young coach and an up-and-comer in this profession.” Evidently Scott’s time was up as graduate assistant, and Tony Gibson liked and trusted Scott so much up in the coaching box that WVU wanted to keep Scott in the fold. This will do, and his duties will obviously transcend special teams, where he’ll get help from Joe DeForest.

How about a depth chart?

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The pool is open

by Mike Casazza

 

You’re invited to enter the Tier 4 tournament pool. Here’s your link. Password: ohcomeonwifi.

Bob Huggins: Selection Sunday news conference

by Mike Casazza

Fun sidebar to this: The game is at 2:10 p.m. Friday on TNT and Doug Gottlieb is the color commentator, with Ian Eagle doing play-by-play.