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

So, how did that feel?

February 12, 2015 by Mike Casazza

I don’t know if it’s a good sign or a bad sign, or if it’s a sign at all, but West Virginia, in need of a win, didn’t much like Wednesday night’s win.

The Mountaineers took a 67-57 lead on a Jaysean Paige 3-pointer with 5:27 left to play, but saw the Wildcats make three straight shots and 5 of 6 free throws, including a three-point play from Nino Williams for a 69-67 lead, in just 3:02.

“We should have won probably by 20,” guard Gary Browne said. “A win is a win, but we should have won by 20. We’re getting ready to play teams we can’t do stuff like that against.”

Paige created the double-digit lead with his second 3 of the game, but contributed to the letdown by missing three free throws after he was fouled shooting a 3 moments later. WVU would then miss four shots and commit two turnovers and Juwan Staten went 0 for 2 at the free-throw line as the Wildcats surged in front.

“There might have been a thing or two more we could have done to try to lose it,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said, “but I don’t know what they are.”

So are those the sounds of a team frustrated by the way things are going and the realizing this just may be the way things are? Or is that a team frustrated by the way things are going and knowing it better get better in a hurry, or else?

(Update: Brandon Watkins has a sprained MCL in his left knee and is considered day to day. Figure it’s unlikely he plays Saturday, perhaps mostly because it’d be hard to practice today and tomorrow.)

Foul shooting

by Mike Casazza

The time stamp on this is off. It was shortly after 10 p.m. I’m not sure why it posted at 11:42 p.m. Staten was long gone by then, but he did hit the court to attempt to cure what’s ailing him.

And you can’t find the timing to be more odd because 50 weeks ago Staten at home against Kansas State scored 35 points on 13 shots. I think the game is being called completely differently this season. I don’t think there’s much sense arguing that. In addition Bob Huggins said in that sprawling postgame radio hit following the Baylor loss that more contact goes unpunished under his basket, and I’m inclined to agree to a degree because I think officials let the other team get away with more because WVU does so much defensively.

So Staten’s free throw attempts are way down — though so are his minutes, and that’s not unrelated — and he’s hiccuping just about every time he steps to the line. And yet he’s shooting right around his career percentage.

Nevertheless, last night’s game was decided at the free throw line. Jaysean Paige, who is spiraling perilously close to “Shot Better from the Floor and/or 3-point Range Than the Foul Line,” went 0 for 3 when he had a chance to put that game on ice and go up 13. That preceded a 12-0 run that put Kansas State in front. Then the Wildcats, who committed the most untimely turnovers, went 1 for 4 at the line while WVU went 7 for 10.

WVU v. K-State: Will pressure drop a drop on you?

February 11, 2015 by Mike Casazza

There is a question that surrounds WVU during this losing streak, no different, really, than how the Mountaineers surround a point guard on the sideline or a power forward near mid-court. If the non-stop press and the waves of fresh bodies and flailing arms crafts a cumulative effect that lets WVU put together a run or runs and be more spry and thus better late, might it also create a gradual cumulative effect on the team running this defense?

Think about it for a moment: We’re three months into constant practices and games, to say nothing of travel, long trips and short nights. WVU already had its week-long in-season break and doesn’t have another extended time off for the remainder of the season. There are two freshmen and five other first-year players who are altogether new to this style, this schedule and this string of strenuous events.

That has to add up eventually, no? And are you already seeing it from new players like Dax Miles and/or Jaysean Paige? Are veterans like Nate Adrian showing signs of giving in to this new way?

I’ll give you one guess what Bob Huggins says.

Continue reading…

Oh, brother

by Mike Casazza

Two Fridays ago, Jonathan Holton, who three days earlier picked up a technical foul after 17 seconds of the game at Kansas State and played just six minutes, trotted onto the floor for practice and went past some teammates. One waited for Holton to get by. “Foul,” he said. Another teammate did the same. Holton and the rest of the gang got the gag, because, you know, Holton seemingly can’t not foul you.

He trotted onto the practice floor Friday wearing a headband. This time it was Bob Huggins who jumped all over him, with good intentions, of course, and he asked if the white accessory was going to change Holton’s luck. A few others piled on and everyone laughed, because, you know, Holton is having a nightmarish time shooting 3-pointers.

He was 8 for 45 for the season before the Baylor game. Everything went wrong in the Baylor game, including Holton trying a 3 and missing badly. Huggins told pulled Holton aside, updated the season statistics and told the junior college transfer that he wouldn’t shoot another 3 until he got in the gym more regularly, taught himself how to make 3s again and then re-earned the privilege of shooting 3s in a game by making them consistently in practices.

I’d like to say that’s where we’re at with Holton this season, but that’s not the best illustration.

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March 17 right around the corner

by Mike Casazza

One of my many cousins from Cleveland was in town for the weekend, and though he’s familiar with the city and the state after spending many years of his career here, there were some things and places he wanted to see and things and places I wanted to show him. On the list: the site of WVU’s new baseball stadium. We’re Indians fans. We like ballpark architecture.

So my wife and I took him out there Saturday evening. I told him about the TIF district. He wondered about traffic, and I said there’s a plan to create a new interstate exit. We all believe wind, at that elevation atop the hill, will be a major part of the experience and that patrons should expect it to be cooler there than in town.

And then, as though it was no longer something we could avoid, we got to the heart of the matter.

“When’s the first game?” he asked.

“March 17.”

“March 17?”

The looks we exchanged, the laughs we shared, they both said one thing. There is a lot of work to start and finish to make sure the Mountaineers aren’t playing some home games at Hawley Field this season.

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Marc Bulger completes another one

February 10, 2015 by Mike Casazza

The 2003 Pro Bowl MVP, who’s been highly philanthropic through his foundation for many, many years now, is endowing a special scholarship.

Bulger, 37, has committed $50,000 to WVU and the Mountaineer Athletic Club. It will support a scholarship for a student-athlete who has a parent or a sibling on active duty in the military or working as a police officer or firefighter.

“This is what my foundation is based on,” he said. “Since we started it in 2007, we’ve rebuilt the USO in St. Louis. I’ve worked with quadruple amputees. I just went to London for the Invictus Games with the Marine Corps. This is pretty much what I do now.

“My grandfather was a police officer for the city of Pittsburgh for 32 years, and then in 2001, obviously 9/11 changed a lot of us. I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people in the armed services and learn about what families sacrifice, what it’s like for the kids and the moms and dads, who can be away for eight or nine years at a time. It takes a toll and I wanted to dedicate something to them and to the people of West Virginia and to the university.”

The problem with solving the problem

by Mike Casazza

Whatever’s plaguing WVU’s basketball team right now — and we’ve covered a list of issues already — there remains one problem with this batch of problem-solving.

“Are we as disciplined as we need to be? No. Should we be? I don’t know,” he said. “The bad part about playing as many guys as we play is you try to get them all reps. You don’t get like six or seven of them reps — a bunch of reps. You get a whole bunch of guys reps.”

‘We’re going to be all right’

February 9, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Maybe it’s just be, and maybe it’s because I have at least 10 games left this season, which is, like, a third of the schedule, but it’s not yet over for West Virginia, which went 0-2 last week and fell to No. 21 in the AP poll. Does it look good? No. Might it get worse? Yep. There’s an appetizing debate about whether a team that hasn’t played this poorly or been made to look this bad so far this season can possibly see this stretch extend … or if what’s new is merely the beginning of something that might become familiar over the course of the rest of the season.

I don’t know which one is right, and that’s why I go to Ames and Stillwater and Waco and Lawrence and Kansas City, so on and so forth, but I think I can lean one way or another. I lean toward the latter because I like numbers and believe in the stories they tell. Statistics can be wrong and go wrong, but you at least read and ride the trends until you’re told it’s time to get off and head the other way.

Are we going to hear that announcement?

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Gymnasts juggle, do not stumble

by Mike Casazza

WVU gymnastics coach Jason Butts did something pretty interesting before the team’s road meet Saturday, and then saw his team respond with a handful of excellent individual performances on the way to a strong team score and a second-place finish (and that counts as a 2-1 record for the day).

“We struggled in warm-ups today, and we had to adjust our lineups accordingly,” said Mountaineer coach Jason Butts. “I told this team they could come out and be competitive, or they could fold, and they knocked it out of the park.”

With today’s score, the Mountaineers (6-5-1, 0-0-1) have now earned consecutive scores of 195.0 or better on the road for the first time since 2013.

“This is another road meet that we didn’t count a fall, and that’s big for this team,” explained Butts. “I’m proud of the way the squad is stepping up. They’re all doing a great job in practice, and it’s showing in these road meets.”

I’m not certain what Butts did, not merely because I don’t follow it all that closely, but also because lineups can change a bunch as a coach tries to find six competitors for five high scores on an apparatus, and this season isn’t yet long enough to spot definitive patterns. Still, here are the lineups from the first five meets and here’s what the Mountaineers did at New Hampshire. Lots of variation there, but big rewards, too.

You are now free to apply this logic to the basketball team, purely at your own risk. Bob Huggins said he’s had to ask players who can shoot to shoot more and players who can’t shoot to shoot less, that he’s bewildered by bigs dribbling and not finishing near the basket and by the rise in turnovers and the drop in intensity, but he also followed Saturday’s loss be revealing he saw this coming and his team has been trending this direction with bad practices for weeks now (8:30 mark).

No. 19 Baylor 87, No. 15 WVU 66

February 8, 2015 by Mike Casazza

In fewer words, here’s the guy with the team’s first 20-15 game in three years after a second straight lopsided defeat.

“They came out excited and did what they wanted to do,” WVU forward Devin Williams said. “They dictated the whole game. They controlled the pace. We never played like we wanted to play. We get people riled up and going ways they don’t want to go. They had us going ways we don’t want to go.”