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

How WVU grabs the plug and pulls

February 2, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Daxter Miles merely explains what West Virginia is doing this season and how it’s been so effective. Trent Johnson, Bruce Weber, Norense Odiase and Aaron Ross, who have in the past three games combined for two technical fouls, a flagrant foul and a temper tantrum that resulted in a public reprimand from the Big 12 commissioner, are illustrating what it’s like to play against and fall victim to the Mountaineers.

There’s something happening here, and what it is is exactly clear.

“If you’re walking down the street and a guy hops out and he’s in your face for two blocks, you’d be uncomfortable there, wondering, ‘What is this guy doing? Get away from me,’” Williams said. “That’s what we’re doing to teams.”

That was Texas Tech’s 10th turnover out of 11 in the first half. The Red Raiders would then start the second half with 10 turnovers in the first 13 possessions as the Mountaineers (18-3, 6-2) put the game out of reach with a 16-2 run for a 20-point lead.

“It’s all because of pressure,” Staten said. “In one instance, the pressure made them a little frustrated. In another instance, it made them turn the ball over. It all goes back to pressure and what we try to do on the defensive end.”

The Mountaineers are known for their full-court, full-game press this season, and rightfully so since they lead the nation in steals per game (12.4, still shy of LIU-Brooklyn’s NCAA record of 14.9 in the 1997-98 season). WVU also leads the NCAA in turnovers forced per game (22.3). About 10 times a game, though, the opponent turns the ball over without the Mountaineers stealing it. WVU forces passes out of bounds, traveling calls, inbounding and backcourt violations or offensive fouls with its pressure presence on defense.

“If you ask any basketball player on offense, they don’t like dudes who play a lot of defense,” freshman guard Daxter Miles said. “It gets in their heads. I used to hate that, when a dude wanted to play defense the whole game.”

Devin Williams on the rise

by Mike Casazza

His first half/second half splits are really quite entertaining, but Devin Williams is having a solid sophomore season and has been beyond solid in Big 12 play. The issue for him has been his shooting percentage, and his finishing around the rim, to be precise, but he’s 39 for 71 (54.9 percent) in Big 12 play — and he’s taking a lot of jumpers. But for a guy with just six blocked shots all season, and only two in conference games, Williams has been a rock on defense during WVU’s three-game winning streak.

Film don’t lie

by Mike Casazza

One of the great myths about WVU — and maybe “myth” is too strong of a word — is that the Mountaineers practice three hours a day. They spend three hours a day on basketball, the maximum allowed by NCAA rules, but some of that, and sometimes a lot of that, is devoted to film. That’s not to say they don’t work as hard or spend as much time on the floor as we are led to believe. Rather, it’s to highlight the value of film. That’s important.

(The reason I call it a myth is because it’s never really been addressed — Bob Huggins will touch on it from time to time as a way to nod his head at scouting reports and preparation — but don’t blame WVU for that. There’s something noble and intimidating about a team that gets after it three hours a day, and maybe that’s amplified a good bit when that team plays the way the Mountaineers play. My driver’s license says I’m 5’11” and I’ve let that exist … because why the hell not?)

Anyhow, we saw preparation in action in last month’s home win against Oklahoma. WVU studied the opponent, constructed a plan, put that plan into action and went about expected business in a pretty easy win.

“It wasn’t anything I wasn’t expecting,” forward Elijah Macon said. “Our guards knew what to do with our press, to get up and pressure the ball. Eventually they were going to end up turning the ball over. We had a plan for what we needed to do to win the game and we took care of it.”

Oklahoma (11-5, 2-2) entered the game with 187 assists and 181 turnovers. Only two of the nine regulars had more assists than turnovers. Point guard Jordan Woodward, who was second in the Big 12 with 4.6 assists per game, had three assists. Guard Isaiah Cousins, who had 33 turnovers coming in, added five to his total.

“We watched film on them and saw they struggled a little bit against pressure,” Staten said. “Our game plan was to deny the ball-handler Woodward and make Cousins handle the ball and make their bigs handle the ball a lot.

“We felt Woodward was their best decision-maker and if we could put their ball in their hands, we could take advantage of when they had the ball. Everyone did a good job engaging in the press and anticipating things.”

Continue reading…

No. 17 WVU 77, Texas Tech 58

February 1, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Turnovers, steals, points off turnovers, offensive rebounds, second-chance points, technical and flagrant fouls and even missed free throws! It was peak West Virginia on display Saturday and the Mountaineers drove the other team crazy before driving Texas Tech off the road in a rather easy home win.

“If you look at it, we would kind of say our whole game is one run. We play 40 minutes of a run,” point guard Juwan Staten said. “This game is all about runs. We know they’re going to have their runs. As long as we can stop them or slow them down or continue to score during their run, we won’t get too bothered by it. We know we’re going to keep applying pressure and at some point they’re going to break.”

WVU (18-3, 6-2 Big 12) shot 51.7 percent in the second half, matching the most-accurate half in Big 12 play, and made 5 of 10 3-point attempts to outscore the Red Raiders by 13. Devin Williams scored 12 of his 18 points after halftime and Miles scored 10 of his 12 in the second half to lead the way. Staten had 11 points and five assists and Gary Browne added 10 points and relentless defense on Texas Tech’s top scorer in the second half.

“It’s a very uncomfortable thing to play against – not that you can’t,” coach Bob Huggins said. “But it does make you uncomfortable.”

Miles, Browne, Staten and Jaysean Paige each made a pair of 3s for WVU, which was 9 of 22 (40.9 percent) in the game, the best mark in Big 12 play and the fourth-highest percentage of the season.

Robert Turner led the Red Raiders (11-11, 1-8) with 18 points, but he didn’t score and only attempted two shots in the second half.

“He got tired,” said Browne, who also didn’t score after halftime. “He got tired of chasing the ball. He got tired of going to catch the ball. He wasn’t effective in the second half. The easiest way to guard somebody is not to let him catch it. I go where he goes. That’s it.”

WVU v. Texas Tech: A dusty finish

January 31, 2015 by Mike Casazza
wpid-20150131_095948.jpg

You are looking live at Section 64 inside the Coliseum, which is where West Virginia’s football coaches and prospective student-athletes get to sit for games during official visits. It’s not the best view and it’s not the catty-corner floor-level site the team once enjoyed in the past and was once too close to the action and fan interaction in the past. This is more remote, I guess, and invites less interference.

WVU, of course, has a home game today and it’s the last weekend before signing day, which means more official visits. So at the end of the recruiting cycle, WVU had home games on successive Saturdays.

“Needless to say,” director of player personnel and recruiting honcho Ryan Dorchester said, “I’m very thankful for the schedule this seasons.”

And why not? Consider the situation since the 2011 signing day:

2011: Signing day is Feb. 2. Road game Saturday, Jan. 29, home games Sunday, Jan. 23 and Sunday, Jan. 16. (Sundays don’t count because families have to leave.)
2012: Signing day is Feb. 1. Road game Saturday, Jan. 28, home games Saturday, Jan. 21 and Saturday, Jan. 14.
2013: Signing day is Feb. 6. Road games Saturday, Feb. 3, Saturday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 29.
2014: Signing day is Feb. 5. Home game Saturday, Feb. 1, road games Saturday, Jan. 25 and Saturday, Jan. 28.

“You don’t necessarily need them, but the kidsvlike them,” Dorchester said. “They get a little sense of the atmosphere and the fan support. They get to see the things you try and tell them about.”

Interesting point there because the TCU game was, shall we say, intense. Once again, the game looked to be in doubt for the home team toward the finish and people started streaming for the exit — and I’ll point out they marched up toward the exit level, which is to say from the pricey seats — only to rush back in and stand in the hallway area of the inner bowl. I’d kick them out and cite a fire hazard, to be honest, but I’m not in charge.

Before all of that — before WVU’s frantic finish in regulation, before overtime — Section 64 cleared out. The team and the visitors had a schedule to keep and they ran out of the time allotted to the basketball game. A dinner was to follow, which meant getting showered and/or changed for dinner and then traveling to dinner, and the team and the visitors didn’t have enough time to finish the game and then do everything they had and wanted to do before dinner.

Remember, that was a 2 p.m. tip, which is more ideal than a noon tip, and a it lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes. The team was long gone before Miles-to-Carter and before Trent Johnson earned a reprimand. Would that have made an extra impression on the visitors? Perhaps. It wasn’t possible, though

“If we stayed for the whole deal — those kids were tired,” Dorchester said. “They get up here Friday and do a bunch of stuff. They get up Saturday and do a bunch of stuff and then they’re at the basketball game. They get tired. A lot of them wanted a nap before we took them out to dinner that night.

“I understand it was a great ending and it was exciting, but that was the right call.”

Perhaps WVU and Texas Tech can expedite things today. Think of the children.

Continue reading…

Friday Feedback

January 30, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which sometimes just stares at the screen and wonders what’s wrong with people. Earlier this month — to be precise, 24 days ago — I wrote Bruce Tall was coming aboard the S.S. Dana and that Lonnie Galloway, Brian Mitchell and Joe DeForest, who each had contracts set to expire this month, would be there to greet him.

Additionally, sources said receivers coach Lonnie Galloway, cornerbacks coach Brian Mitchell and safeties coach/special teams coordinator Joe DeForest, who all had contracts set to expire this month, recently agreed to new contracts. Galloway and Mitchell agreed to two-year deals with raises while DeForest agreed to a one-year deal at a lower salary.

Everybody filed Freedom of Information Act requests to get the intel. I do it all the time because I want to make sure what I have is up to date. And if you’ve been here any length of time, you probably know I’m sort of fascinated by contracts. Call it a hobby, I guess. And don’t laugh at me. It’s that or, like, cigarettes or chew. Anyhow, the FOIA requests were filed and fulfilled and stories were written detailing signed contracts for Galloway and Mitchell (and some people lumped in JaJuan Seider, who agreed to a new deal before the bowl), and each was careful to note DeForest’s was not signed.

That’s not insignificant, but I don’t know how significant that really is. This wouldn’t have been a very big deal, I don’t think, if it had involved anybody other than DeForest. But that guy … man … I’ve never seen anything like it here. I got so many email and texts and phone calls about it. What’s going on? Please help me! My friends, who are truly terrible people, were sending me links to message boards discussing this saga, and those discussions, of course, insisted the reporting was wrong and the explanation was changing to cover up that inaccuracy (again, not as much friends as truly terrible people), and I couldn’t believe what I was reading (Aside: Thanks, Dirty Frank. I see you working.).

All I can tell you then is what I’m telling you now. Those three coaches agreed to new contracts all around the same time. Could have been at the same moment, for all I know, but let’s go with a broader window. Everyone I talked to for the linked-to story said it and said all three were coming back. Two subsequently signed. One did not, and I understand the identity of the exception makes that a story line. Never, though, did anyone suggest to me he wasn’t coming back. And saying someone “agreed to” a contract is not the same as saying someone “signed” a contract. The distinction is important when you write about things like this, especially here, where coaches have gone entire years without signed contracts. Remember, DeForest went a full season without a signed contract, but with a signed term sheet in its place. But what others wanted to see only seemed to push the story in a direction it was not headed. Maybe he hasn’t signed it because he’s not coming back and maybe the reporting is all wrong!

Hey, there may be some truth to that. Maybe he wasn’t happy with the pay cut and the one-year deal and maybe he went to the coaches’ convention trying to find a job. I’ll allow that. But all along the hope, if not the insistence, at WVU was he was coming back. So I’ll also allow that he was busy at a busy time, and possibly even pissed since he did lose his associate head coach title, and just didn’t get to it until Monday. It might not have been a big deal to him.

Here’s the truth about DeForest: He can coach safeties and he can recruit, Dana Holgorsen really likes and respects him and he gets too much blame for special teams travails — and I’m the guy who crushes special teams. He’s not the guy who coaches the punt returners, much like he’s not the guy who makes boneheaded decisions to, say, line up 70 yards from the punter, run up 25 yards and dive head-first into a return or to attempt over-the-shoulder catches on the 2-yard line or to stand near a bouncing punt. Yeah, he works with punters, but he didn’t tell the punter to kick left when the return was going right. Follow me?

We might not agree on that, and honestly, that doesn’t matter. Here’s what matters, and this might be awkward and forward, but who cares? I’ve been on planes and in hotel rooms and have spent quite some time thinking about this and answering and asking questions. Here’s what I gather happened and how I can explain this situation:

WVU had one opening on its staff. Holgorsen is no dummy, and he’s made veiled defenses of DeForest in past. He knows the easy move would be to let DeForest go and generate whatever good will would come of that, but he didn’t think that was the right move, even when he considered everything that’s on the line next season. So he looked at everything before what I believe we’ll agree is a critical season and decided, “I’m going to replace the QB coach/offensive coordinator with a defensive coach.” Further, he went to Tony Gibson, who he just granted a three-year, $2.1 million contract, and said, “I’ve got the offense covered. Gonna get a G.A. from Kentucky who played QB here for a second. What do you need for defense?” Gibson, who has coached safeties before, as well as cornerbacks, and knew the contracts for the cornerbacks and safeties coaches were set to expire and that he could easily do one or both on his own because he has in the past, said, “D, I need a defensive line coach. We’re not where we need to be, and we need someone who can get us there in a hurry.” (In my head, this is exactly how they communicate.)

Gibson wants to coach linebackers. He’s stated he’ll never pick another spot because he wants to be in middle of the action and he needs to understand everything front to back, and he knows the linebackers are the fulcrum. He doesn’t want to coach corners and/or safeties, I think, for two reasons: 1) Coaching both is too much for a guy who runs the defense and 2) He has good coaches there. I can’t stress this enough: If he wanted DeForest out, he could have said, “I’ve got safeties. Scrap, you get linebackers. Damon Cogdell, we’re getting you a guy who really knows the line and you, in your second season of college coaching, can learn and grow under his wing.”

That didn’t happen, and now we’ve got some wrinkles to iron out, wrinkles I firmly believe will be addressed on or right after Wednesday. Here’s my ribbon: Bringing DeForest back makes sense. The price tag  is cheaper — and he still makes more than everyone but Bradley and Gibson — and the $150,000 WVU saved helped keep Seider and Mitchell (Galloway re-signed for the same salary). Most importantly, WVU isn’t a place that needs ripples in the water. There have been too many for too long and if this is indeed a severely important season, Holgorsen and his loaded defense have one less thing to worry about.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, try it if you can do it.

hershy112 said:

The history probably points to academically ineligible, but hopefully it’s some of the less talented heading out. Looking at that roster, the O-line is looking pretty rough next year, and the offense in general I suppose. With the exception of maybe the RB position. Defense looks pretty strong though, with the exception of maybe the defensive line being a little thin. Time will tell.

All that being said, it is a rare, but exciting, position for WVU to be in. Some schools oversign every year (looking at you SEC), but hopefully WVU can handle this position of power without coming across as not caring about the kids.

Surely getting to 85 involves some combination of kids who don’t qualify and kids on scholarship who leave. Impossible to avoid. The former, you’ll have to wait on — though you might see some committed kids not sign Wednesday — and the latter is something I expect to hear more about at the end of this week.

JC said:

Mike, do the guaranteed scholarships apply to kids who are already under scholarship, or will be, once that whole thing starts?

Nope, but I wondered if the student-athletes were going to push for that. The first group to get them is the next group to get them.

Continue reading…

Wednesday did not go well for Trent Johnson

January 29, 2015 by Mike Casazza

Late in the day, the hard-luck Horned Frogs gave 10-time defending league champion Kansas everything it wanted before bowing out with another close loss.

Earlier, though, the TCU coach was publicly reprimanded by the Big 12 for his antics following Saturday’s loss to West Virginia.

Continue reading…

WVU flips the switch

by Mike Casazza

That list of 17 we discussed Monday just grew, as expected, by one with an unexpected flip flop from Shaquery Wilson who had been committed to Georgia since July. The pitch behind the switch? Come play receiver.

Seems like a good idea.

The bad and the beautiful

January 28, 2015 by Mike Casazza

If you’re Mack or if you didn’t see the game — or if you wouldn’t/couldn’t take it after a short while — consider the above photo a sufficient synopsis of West Virginia’s 65-59 win.

We’ve said this before, and we’re going to say it again, I’m sure, but after the 40 or 45 or however many minutes you need to get by or to get beat by WVU, you’re going to know you’ve played the Mountaineers. I’m not sure I’ve seen a quality opponent this season — that is to say, not VMI or College of Charleston or even Wofford — look or sound as spent and as shaken as Kansas State did after last night’s game.

Opinions will vary on that, much like opinions will vary among the participants. Bruce Weber is not a fan of WVU’s pressing style. I mean that: He called it “awful” and “bad basketball,” and he’s the one who coached his team to prepare for a barroom brawl — again, his words. The Wildcats walked away well aware of what they’d been through after a six-game home winning streak against ranked opponents met its end.

The Mountaineers made things difficult on the Wildcats from start to finish by defending every inch of the floor. They forced 25 turnovers and committed 28 fouls, taking finesse completely out of the game. K-State struggled against the pressure, constantly getting whistled with 10-second violations and losing possession on in-bounds passes, as well as throwing the ball away.

“We were not used to it, so were sped up a little bit,” K-State forward Wesley Iwundu said. “They just get after it before half court. That is probably the toughest thing.”

The Wildcats managed to beat it enough times to give themselves a shot. Problem is, they exerted so much energy doing so that when players did get open they rarely shot the ball with precision.

“I have never played in a game like that before,” K-State sophomore guard Marcus Foster said after scoring 15 points. “It was like a fight.”

Continue reading…

WVU v. Kansas State: Squaring up in the octagon

January 27, 2015 by Mike Casazza
20150127_165515[1]

You are looking live at West Virginia’s warmups for tonight’s game in the Bramlage Coliseum, more appropriately known as the Octagon of Doom. Bruce Weber’s Kansas State teams are 42-5 here and the five losses are by a combined 14 points. (Interestingly, the losses are to Kansas and Texas, because, sure, they’re tough, but also Northern Colorado last season and in back-to-back games this season Texas Southern and Georgia.) Weber’s Wildcats are 20-2 at home in Big 12 play and have won 11 of 14 at home against ranked teams.

The Mountaineers, of course, are ranked No. 17 in both polls. And they’re 9-1 away from home, tied with No. 2 Virginia and No. 3 Gonzaga for the national lead in wins in road/neutral games. (WVU includes that in its game notes now!) This will be hostile, tonight, because it’s always sort of hostile here, hence the nickname. And that nickname has its roots in the 2006-07 season … when the Wildcats hired Bob Huggins and awoke a fan base that was waiting for a jolt. They wanted to make their home a place where they were comfortable and no one else was and they sought a nickname. It really took off under Frank Martin in the 2009-10 season that ended in the Sweet Sixteen. But it’s a Thing and they pelple here take pride in it.

Speaking of Huggins, he left his mark …

20150127_164412[1]

… and then promptly showed up at a press conference in the WVU Coliseum, which was about to hang a NIT championship banner some months later, and said, “Yeah, the NIT’s cool, and you can have that and be happy about that, but we don’t want any more of those on our resume.”

Got some items for your resume after the jump.

Continue reading…