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

We scooped, we scored

February 13, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Re-live the memories here. Thanks again to Kelly Hines for fitting in one more Marcus Smart interview during her busy week. She was great, no?

The team Huggins wanted, fans needed

by Mike Casazza

The past two crowds at the Coliseum combined to be just a little above a sellout crowd. They’ve been rowdy and to an extent they’ve bothered the opponent, but the numbers and the visuals tell a story: Fans are still slow to come back around on WVU basketball.

Not that the Mountaineers don’t understand the hesitation: “I would say it was hard to root for us last year,” Kevin Noreen said.

More and more, though, it seems this is the sort of team — the way it plays, the way its players are — that can spin those turnstiles. And if this was the sort of turnaround the spectators needed, then it was certainly the type of team the head coach needed to get past what happened last season.

How WVU keeps the arrow upright

February 12, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Who are we to argue with Mr. Harris? And really, had WVU’s biggest biggest flaw throughout the season not been its inability to sustain things? Big lead, close game. Hot shooting, scoring drought. Decent defense, extended rally by the opponent.

Monday night was something different: “How we played is how we’ve been trying to play forever,” Harristotle said.

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1.47%

February 11, 2014 by Mike Casazza

I’ll be candid with you for a moment: I did not see this conversation coning. IT wasn’t long ago I was in Stillwater and I was talking to some folks and the theory was WVU had a make-or-break occasion three days later against Baylor and a rather grim outlook beyond that.

We were having NIT and CBI conversations. Someone did a google search to discover CBI home games cost $35,000 for the first round, $50,000 for the second round and $75,000 for a semifinal game and to confirm the CIT is for mid-majors.

Today? Well, now I’m researching 10-win teams from power conferences that haven’t made the NCAA Tournament.

You’re damn right we’re about to go there…

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Things got interesting last night

by Mike Casazza

Eron Harris was ejected from West Virginia’s otherwise memorable victory against No. 11 Iowa State last night. He received a Flagrant 2 foul for a very heavy and seemingly non-basketball play. It seems Dustin Hogue received a Flagrant 1 for his Double Dragon jump kick to Kevin Noreen’s torso, but that wasn’t announced in the gym or included in the official box score. I’m told it was assessed, though.

I do wonder if this is the last we’ve heard of these plays. It might be that the fouls are punishment enough — that’s why there are varieties of fouls and degrees of particular varieties — and perhaps an ejection is a serious ordeal for Harris as it is. No, he isn’t automatically suspended for Saturday’s game at Texas, but getting run from a game is a big deal, even if he team was blowing out the other team.

That might be sufficient as far as the Big 12 is concerned.

And it might not be. I don’t know. I’m trying to find out. I think what’s interesting, beyond Iowa State’s Monte Morris tucking the ball in his right side and Harris never coming anywhere near the ball, is what Morris said after the game and how that might matter.

Morris said WVU told him it was “payback.”

Harris said he swung his right arm down at the ball, missed and caught Morris flush on the right side of his face. Morris had tucked the ball in his right side, opposite of where he was hit by Harris. The officials reviewed the play on a monitor for a few minutes and ejected Harris.

It doesn’t carry an automatic ejection, though it could be reviewed further by the Big 12.

“It was just a decision they made,” Harris said. “I can’t do anything about it, just like any other call they make. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

Morris, though, suggested the Mountaineers were intent on sending a message after they felt Hogue got away with kicking Noreen.

“Staten walked up to me and asked me if I was fine, but he said (Harris) did that because I guess Dustin had kicked one of his players and that was payback or whatever,” Morris said. “It hurt.”

Staten denied the allegation. He said he did ask who Harris fouled and checked to see if Morris was hurt. Staten said he told Morris that WVU wasn’t trying to do anything unsportsmanlike at that point in the game.

“We were winning by 30,” Staten said.

Translation: Scoreboard!

I promise, we’ll cover the game more later and, for real, ask aloud “What must WVU do now to get into the NCAA Tournament?”

WVU v. Iowa State: It’s rivalry week!

February 10, 2014 by Mike Casazza

This is the time of the season when the networks try to foster and to present the college game’s best rivalries, and they will do so before Sunday with the likes of Kansas-Kansas State, Michigan-Ohio State, Syracuse-Pittsburgh, Duke-UNC, Arizona-Arizona State, Florida-Kentucky, so on and so forth.

Included in the mix? Tonight’s ESPNU feature putting the bitterly bounded Iowa State and West Virginia.

Yes!

They are your Thanksgiving weekend combatants in football, where there used to stand something called the Backyard Brawl, and they played two entertaining basketball games last season. It is what it is, and tonight ought to be entertaining.

There aren’t many teams that do offense better than Iowa State. In summary:

* No. 1 in in the Big 12, No. 4 in the country in scoring offense (85 points per game)
* No. 1 in the nation in assists (18.7 per game, including 27 on 32 baskets Saturday)
* No. 2 in the nation in assist-turnover ratio (1.76)
* Shooting 56.2 percent from 2-point range and 35 percent from 3-point range

Those are the team highlights. The individual accolades?

* One of two teams with three players averaging 16 points per game
* Five players have at least one 20-point game
* Five players have won Big 12 player of the week at least once
* You know about Melvin Ejim, his 48 points and his Big 12-best 19.8 points per game. He’s also third in the league in rebounding (8.6) after leading the conference last season.
* Dustin Hogue is second (8.7) and averages 10.9 points.
* DeAndre Kane is a Wooden Award midseason candidate and averages 16.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.1 assists. No one else in the nation averages 16-6-6.
* Monte Morris, new to the starting lineup, is the one leading the Big 12 in assist-turnover ratio (absurd 4.8).
* Georges Niang might be their go-to guy. The Cyclones play, and are prone to, tight games. Niang shoots 56.3 percent in the final five minutes of games.

So, sure, Iowa State will give the Mountaineers trouble if they are hitting shots. And Fred Hoiberg is going to grease board some open shots. The concern is one player or multiple players getting hot and making a run — and when you guard like WVU does on the perimeter, that concern is amplified. Iowa State doesn’t have a true post presence. Niang can be a handful. Ejim will occasionally assert himself down there, too. Mostly, the Cyclones are happy, and effective, when they’re playing open and moving, passing and gunning.

WVU will counter by mirroring things. They’re going to attack and play fast. The first eight minutes tonight ought to be uncompromising and entertaining. But what of the final 32? Iowa State’s defense and rebounding are not what one would call stout. They can give up points and runs, too.

How the team on the bad side of the run handles itself is going to be decisive here. And wouldn’t you know it, Iowa State actually weathered TCU’s push in the second half by following Ejim for 20 consecutive points. The Mountaineers at least witnessed their own errors in letting Kansas off the leash when it mattered most.

“I think what it is, is we’ve got to play more patient on offense so we can have the ball more and have more control of the game,” Harris said. “On top of playing better defense, we’ve got to manage the game better on offense.

“We come out and play fast and we come out and attack, but at a certain point you have to have a game plan and there comes a time when the game plan calls for managing the game, which means slowing down a little bit.”

Time to speed it up here …

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Bob Huggins gets smart

by Mike Casazza

The Big 12 had its weekly teleconference for its coaches this morning and it was mostly devoted to the Marcus Smart incident — except, of course, for Travis Ford. The call’s moderator informed the media before Ford’s spot that Sunday night’s press conference would stand as his commentary on the biggest story in college sports basketball.

So Smart is gone for three games, which, if you ask me, is weak. No one was asked about that, but Bob Huggins had some of the best things to day about the relationship between the crowd and the players and coaches.

“I tell the guys all the time I’ve never seen a crowd get a rebound, make a basket or commit a foul,” he said.

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Mission: Still not easily doable

February 9, 2014 by Mike Casazza
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Oh hey, West Virginia. You just went 11 rounds in a scheduled 12-round fight on the road against never-loses-at-home-and-also-super-talented-and-oh-by-the-way-eighth-ranked Kansas. Your head coach is concerned about what legs your top two scorers have left for the next game and your third leading scorer was imperceptible and has his teammates begging him to stay upright. The turnaround is 51 hours between Kansas, which has the leading scoring offense in Big 12 play, and No. 16 Iowa State, which has the conference’s best scoring offense over the course of the season.

And, neat, the league’s leading scorer, Melvin Eim, split his wig and scored a league-record 48 points Saturday.

Your thoughts?

“Who’d they play?” Eron Harris asked.

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WVU v. Kansas: Keep it to a minimum

February 8, 2014 by Mike Casazza

2 hours prior to tip, the Jayhawk students are ready. We need the same enthusiasm from the @WVUMANIACS on Mon night pic.twitter.com/UpFjClO8wB

— Bob Huggins (@CoachHuggs) February 8, 2014

 

I won’t go into great depth again about what it’s like to be at a basketball game here at Allen Fieldhouse. If you’re curious, check out the pregame blog activity form last year’s game. There are a couple truly special places to be for a game, and we’ve seen a few of them through the years covering games in Pittsburgh (sorry!) and at UCLA. I’ve even been to the Palestra and Hinkle. The Phog wants for nothing and needs not apologize for anything. You should try to get here once.

… almost done.

That Huggins tweet is a bit misleading — the students are out three-plus hours before the game. You get the point, though.

I think what WVU fans and students and maybe even organizers fail to address about the game day experience is that at the best places the game is the main event at the end of a list of happenings.

Here, the Kansas women’s basketball coach interacts with the crowd two hours before the tip and tries to get support for her game tomorrow.

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OK, the people here are hoops crazy, and the teams are good, so that helps, but there’s effort. There’s a constant stream of activity here, and it’s like that at Oklahoma State and Kansas State and the best of the bunch.

The Kansas students who are in here hours before the game — the  ones in the Huggins photo are outside while the above is happening — are primed for cheers to use in the game. They have songs and contests and hype men. The main reason people don’t want to get to games early is because there’s nothing to do. WVU has the pep band and … actually, that’s about it.

It’s pretty easy to have contests and to give away prizes or to have some sort of entertainment before the game. How many house bands, for example, would like to play a set before a game? That and the Kroger shopping cart shootout and some other little things can get people there early and fill the time.

True, the teams come out and have to shoot around in their warmups, but it’s not hard to get a DJ or someone with a microphone or a pep band with some sheet music for today’s hits to inject some energy.

And I’m done. With. Not with this. Let’s throw it to the post … something you might not say again today with Joel Embiid in the building.

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Gibson still preferred, as well as another return

February 7, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Cell phone went bonkers when I landed — and that’s why I live in fear or losing that thing or having it fall in the wrong hands.

Anyhow, one simple text got this started: “Bruce Tall. You’re welcome.”

Well, we’re not that far down the road, but what I can tell you is WVU is strongly considering bring Bruce Tall back as probably the defensive line coach and perhaps the linebackers coach. You know him as WVU’s former safeties coach, but he’s worked more with the defensive line and linebackers in his career.

I can’t get anyone to tell me more than that, but that’s definite.  WVU, perhaps appropriately, is unreachable. Tall or any new hire — and WVU is talking to at least one other person, I’m told … and I’m working on that identity — would not be the DC. That appears to be Tony Gibson’s gig for the reasons we’ve been over previously.