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WVU v. Missouri: “How’s the Big 12?”

December 5, 2013 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live inside Mizzou Arena on the frigid campus of the University of Missouri, which automatically makes be a better journalist, if for one night only.

Understand that here, the people don’t much like the Big 12 and it was that burgeoning discontent that ultimately pushed them out of the league and into the Southeastern Conference. As you can expect, once you’re in the SEC, you develop a certain joie de vivre. Then when you find yourself playing for the SEC football title, it becomes very, well, je ne sais quoi?

And so it was no surprise that when I first arrived at the arena — and I was forewarned the students section is, as you can see, right on top of the floor and that the kids can be rowdy — one lonesome student shouted, “Welcome to Missouri, West Virginia. How the Big 12?” That was promptly followed by laughter, isolated as it was 75 minutes before the game. There was later a poster board illustration of the Mountaineer mascot and some peculiar joke about the resemblance to Miley Cyrus. I’d say you had to be there, but trust me, you didn’t.

But it’s going to be difficult in here tonight. The Tigers (7-0) are pretty good and they play well at home. They’ve won 77 straight at home in non-conference play and are a Petersen Events Centeresque 141-21 since this place opened in the 2004-05 season. Missouri was 17-0 at home last season and has won 22 straight and 37 of 38.

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers (6-2) have played but once in a true road game and that didn’t go very well.

The blog is tipped, and here we are …

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A tight and tidy Thursday

by Mike Casazza

We begin this morning with Scoop & Score, live again at 9 a.m. after a Best Of last week on Thanksgiving morning. You can listen live right here. I’ll share the podcast later. (UPDATE: Oh, hey, technical glitch blacked us out at 9 a.m. It’s live at 10 a.m. Same link. I’ll still share a podcast link later. P.S. I’m in Charlotte on my way to St. Louis, so …) Today’s guest is Derek Redd and we’ll talk about Marshall football and a little Jameis Winston. I’ll also challenge our media to do something creative.

(Another update: Podcast is here.)

Then it’s off to Columbia, Mo., for tonight’s game in the Big 12/SEC Challenge. And don’t look now, but maybe WVU is getting it together as it enters the teeth of the non-conference schedule.

Get him on the court and he’s trouble…

December 4, 2013 by Mike Casazza
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Those are the four triple-doubles in WVU history and it’s been 1,204 games and almost 39 years since we last saw one — and “we” is certainly limited when it involves an event four decades ago.

But I’ve wondered about when this might happen again, and I’ve seen a number of close calls in my time covering the team. So I asked Bob Huggins Monday night if he’d be surprised to look at his box score after a game here soon and see Staten had ended another streak.

“No, not at all,” he said.

Staten is that kind of player on a team that on many nights is going to need him to be that kind of player. The new rules, the emphasis on a collective rebounding effort and the cast of shooters and scorers around him make even Staten think it could happen.

“It’s definitely possible,” said Staten, whose assist average ranks No. 4 nationally. “Whether it happens or not is to be determined, but I think it’s a definite possibility. We’ve got a lot of great shooters on the team who step in and make shots. I’m shooting the ball and I’ve shown I can rebound, too. In the right game and if everything goes right, I definitely feel like I can get a triple-double.”

 

And WVU moves to 6-2 without its stars

December 3, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Encouraging sign for WVU Monday with an easy win on a night when Juwan Staten wasn’t scoring and Eron Harris wasn’t making shots. Good thing Kevin Noreen showed up and made a play after falling down!

Harris was 4-for-13 and Staten 2-for-10 for WVU (6-2), but it was Noreen who got the offense untracked early.

“I have to because if I don’t, I’m not a threat, and you have to be a threat or else they won’t respect you and it’ll bottle up the offense like it did last year,” said Noreen, who missed matching his career high set last year against Virginia Tech by one point. “Teams sat guys in the lane and we couldn’t get much at the basket, so I have to.”

Noreen’s first shot was a 3 at the 17:24 mark and it came as the Greyhounds dropped off Noreen and protected the paint, not thinking Noreen would make his first 3 since Feb. 27.

“I came in two hours before the game and he and Eron Harris were out there shooting the ball,” Huggins said. “He had two managers and he was getting up a lot of shots. Ironically, he must have taken 50 shots from the exact same spot he took that shot from.”

Oliver Luck grabs the mic, actually speaks

by Mike Casazza

Statement from WVU Director of Athletics Oliver Luck on Mountaineer Football:

First, I want to thank all Mountaineer fans who supported our football team through a difficult and trying season.  Though there were some high points this year, including our upset victory over No. 11 Oklahoma State and the inspired play from many first year student-athletes, there were far too many disappointments.

We have high expectations at West Virginia University for success on and off the field and as Coach Holgorsen has acknowledged to me, we are not meeting those expectations on the field.  Coach Holgorsen and I met at length and reviewed this past season.  We discussed the coaching staff, recruiting, player development, strength and conditioning, academic support, facilities, in short, all the components that make up a successful program.  We are working diligently to improve our capabilities in all of these areas.

I strongly believe in our coaching staff, including the work that our strength and conditioning staff is doing.  In my opinion, continuity is the key ingredient that will bring our football program back to the high level that Mountaineer fans expect.

We had plenty of challenges this season; nonetheless, we should not and will not use those as excuses for our performance. We simply must get better.

Coach Holgorsen and his staff are on the road recruiting this week, securing the future for a successful Mountaineer football program.  We need to do our part as well by continuing to move forward with the facility improvements needed to compete at the highest level in our conference.

We have high expectations for the 2014 football team, and I have shared those with Coach Holgorsen.  He and his staff are eager to get started to prepare for our opening game against Alabama.  We are well aware that we have a lot of work to do.

We have tremendous student-athletes in our program and a very accomplished core of coaches who want to bring championships back to West Virginia University.  We will do all we can to help them in that endeavor, and I ask for your continued support as we move forward to a brighter future.

WVU v. Loyola: Santa’s Little Helper

December 2, 2013 by Mike Casazza

It’s the Mountaineers and the Greyhounds tonight and it’s the final primer for WVU before a rather rigorous pre-Christmas stretch where the games are at Missouri, against Gonzaga, against Marshall in Charleston and against Purdue.

At 5-2, this team likes itself and feels pretty good about things, even after the loss to Wisconsin in the Cancun Classic. Good things still may come of that.

“We didn’t execute and they went down and hit big shots because they did execute, maybe because they have more veterans on the floor who have played in big games and we have younger guys who haven’t played in big games,” Harris said. “We’re going to play other big teams and the next time we play a big team, we’ll be that much more mature because of that experience in Cancun.”

Watch me post …

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Texts From Iowa State Game Day

by Mike Casazza

And with that, the season came to an end with a lot of the same questions and a lot of the same answers about what went wrong. Let’s not lose sight of the obvious. The loss was “pretty indicative of the whole year,” according to Shannon Dawson, and just completely appropriate.

The final game of the season saw a lot of the same misgivings from the Mountaineers and it was three overtimes and 4 hours, 8 minutes long — meaning that for one last time, WVU could not finish.

“We talked about finishing all year long,” Holgorsen said. “Obviously, that’s going to be something that’s got to be addressed in the offseason when it comes to the issues we had this year. We’ve had issues closing games this year. Why can’t we close games? It comes down to execution, a burning desire to win, a collection of guys who don’t want to let each other down, coaches and players included.

“Obviously, we’re not at that point right now.”

The focus now ought not be why the Mountaineers couldn’t close games, but how Holgorsen & Co. make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Cold water, cleaning my wounds. A sad parade, with a single balloon. I’m done with this, I’m counting to ten. Bluest seas, running to T.F.G.D. My edits are in [brackets].

3:25:
The Mountaineer brought 10 pounds of deer jerky to today’s game — one pound for each fan in attendance.

3:56:
Okay. Got my Marlboros. Got my Jack Daniels. Got my Testors model glue. Ready for some Mountaineer football!

4:01:
Looks like these seniors like Dana … All the hugging

4:28:
Looks like the lads were ready to play, which makes the coming fourth quarter collapse all the more excruciating.

4:30:
High Rollin [dunderheads] in the end zone terrace rich seats. Clueless but think they are smart. They heard of mike Casazza tho.

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WVU v. Iowa State: At least that’s what they told me

November 30, 2013 by Mike Casazza
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Ohhhh, prepare thyself for a ton of observations, photographs and jokes about the attendance today. Literally a ton. If you got them all together and put them on a scale, they would weight no fewer than 2,o00 pounds.

I encourage you to identify the very worst and share your discoveries in the comment section with the rest of the large audience here.

Anyways …

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You’ll Never Talk Alone: S2, E12

November 27, 2013 by Brad McElhinny

It’s our season finale, and if the end couldn’t arrive soon enough for you in this 2013 season, well, we moved everything up a day.

The chat normally reserved for Thursday morning will be this morning at 11 a.m. If you can’t make it, submit your questions now and I’ll answer them when we go live. Then your spouse can read you the chat transcript when you’re rolling along over the river and through the woods. Here’s the mobile link. See you soon!

Dana Holgorsen: Iowa State

November 26, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Interesting stuff, which seems to be the hallmark of these events this season, but I have an obligation to tell you something that wasn’t pictured. Clint Trickett told reporters he actually had a prior concussion against Kansas State and never told anyone. He then said he would have been inclined to keep quiet the second concussion against Texas if it hadn’t been so obvious.