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

A real email from the Fake Bob Huggins

May 23, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Disclaimer: I am not @FakeBobHuggins. Nor am I @FauxCoachHolgs. This comes up more than you think. I think, across time, I’ve learned to be flattered by the insinuation. 

Oh, who says we’re short for material in late May? You? How dare you! I give you a post inviting thoughts about how Bob Huggins might use his final scholarship and get two comments. Would you feel more inspired if you knew that the real Fake Bob Huggins had emailed me to express his thoughts on what he will do with No. 13?

My commenters accept your challenge, Fake Mr. Huggins. The gauntlet is thrown, Mr. Miles and Mr. Millinghaus and Mr. Prospect At Large …

Continue reading…

Bob Huggins holds one scholarship

by Mike Casazza

Whatever will he do with it? He told me Tuesday the Mountaineers are recruiting Daxter Miles. He, like Tavon, is a Poet and plays for former WVU guard Cyrus Jones.

He can also hop.

Huggins also said WVU is recruiting Shadell Millinghaus, who played in eastern New York before prepping this year at Believe Prep, in Rock Hill, S.C.

Continue reading…

Randy Mazey with a switcheroo

by Mike Casazza

Harrison Musrave, the Big 12’s pitcher of the year, hasn’t pitched since May 11. He’ll wait another day — and given the forecast in Oklahoma City, maybe one more — because the Mountaineers will start Dan Dierdorff today against Kansas. Musgrave will, presumably, pitch against TCU.

And given the format of the Big 12 tournament championship, it’s the right move.

Dierdorff threw a complete game in a 4-3 win against Kansas this season. He struck out six and walked one and had one stretch where he retired 13 straight. Conversely, Dierdorff, typically the team’s No. 2 starter, was thumped by TCU. He lasted two-thirds of an inning and gave up six runs (four earned) in a 7-4 loss. Musgrave struck out 14 Horned Frogs in a 2-0 complete-game win May 11. Musgrave hasn’t pitched since.

“We’ve been playing well all year long even with all the adversity we’ve gone through with the travel and everyone counting us out as thezunderdog,” Wilson said. “We can still play like we don’t have anything to lose. We’ll go out and play loose. Harrison’s pitching the first game and we’ve got a lot of other guys who can play. I really feel like if we keep doing what we’ve done all year, we’ll be all right.”

Bowls! WVU could play in one, too!

May 22, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Always a big day in the Casazza household when the dates for the season’s bowl games are announces. Today is the day I start infuriating my wife and our families and begin figuring out where the heck I’m going to be for Christmas and/or New Year’s — and I’m not going to lie to you … the answer this year may be “Morgantown.”

But who knows? We’re 100 days away from the first game with a Big 12 team, so a lot can change. A lot will change. There are probably six teams most would consider to be “better” than WVU, whatever that means on May 22. The seventh place team last season ended up being TCU and played Michigan State in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl in Tempe, Ariz. I could do that.

And this is where I tell you the eighth place team ended up playing in a blizzard against Syracuse. Remember that? I guess my point is that nobody would have suspected that outcome last May 22, so we’re silly to put our feet in the wet cement today.

Nevertheless, help my wife, please. Here’s the schedule. Where will I be for a bowl this year?

Geno Smith joins Roc Nation

by Mike Casazza

Look for G!
Young Smith, cruising down the Westside,
Highway, doing what he likes to do,
His way, eyes behind shades,
That necklace the reason all his dates be blind dates.

It’s official. Now brace yourself for the reaction — specifically that directed at his “Eh, I don’t really care my contract agent doesn’t have a lot of experience” line I’ve seen a bunch already — but I stand by everything written 12 days ago.

Jay-Z’s plucked players from the Giants (Victor Cruz), Yankees (Robinson Cano) and the Jets. He has a history with the Nets. This thing is absolutely going to grow and there are worse things than aligning oneself with a proven businessman who happens to have his hands around the Big Apple.

The NFL’s rookie contract isn’t worth nearly as much as later contracts, but those later contracts may never come. Good for Geno for making sure he gets the most out of what he’s worked to hard to hold in his hands.

May 20, as told by Randy Mazey and Brady Wilson

by Mike Casazza

“You see it on the news and hear it on the radio and that stuff doesn’t really hit you like it does when you experience it right in front of you, when you meet somebody who’s been hit so hard by all of this.”

— Right fielder Brady Wilson

You’ve seen the video above , followed the events on Twitter and tracked the blossoming admiration aimed at WVU’s baseball team on Facebook. And now the Mountaineers are beginning to tell their stories and share the emotions and the memories from witnessing the depths of sheer devastation and the hope of an earnest attempt to start recovering.

Huggins announces Miles exit

May 21, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Logically, this decision comes after A Meetin’ With Keaton.

Hey, good kid, liked by his teammates, invested in his surroundings. But we knew what he came to know. The minutes were not going to be there next season or likely the season after that. He can find them elsewhere.

Now WVU has one scholarship left. Bob Huggins told me WVU is recruiting Dax Miles and Shadell Millinghaus. You might have a point guard yet, guys.

Do take a moment to congratulate Brad Hill

by Mike Casazza

He’s the Big 12 baseball coach of the year. WVU’s Harrison Musgrave did win pitcher of the year, though. Unanimously. Ryan McBroom and Matt Frazer were second-team picks.

If Randy Mazey’s miss has you down, then spend some time reveling in the feedback his team’s actions over the past 18 hours have received.

Summer classes start, football roster grows

by Mike Casazza

Three new players in and one more should be added today — but that one isn’t in danger of not being able to enroll. (Hint: It’s the quarterback who transferred from an ACC school!)

The rest of the recruiting class will arrive over time. Summer school at WVU is a 12-week period with one-, three- and six-week courses and a variety of starting points. The basketball newcomers should arrive in June for the second six-week period.

One person you can include in the expected football arrivals: Brandon Golson.

Continue reading…

Randy Mazey … and we’re out of words

by Mike Casazza

I’m not entirely sure what Randy Mazey hoped to accomplish yesterday when WVU’s baseball coach rounded up his team so that the Mountaineers could travel the 10 or so miles from the team hotel in Oklahoma City to the town of Moore that was just devastated by a tornado.

Hey, I’m sure he wanted to help, but I’m just as sure just as sure it was still dangerous to simply exist in that area. There were tornadoes in the region and conditions can be very volatile after one of those clouds barrels through.

The news begged people to stay put, to let the brave first responders and emergency personnel do what they do and to let the people who once lived where there is now just rubble return to their homes and begin the just unimaginable tasks of looking for loved ones or putting their lives back together again. Or both.

So, no, I can’t say I completely grasp Mazey’s thinking. Nor do I know how I would have responded. None of that matters because all I know is this is a guy who saw a tragedy beyond description and immediately thought, “We’re helping.”

Not “How can we help?” or “Should we help?” There’s a difference. Please note that.

The Mountaineers were told to stay in their hotel and they never got to the site, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t help. That merely meant they couldn’t help the way Mazey wanted. Unable to bring his roster to the scene, he instead brought his players to Walmart for a well-intended  shopping spreed.

The Mountaineers filled baskets with clothes and supplies and bagged up their purchases so they could deliver them to the people who need T-shirts and water and shoes and snacks, but also all the compassion and warmth and generosity that comes with every one of those bags.

I don’t know when or where they’ll play the Big 12 Tournament this week, or if they will at all, but I know there isn’t an outcome in which WVU isn’t a winner. This isn’t a sports story. Not now. This is real life. It would have been easy to do nothing — I think I spent a few paragraphs explaining that — but it wouldn’t have been right. Just take a few minutes and go through the team’s Twitter timeline and try not to be proud of what the Mountaineers did. Wouldn’t hurt to drop them a message, either.