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

Here comes Red Panda

January 28, 2013 by Mike Casazza

I told you it was Big Monday, right? Well, WVU and Kansas will be doing pregame and postgame shows around Red Panda at the Coliseum tonight. I’m not alone here, but I’m infatuated with Ms. Panda and I act like a star-struck child when in her presence.

I need to know more about Red Panda. Is she a Big 12 act? Why wasn’t this a more contentious part of the settlement negotiations? What’s she like? I mean, when Matt Wells comes to her dressing room and is all, “Ms. Panda, five minutes…” is she on her Blackberry texting friends like Shaq and Caley Kuoco and Lil Wayne and Jay Bilas and snapping bubble gum and doesn’t even acknowledge Wells? Or is she sitting on her unicycle signing autographs with her feet for little children seven feet below?

I’m in trouble tonight. Her appearances are the one time of the year that the writers don’t leave press row at the end of the first half and hit the restroom or head to the press lounge for a coffee or a soda or a fourth helping of whatever free food is provided that game.

Halftime is the Panda’s stage, but halftime for a 9 p.m. start provides 15 priceless minutes for me to knock out a few inches on the first half toward a deadline finish. Decisions!

Special occasion, special exception

by Mike Casazza

The Fourth Tier doesn’t do Texts From Game Day during basketball season, though there have been exceptions. This seems like time for an exception.

WVU’s season is going sideways and, barring the extraordinarily unlikely, will end outside the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2007. Those Mountaineers won the NIT.

These Mountaineers will have to do some work to get into the NIT — I’m sorry, but that’s the truth, especially if  they’re two games under .500 tomorrow morning with two left against Baylor and one more left against Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Kansas in the final 11 conference games.

Maybe something special starts tonight or maybe this is just a special night and this is just a season that only has opportunities like this remaining, chances to shine on national television and do something fun and memorable.

Either way, it’s time for TFGD. Tell your friends. Let’s pick the world up and drop it on their texting heads.

 

WVU v. Oklahoma State: Now Humphrey free!

January 26, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to Tier 4! You are looking live at Iba-Gallagher Arena, another one of the unique and enjoyable Big 12 Conference atmospheres and site of today’s game. WVU will do it today without Matt Humphrey, who has come along as of late. He will sit today after aggravating his left shoulder, the same one he had operated on in August to fix a torn labrum.

More on that later. I really do like these Big 12 gyms and how one is not like the other. The big difference between the Big East and the Big 12, I think, is that the schools own and operate their buildings whereas in the Big East many teams share their space with pro basketball or hockey teams or other diversion. They’re larger and built for bigger crowds and to accommodate multiple teams and events.

These schools build and tailor their buildings to their own preferences. They’re smaller spaces, sometimes suited for smaller crowds, and they can put people where they want. Students are in optimal spots and pep bands are in the proper places. Today, seats reserved by WVU are right behind the bench.

I think I like this better.  And I know I like this: white sneaker day. Technically, it’s Suits and Sneakers weekend. Tenth annual, too, and it’s doubly cool because Bob Valvano is the commentator on ESPNU today.

I did not get the memo. One day, I’m playing along. Need to do something with those Starburys.

On to the next one …

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Tier 3 FAQs

January 24, 2013 by Mike Casazza

That whole thing sidetracked me today and kept me from getting a few things done that I needed to get done. That compromises the Friday Feedback, which wasn’t going to be much during a short and thin week as it was.

This Tier 3 stuff seems to have your attention, at least above the meddling basketball team and, I don’t know, football recruiting? I’ve also been warned that there’s a good amount of misinformation out there for your consumption. I’ll field and answer your Tier 3 questions in the comments, as can.

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Sources confirm WVU Tier 3 deal with IMG College

by Mike Casazza

Since WVU has sent a letter of intent to IMG College, we’re only a few short phases away from the end here. One of the last remaining schools to independently manage its Tier 3 multimedia rights, WVU has agreed to outsource that work to IMG College.

From what I gather, it’s looking like 12 years and more than $110 million if incentives hit like WVU hopes.

Bob Huggins wins, still not quite happy

by Mike Casazza

The first half, I thought, ended all the drama Wednesday night. WVU, as troubled as it can be on offense and defense, had done well enough on both ends to take a 13-point halftime lead, and WVU, as troubled as it can be on offense and defense, was not going to lose to that TCU team. I was certain of that much after the opening eight minutes.

Yet with the Mountaineers, you have to watch and wonder because they’ve proven no lead is safe either way. How close could TCU get, particularly when the Horned Frogs found themselves down 21 points?

The answer: 11 points. And the Mountaineers handled that with a 10-2 run and then balanced scoring from there to the end to get the 71-50 win — which meant TCU gave up its second-highest point total of the season and finished below its terrible scoring average.

So Bob Huggins, who escaped only the second four-game losing streak of his career, must have been pleased, yes? No, not at all.

“I guess after all these years I learned that you don’t give them back when you win one, but I’m not very happy,” said Huggins, who lost four in a row in the 1984-85 season at Akron, his first as a Division I coach. “I thought we played real hard and I thought defensively we did things we’ve done for a long time in the first half. The second half, we stopped guarding, which has been kind of what we do.”

WVU v. TCU: Not expecting much?

January 23, 2013 by Mike Casazza

You are looking live at the student section inside the Coliseum, where it’s not too cold outside to make the media walk halfway around the building to get in the red gate, as opposed to the green gate closest to the parking lot. Never mind nobody checks bags at either gate. Just go to the red gate, briskly if you’re cold.

Wait … where was I? Oh, yes. Those white sheets of paper are the Maniac Musings and on normal days I’d take one and share it with you. If I took one today there would only be like 17 left for the students. Clearly, they’re not looking for a big turnout tonight.

And that makes two intriguing over/unders tonight:

1) WVU, a game below .500 with two home losses already, is an 11.5 point favorite against TCU, which is .500 and loser of five straight, each in the Big 12. That’s a lot of points for a team that doesn’t have a great offense playing against a team that doesn’t give you the normal amount of opportunities.

2) Attendance: 7,200?

You make the call …

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Tonight’s conundrum

by Mike Casazza

To review, TCU is a bashful offensive team that doesn’t do much and doesn’t really do it all that well. Then again, that depends on where you look and how you view what you see.

The Horned Frogs are No. 344 in points per game (54.8). But they’re also No. 13 nationally in points allowed (56.4). TCU is a top-100 outfit in shots allowed and baskets allowed and top-20 in 3-point field goals attempted and allowed.

The Horned Frogs are also No. 337 in possessions per 40 minutes, but No. 10 in possessions allowed per 40 minutes (60.4).

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Preschool wasteland?

by Mike Casazza

For a long time, WVU couldn’t lose three straight under Bob Huggins. There were two-game losing streaks throughout his five seasons, but the Mountaineers usually snapped it off there and had a nice win to go with it.

Last season was the first three-game losing streak under Huggins — at St. Johns, which was a season-changer; at Syracuse, which was controversial thanks to Abe Keita; and against Pitt, which was when Kevin Noreen broke his ankle and from where things went really bad.

Well, today you have your second three-game skid under Huggins. He hasn’t seen a four-game slide since 1985 … when I was a savvy pre-schooler trying to take five minutes from tomorrow’s recess so we could be outside five minutes longer today and then laughing maniacally when the teacher realized today was Friday.

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Proficient in all the wrong ways

January 22, 2013 by Mike Casazza

That whole “Find a way” thing was a nice for a spin around the carousel and the timing couldn’t have been better after a seemingly promising win on the road when looking at certain defeat. WVU hasn’t won since, though, and is actually finding ways to lose.

“It just seems like every time I think I’ve maybe got something figured out, they just say, ‘Ah, we can screw this up,’ ” Huggins said.

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