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

Transfer of power on display tonight

January 16, 2013 by Mike Casazza

WVU’s two leading scorers, and to date, two most mercurial Mountaineers, are Division I transfers, coached by a Division I transfer named Bob Huggins.

Iowa State has five Division I transfers on the roster and Coach Fred Hoiberg — not a transfer in his days with the Cyclones — has brought eight to campus in his three seasons. He’s getting the most out of his next-stop players.

Iowa State (11-4, 1-1 Big 12) features four Division I transfers. One leads the team in scoring, one is the starting point guard, one plays the most minutes and has the best assist-turnover ratio for an up-tempo team and one is the top reserve.

And for effect, a junior college transfer is Big 12’s most prolific and most accurate 3-point shooter.

“We’ll always look at it and try to find out what makes the most sense for the program and to have long-term success,” said Coach Fred Hoiberg, who has brought eight Division I transfers to campus in his three seasons. “For us, it was pretty important to get to the next level and where we needed to be to compete in the Big 12 Conference.

“It’s something we’ll certainly continue to look at. There were a couple this year we missed on that ended up going to big-time programs.”

And that’ll be all for me during business hours today. I’m on the ground in Iowa and heading a few hours southeast for an assignment. Won’t say more than that for the time being.

You might get announcements for Tony Gibson and Lonnie Galloway joining the football staff today. I heard both gentlemen were at the women’s basketball game last night, which seems like something employees would do. They’re not even allowed to have WVU cell phones until they get the nod from H.R.

As for Iowa …

So true. So true. I’ll see you at the live post here tonight. The ESPN2 game tips at 9’ish EST.

Cylones scoring up a … storm? My bad.

January 15, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Nevertheless, Iowa State is a really interesting team. Almost an anomaly. The Cyclones lead the Big 12 Conference in possessions per game, points per possession, points per game, field goals attempted and made and 3-pointers attempted in made.

Play that pace and you’re going to have faults. Sure enough, Iowa State is ninth in the 10-team conference in scoring defense and No. 7 in field-goal percentage defense.

And that’s pretty much where it stops making sense.

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How can two people so close not be together?

by Mike Casazza

There are a lot of questions about WVU’s basketball team, but that one seems to linger most as it relates to Bob Huggins and Juwan State. How is it that the coach and the point guard, who is an extension of the coach, can be at a distance as they have been this past week — and don’t we have to presume it’s longer than a week?

How is it that a kid like Staten, who had played so sharply and in possession of so much faith and confidence from his teammates, could lose control? Sure, he had something of a reputation when he came here from Dayton, one I can’t speak to, but can read about, but he was supposed to have been the model citizen last year. I mean, he was named team captain this season.

But what seems to matter most is that whatever happened with Staten or to Huggins or between Staten and Huggins lasted far too long and it’s really upon the player to make the necessary fixes. Now.

WVU crumbled late in Saturday’s loss against Kansas State and under ordinary, more peaceful circumstances, Staten is the one in the game and he’s not handing off his dribble to a defender running right at him. He likely doesn’t make some of the other errors that contributed to the loss.

That defeat was lowlighted by the miscues in the final possession and the last few minutes, but it was really about the opportunities WVU gave up throughout the game, but may have been handled better with Staten on the right side of Huggins, as opposed to seated to his coach’s right.

 

Spring semester football arrivals

by Mike Casazza

There are six, so far, as of Tuesday morning. I use that as my means of measure because someone might have been processed after business hours Monday, the first day of the semester, and didn’t show up until this morning. And I say that because three junior college players are not yet in the system.

One junior college player is here and thank goodness for that, for his name is Dreamius Smith. And can we help this guy out with the culture shock?

High school players enrolled for and likely in class are quarterback Chavas Rawlins, running back Wendell Smallwood, receiver Dakiel Shorts, linebacker Hodari Christian and safety Malik Greaves. Junior college receivers Ronald Carswell and Kevin White and safety Terrell Pinson are not yet in the system.

Going by confirmations and other avenues of validation, like Twitter, it looks like all of the kids enrolled are in class, though short of showing up at classes and identifying a person and marking him off the list, it’s hard to say for certain. The three signed junior college players not yet registered have until Friday, and that’s when WVU will likely make the additions official.

Meantime, gasp at the tale of Mr. Rawlins.

Turn the mic on! Oh, it is?

January 14, 2013 by Mike Casazza

It’s not just the nearly-muted conversation he had with the media Saturday. It’s what he’s saying and how he says it that suggests Bob Huggins seems less irate and more optimistic after last week’s 1-1 mark.

And what a week that was.

Allow me an aside to thank you for the strong numbers during the first week of our digital subscription era. The clicks count. The RTs and the “likes” matter. The comments here are noticed. This is about more than print and web stories. It’s the delivery of the news, no matter the time of the day or the day of the week. Even Bob Huggins wants a look at what we’re doing! (I’m serious: 34:50 mark, if you will.) Everything was big last week and I’m just a spoke on that wheel. Let’s keep it rolling.

WVU plays a lot like WVU … also, Providence

by Mike Casazza

Messing around with the wonderful distractions at StatSheet.com, I got into a line of thinking about this WVU team and its trends, norms and comparisons. That’s a telling little graphic there.

This WVU team isn’t much different from the five other teams Bob Huggins has had at WVU. Yet it’s nothing like teams Huggins had at Cincinnati or Kansas State.

And the company this season? The best of that bunch is Oklahoma, which is 11-3 and No. 14 in the RPI, thanks in some regard to two wins against the Mountaineers. Marquette (12-3, No. 21) isn’t bad company, either. Everyone else meddles around .500, except Texas A&M (12-3, No. 44) and … you guessed it … Rutgers (11-4, No. 58).

Still, four of the 10 most-comparable teams to WVU are likely NCAA Tournament bound — and I’ll allow disagreements on Rutgers because … well, Rutgers. And this team behaves like other Huggins-led WVU teams, and each has made it to the NCAA Tournament.

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Here comes help! Uh, what’s that, Devin Williams?

by Mike Casazza

Time is ticking for West Virginia. I hesitate to say it’s running out because, as of today, the remaining schedule includes 10 games against the RPI top 100 and three against ranked teams — though that could be four if Oklahoma is ranked in today’s poll.

The point is that there are opportunities and the Big 12, fun as it has been through three entertaining games so far, is not the Big East. Road teams are 6-7, which makes home teams 7-6. There’s a chance to rally.

Yet WVU is 0-2 in Big 12 home games. It’s winless against ranked (0-3) and RPI top 100 (0-7) teams and has a bunch of those games remaining and more road games (nine) than home games (seven).

So forgive the Mountaineers if they say it’s getting late, a reality underscored by Saturday’s struggles when the game was getting late.

But, lo, help is on the way. Recruiting solves everything, right? Huggins has to recruit bigger bodies, better shooters, superior scorers and meaner spirits, no? Cross your fingers here …

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WVU goes from looking good to still looking

January 12, 2013 by Mike Casazza

It’s getting late in a season that still lacks a win a team that is ranked or in the RPI’s top 100.

They had opportunities against Kansas State with a lead in the final minute and then three shots when they had a chance to win in the final 20 seconds, but nothing went right. The Wildcats had their game-winning points come at the foul line with 21.4 seconds to go, nearly stole the ball on WVU’s final inbound and then blocked the game’s final shot.

“We’re getting better, we’re making steps in the right direction, but instead of taking a big step today we took a very small one,” forward Kevin Noreen  said. “There really aren’t any moral victories right now. We need to get to 20 (wins). Dropping one like that hurts.”

WVU v. Kansas State: I’ve got a weird feeling

by Mike Casazza

I have no words for what’s happening here, but it’s January 12, it’s 64 degrees outside and I’m planning on grilling later this evening, so why the hell wouldn’t Batman and Batwoman be on the floor doing drills?

Seriously. Drills. On the block. This is right across from WVU’s bench and the players were watching and as bewildered as I was.

And then it was over and they trotted away, past puzzled Jabarie Hinds, and toward their cave … also known as the front row of the student section.

I like it. I endorse it. Need a big day from the students, the Pikachu, the Super Friends and the the rest of the gang.

So, yeah, I’ve got a feeling about today …

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Friday Feedback

January 11, 2013 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which will find a way to do this more regularly now. Promise. I’ve no other choice. The mantra is tattooed om the left side of my brain. It’s everywhere, though it started in the 1997-98 season when Bob Huggins gave his team a motto and the team rallied around it and finished 27-6 before it was banked out of the NCAA Tournament by Jarrod West.

The motto was the team’s everything. A custodian found a sign in the wood shop and Huggins hung it above the locker room door. The Bearcats would tap the sign whenever they left the locker room for a game and later decided to bring it to road games.

Neat.

Advance to Wednesday, when Huggins got a text message from Joe Roberts, the team manager when Huggins was with the Bearcats. He reminded Huggins of that 1997-98 motto and Huggins shared it with his team and, boy, did it make an impression.

“Our motto coming into this game was ‘Find a Way,’ ” said Kevin Noreen, who started for the second time this season and had 13 rebounds and an enormous 3-pointer late after his team started 0-for-14 from 3-point range. “Coach Huggins gave it to us straight in his pregame speech. Just find a way. That’s what we did.”

The message Roberts texted Huggins and the message Huggins shared with the Mountaineers? Find a Way. And then Huggins took to Twitter last night with this bit of brilliance.

So clearly this is your Do What You Do v. 1.2 and it’s going to get spun around like Jimmy Johns and rear view mirrors and I’m OK with that. The team needed a base to build from and, who knows, maybe that was it. That was a pretty good win Wednesday night.

And given that this is West Virginia and the state and its prep teams love the university and how they tend to mimic what the Mountaineers do, be it a 1-3-1 zone or read-option offenses, I knew it was going to catch on pretty fast.

But not this fast. This was from a Winfield High win last night!

“We have a sign on our door as you go out the door in the locker room that says ‘Find A Way,'” McGinnis said, “and I told them we just haven’t been finding a way to win. We’ve been close, but we just have not found a way. Tonight, we found a way.”

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, police yourself.

Rugger said:

I will watch a team that tries hard, win or lose.

The biggest development for me was Aaric playing like he wanted to win. If Huggs can get his head right on a consistent basis, he could be very good, imho.

Best comment on the game string last night…..is Jabarie on bath salts? That killed me for some reason.

Really, you could tell from the start that the Mountaineers possessed great verve. They couldn’t score, but they wanted to score and wanted to win like I hadn’t witnessed this season. And I thought Murray sauntered onto the floor with an edge, too. Not sure he if liked coming off the bench or not, but he did not play like a bench guy and I’d have to imagine that was his intent. As for Hinds, he tries. He was seemingly unaware of his struggles, and while that can be a bad thing, it can be of some service, too.

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