“It was a fun couple years. I wasn’t looking for a job and I was happy with where I was at, but I believe it’s the right career move to do.”
Neck-wrenching, writer-aggravating drama inside the Erwin Center last Wednesday night, but West Virginia very much survived itself and Texas for a 57-53 win.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Coach Bob Huggins said. “We had opportunities to pack it in and we didn’t when we got down (13) points and we were having a hard time scoring. Hopefully this kind of gets us back to being my kind of team.”
That last line is intriguing and will ignite our discussion today as I travel back to my base.
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Not sure that I’ve shared this with you before, but probably the most difficult thing I’ve had to do in this line of work was walk into that locker room in the Georgia Dome on that sullen night in March 2006. Texas had just devastated WVU — and I’m not certain that’s a strong enough word — and not merely ended a season for the Mountaineers, but ended an era.
And not only did the curtain fall on Gansey and Beilein, Herber and Pittsnogle and Durisseau-Collins, but it was called down with a desperation 3-pointer form Kenton Paulino to finish one of the most competitive games I can remember and end what is definitely the most sudden and violent momentum shift I’ve ever witnessed.
Paulino’s dagger was preceded by vintage John Beilein Era-WVU — glaring deficiencies, a pesky spirity, a gritty comeback, clutch shots, just enough defense and a brilliant plan in which the penultimate inbound went to Johannes and J.D. set a screen and the whole thing caught the Longhorns off guard. Then Pittsnogle, who’d just been bloodied by a well-laced elbow in the nose, hero’d up and nailed a 3 to tie the score.
I never lowered my head to note the play. Paulino promptly called off that stay of execution.
The locker room was just brutal. I don’t even like thinking about it because I’d gotten to know those guys pretty well in four years and, quite frankly, you hate to see people you care about, if even a little bit, in that state. Doing my job that night was not fun.
You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? They weren’t in that locker room. There are no words for that. It sucked, man.
The two teams played two very good games that year and WVU, despite a slide and an early loss in the Big East Tournament, was, I contend, a very good team that season. It was a tournament terror and by the time it had gotten to Atlanta after beating Southern Illinois and Northwestern State, the field actually looked pretty navigable.
Except for Texas, which matched up with the Mountaineers and could ask questions that team and that coach could not answer. I really think if WVU wins that game, it beats Duke or LSU and then gets to the Final Four. Who knows what happens with UCLA and then either Florida or George Mason?
The whole thing still bothers me and I was reminded when I walked into the Erwin Center a while back and took a stroll and saw a photo of the post-Paulino celebration. Crazy how one team’s low can be another team’s high.
The two haven’t met since and I suggest preparing for a nail-biter, or given the way these two can’t score, a root canal. And just for kicks, maybe familiarize yourself with the principle of verticality.
Everybody to the dance floor …
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And so it goes here tonight as the Mountaineers meet the Longhorns in the Erwin Center. Texas is 8-5 with a shaky offense and the youngest team in the country. WVU is 7-6 with a shakier offense and a bevvy of first-year players.
No wonder the coaches sound so much alike.
Both teams have had problems with shooting and scoring. Both teams have the same problem with their rosters.
“You never know who is going to play, you never know who is going to show up,” WVU Coach Bob Huggins said.
The words from his counterpart, Rick Barnes, are about the same entering tonight’s game at the Frank Erwin Center. The 9 p.m. game will be televised by ESPN2 and feature a Texas team that’s the youngest in college basketball.
“Like Bobby,” Barnes said, “I don’t know what to expect.”
We gather at 1 p.m. today to talk about tonight’s Texas game and — who am I kidding? I’ll be trying to talk you off the ledge before WVU’s likely hires become official. I think I can help.
Here’s the mobile link and here’s the traditional link. Drop your questions in the queue … right now.
It’s raining here in Austin today and that keeps me from doing some fun stuff, which is to stay keeps me from eating at a lot of food trucks, as opposed to a few, and keeps me from walking Sixth Street and taking in a lot of the other visual treats on the empty campus in the city that is so proud of the fact it is so weird.
That got me thinking — and this is what happens when I’m cooped up for a while.
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Word arrived last night that WVU is still and again searching for two assistant football coaches. I’ve been telling you for a while one hire was near completion and in the hands of human resources.
Well, that is no longer the case. Not (yet) sure what happened, but it’s not complex. Either a background check came back bad or something happened to pull a candidate back to his base. I won’t pretend to know, though
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Word arrived last night that WVU is still and again searching for two assistant football coaches. I’ve been telling you for a while one hire was near completion and in the hands of human resources. Well, that is no longer the case. Not (yet) sure what happened, but it’s not complex. Either a background check came back bad or something happened to pull a candidate back to his base. I won’t pretend to know, though neither would be a first. What I do know is Dana Holgorsen is active at the convention in Nashville, Tenn. He had between eight and 10 interviews scheduled for the two jobs yesterday and today and the goal remains to have everything done for that staff meeting Friday, though that may be slightly more difficult now. As for another personnel matter, take a look at a candidate for the DMV commissioner post.
Said this in the game post Saturday, but WVU had a nice thing going against Oklahoma when the guards were getting inside and the shooters were getting good looks and actually making them for a change.
The Mountaineers looked like they were enjoying themselves, which hasn’t happened a lot this season. Maybe it was the result of some positive reinforcement since some of the dribble drive elements they worked on in practice were working in the game.
And then everything changed.
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