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WVU v. Michigan: Now with fewer players!

December 15, 2012 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at the Barclays Center, home of today’s Winter Festival and tonight’s WVU v. Michigan festivities in festive Brooklyn, N.Y.

This, of course, is the reunion of John Beilein and the Mountaineers and it’s the first time WVU and Michigan have played basketball, which, for some reason, surprised me. It’s also the last, shall we say, oddity in WVU’s season-opening schedule. Seven of these first nine games were away from home and the spacing between the games has been irregular.

Early note tonight is actually from last night, but there will be no Aaric Murray. Not sure of the exact reason, but I’ll try to determine if its personal of disciplinary. WVU got “drilled,” according to Bob Huggins, on the boards against a smallish Duquesne team. Michigan is definitely not smallish.

WVU has looked and played better with a small squad, so maybe that’s the M.O. tonight. Maybe Aaron Brown or Matt Humphrey or Keaton Miles starts. Or maybe Huggins goes big and starts Kevin Noreen, though if he does that, he’d need another big body in the rotation. Perhaps the is Volodymyr Gerun.

I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

Let me show you to your seat …

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Enjoy the weekend

December 14, 2012 by Mike Casazza

The men’s basketball teams at WVU and Marshall have played ranked opponents on the same day just five times. We’ll need another hand Saturday when the 4-4 Mountaineers take on No. 3 Michigan in the Barclays Center and Marshall (6-4) plays No. 11 (!) Cincinnati at the Civic Center (also !).

The good or bad news, depending on your outlook? Neither Bob Huggins nor Tom Herrion has ever lost five games before the New Year.

Something else that might not be so familiar? John Beilein’s Michigan team. Oh, he says these Wolverines are much like those Mountaineers and that he often slips and calls present players by the names of past players, or that he schools Trey Burke on Darris Nichols, but Beilein was always as slick with the recon as he was with a backdoor pass.

When the Winter Festival arrives, be prepared to feast your eyes on a different style of Beilein’s brand of basketball.

“I’d say the biggest change is the type of player that he is recruiting, in the sense they still have the same skill set and they can still pass and shoot, but he has bigger guys and more of a low-post presence,” the younger Beilein said. “Our West Virginia teams, the (center) could really shoot it with Pittsnogle and (Jamie) Smalligan. Now he has more (centers) who play on the block and go offensive rebound.

“He’s adapted to the style of the Big 10 and he needed to do that. I think West Virginia fans will be shocked to see how big his team is, especially the wing and center positions, and how long and athletic they are, but with the same skill set.”

That’ll do for today. Off to Brooklyn. Can’t wait to see how this jaunt goes for me …

John Beilein says ‘Hi,’ and ‘Look at me!’

December 13, 2012 by Mike Casazza

The former in words, the latter in actions. He’s 10-0 and ranked No. 3 with, dare I say, his best team in 35 years as a head coach. That’s heady stuff, even at Michigan, which has been to six Final Fours and five championship games. The Wolverines just haven’t been 10-0 since the 1988-89 season, the one that ended with their only national title.

It’s a new landscape for Beilein, as well, after a lifetime spent building a career by rebuilding programs so that he might get a chance to do the same for another school at a higher level. Five years at Canisius, five years at Richmond, five years at WVU and … wait … six years at Michigan?

Yes, all of this — the lofty ranking, the perfect start, the nationally televised games, the very good recruiting class — is in the sixth year, the one he never gave himself before.

“He could never see how things would turn out after he rebuilt those previous programs, but he wants to stay and finish his coaching career there now and finally see what he built,” said Pat Beilein, the West Virginia Wesleyan coach who scored 1,001 points for his dad from 2003-06 at WVU.

“He never got that chance with the other programs he was rebuilding. Now he’s looking forward to seeing what will come of the finished product.”

An unquestioned winner in games and practices, Beilein always coached for the victories and improvements. He lived for building something special, which often meant rebuilding a program, whether it was the one he would leave a job to take over or the N.C. State or Indiana jobs he eyeballed while at WVU.

“There is no other one now,” John Beilein said Wednesday. “It’s been a great journey so far being a bit of a nomadic coach at different places. Sometimes there comes a time when you have to say, ‘Oh, man, I really want to savor this one and make the most of it.’ “

And now, the truth about WVU, which hurts

by Mike Casazza

Can’t shoot. Can’t score. Plays basketball, which demands shooting and scoring. These things are all well-documented and the documentation is kind of scary. Why, just yesterday, Bob Huggins said on a conference call for the Winter Festival game against Michigan and said “we thought we were going to be better at this time than what we’ve been.”

This isn’t a very complex problem. Teams don’t pay much attention to WVU’s perimeter shooting and regard it as such a weakness that they pack the paint to take away the only other scoring options on drives or passes into the post.

The solution isn’t complex, either, as much as you might hate to hear it.

“This is my job to fix it and I will fix it,” he said. “It’s 100 percent my fault. It’s my job. I’m the one who’s supposed to coach them. I’m the one who recruited them. I’ve got to get them better.”

It all sounded so tidy and simple, but the truth is there’s only so much Huggins can do to rescue the Mountaineers from their very real and very frustrating offensive problems. And on top of that, there’s only one way out of this scoring funk.

WVU must shoot and score.

Until that happens, opponents are going to give the Mountaineers outside shots and take away the inside opportunities.

“When they don’t chase you, there’s nothing else you can do,” Huggins said. “I’m sitting there looking at my play card trying to figure out how to get guys out of the lane. If you’re not going to make (shots), they’re just going to stand in there.”

So, Bruce Irvin did something remarkable

by Mike Casazza

The guy who was an egregious reach at No. 15 in the first round of the NFL Draft, who, by the way, leads NFL rookies in sacks and is a terror off the edge for a pretty good defense, chipped off a $100,000 donation to WVU.

“I’ve got a lot of love for the state and the University and coming from my situation, they gave me a chance when I was in junior college,” Irvin said recently. “(Late WVU coach) Bill Stewart gave me a chance to display my talents on the Division I level and I felt like it was only right to give back for the younger kids.

“Hopefully everyone takes the Flying WV as seriously as I do.”

Remember Scott McKillop?

December 12, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Tackling machine who was rock solid the night of 13-9? Terrific middle linebacker and not exactly a matcher of the Mountains.

“I like to reiterate the fact that we basically ruined their whole entire college career,” he says. “Nothing brings me more pleasure than when I say, ’13-9.’ The face they give me is just priceless.”

He was just warming up.

“You can’t say it when you play, because you give them bulletin-board material, but I (expletive) hate West Virginia. I can’t stand the state. I just don’t like that university. I guess now you can print me saying it.”

That’s an old quote, in case you didn’t know, but it’s a beauty. Especially now.

Perhaps you thought he was out of your life — and what I’m about to tell you doesn’t exactly bring him back into your life, unless you know the people involved — but he’s back in a most unusual way.

He’s romantically intertwined with one of the most generous donors the Mountaineers have ever known.

It’s beginning to look a lot like …

by Mike Casazza

… last year? WVU seems to be really down right now and you know Michigan is cocking that right hand for Saturday. The general disappointment seems to be agreed upon among the Mountaineers, though not everyone agrees on one particular parallel.

“It seems like right now we’re having the same season we had last year when we said from the beginning of this season it was not going to happen,” sophomore guard Gary Browne said.

Naturally, not everyone agrees with Browne.

“Last year we were in better position,” senior forward Deniz Kilicli said.

WVU v. Duquesne: Will we see another blowout?

December 11, 2012 by Mike Casazza

So, that happened. Heading out of town, taking and making phone calls to confirm the Joe DeForest/Keith Patterson swap and — POW — there goes the front passenger tire. Note the gash at the top of the tire.

Fun!

We’re now live from the Consol Energy Center, where I was standing in a hallway making another phone call, when WVU assistant coach and former Duquesne coach Ron Everhart walked silently down the hall, a few paces behind Bob Huggins, a few paces in front of assistants Larry Harrison and Erik Martin.

Everhart said not a word and went straight to work. He’ll say no words, either. Fired last spring, Everhart has has politely declined invitations to talk about his reunion tonight.

Step into my office …

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Great Americans …

by Mike Casazza

An unbiased congratulations to Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey for being named to the Associated Press All-America teams today. Tavon made the first team as an all-purpose player and Stedman made the second team as a receiver.

I think that’s fair, though I think you know I feel about Stedman. What I can’t decide is my favorite Tavon moment this season. Care to help?

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Huggins tryun to get Gerun playun

by Mike Casazza

Maybe missing the first six games of the season because of a NCAA suspension was difficult for Volodymyr Gerun. I will assume it was, but I don’t know for sure because he’s been kept at a distance, out of sight when not out of mind, thus far this season. Yet WVU played its seventh game Saturday and 10 Mountaineers had a hand in the win against Virginia Tech and Voldy, as the team calls him, was not among that group.

Tonight’s game is at Duquesne and figures to be a little easier, but to be quite honest, I have no idea what to expect and I can’t say for sure that this night is going to offer him a greater likelihood to play. And if it doesn’t happen tonight, it’s quite likely not happening Saturday at the Barclays Center against Michigan.

Turns out that waiting as an ineligible player might not be as hard as waiting as an eligible player.