WVU’s director of athletics spoke Thursday in Bridgeport at the Benedum Fellows banquet and, as he is prone to do, gave the audience something they might not have heard before.
This time the topic was renovations at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Hey, haven’t we touched on this recently? Of course, and with the vinyl stadium banners. Yet there goes Luck again, sprinkling in something new for the eager ears before him.
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Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which transferred today’s plans to talk about stadium walls. Moving in? Bob Huggins losing another player.
The latest transaction sees promising, oft injured and apparently homesick freshman center Pat Forsythe packing his belongings for Akron. Yesterday’s brief news release doesn’t mention the Zips, but it is the Zips, per Huggins.
I spoke with him last night and it occurred to me he and I haven’t had a normal conversation in a while. No, “How’s your family?” or “Great job with the charity!” or “That wasn’t me with an Equinox full of people idling outside your mansion last night.”
Instead, it’s been Tommie McCune and Jerrod Calhoun and Elijah Macon and then more Elijah Macon and Kevin Jones and now Forsythe. Offseasons aren’t easy for coaches because more often than not bad things happen when people are out of sight and prone to be out of their minds, but this one seems especially … I don’t know … sad? Sad seems too strong, but it’s at least pulling me in that direction.
(Aside: We did talk about the Twitter expose of Denver Allen. Huggins enjoys it exactly as much as you think he does and has no plans of stopping, especially as strangers begin to recognize Mr. Allen as “The guy who’s always sleeping.” So I take back some of the aforementioned. Huggins and I have had a light moment. Actually, that one was great. I can’t get enough of that Twitter meme.)
Anyhow, if we’re being honest, I don’t think the Forsythe move is entirely shocking. The timing could be better, sure, but Huggins said he’d been talking with Forsythe’s high school coach recently and that makes me think this wasn’t sudden, and that makes me think there’s something to the whispers many heard last semester and then throughout this summer.
Nevertheless, he expressed a desire to be closer to home and whether you believe that or not, Forsythe has, at the very least, a close and unique relationship with his family.
And maybe you believe someone or something else, which leads me to this: There is and there will be more chatter about Huggins and recruiting. I’m still not sure how to embrace this, but I do think it’s open to discussion because I think it can be examined and explained.
Forsythe is the sixth Huggins recruit to leave the team in five seasons — Will Thomas, Dee Proby, Dan Jennings, Dalton Pepper, Tommie McCune and Forsythe. Add to that the entire 2010 recruiting class — Noah Cottrill, David Nyarsuk and Darrious Curry — that never played.
That’s nine of 16 recruits that either didn’t play or didn’t stay. That’s a big number — and yet WVU remains pretty safe with regard to the APR.
So what to think about this? Well, not to disregard a person, but you can kind of brush aside Thomas and Proby. Thomas was the first Huggins recruit and Huggins really needed a point guard and he knew and trusted the people who recommended Thomas. It still didn’t work and his most memorable contribution remains the bumbling conclusion to the 2009 game at Cincinnati.
Proby? WVU needed a big body and Proby, once a fairly well-liked prospect bound for Oklahoma State, he was available late in the process. He didn’t really detract all that much and, in fact, he really did help WVU win a road game once — no, really, I was there — but his exit was expected at the end of his one season. I don’t know, but when I listen to Huggins say he’s not going to just add someone now to fill Forsythe’s spot, I think you thank Proby.
Dan Jennings? A really nice kid, though one with some baggage he could not help, and for one-plus years he never got it together like he or his coaches wanted. And then he literally left the team in the middle of a game and posted a farewell message on a dry erase board in the locker room before deserting. Said Huggins afterward, “I don’t want to get into the history of things, but it’s time.”
Curry? Medical disqualification.
Nyarsuk? Never academically qualified. That one doesn’t look good, but he never enrolled, so he never dented the APR.
Cottrill? This one is complicated and divisive. Understand this: WVU was aware of things, if for no other reason than a long relationship with the player that preceded his commitment prior to his freshman year, and tried really, really hard. Sometimes it’s out of your hands. I guess my basic defense of the strategy of sticking with Cottrill as long as WVU did is that the rewards of getting Cottrill right as a person, but also as a player, far outweigh the risk involved. We’re in a weird and uncomfortable place when we’re angry about trying to help someone.
Pepper? This one reads like a whiff because he was seemingly never comfortable in his two seasons, but if that’s on WVU for not knowing or anticipating it, then doesn’t the kid himself have some burden of responsibility? I guess the jury is out on this one because if he fizzles at Temple, so, too, does the frustrations left behind at WVU.
McCune? Well, he had two legal issues and was suspended once in his time at WVU. Equal blame, I suppose, because WVU could have done a better job projecting the kid, but the kid could have done a better job, too. I always wondered if this one was as mutual as it seemed — I don’t think Huggins has any room for a thief on his team … and remember who was also involved in that credit card incident. Pat Forsythe.
To review, you can dismiss a few of those, you can understand, perhaps grudgingly, a few others and you can point a finger at a few more. The one thing I never fully grasp about this discussion is that rarely do we see a comparison to football recruiting.
I honestly don’t believe football recruiting is (dramatically) different from basketball recruiting. You’re dealing with the same adolescent issues, the same entitlement issues, the same entourage issues, the same issues all the way down the line. You’re even seeing 7-0n-7 football turning into a the same systemic issue AAU basketball was and is.
Football, though, has 85 scholarships and 25 in a year. Basketball has 13 and, maybe, four or five in a year. Clearly the net above which football works is far bigger and safer. Lose two football recruits — and when doesn’t that happen? — and you’re safe. Lose two basketball recruits and you’ve got a beat writer compelled to pen 1,300 words on the topic.
We’ve done this dance before: Huggins knows the score. He was a transfer in his days, he doesn’t like losing kids and he hates the suggestion he runs off kids.
Now, if you want to calibrate your gripes to target the lack of NBA players Huggins recruits, I surrender. Yes, he wants that talent and, yes, he tries and, yes, he loses some of those recruiting battles.
But then again, he did mold Joe Alexander, and it was out of his hands after that. He recruited Devin Ebanks, who just inked a nice deal with the Los Angeles Lakers — and don’t you think Ebanks rises to first-round status with another year or two?
He mentored Da’Sean Butler, who would have been drafted far higher if not for the ACL injury in his final college game. He did recruit Kevin Jones, who seems on the cusp. He recruited Aaric Murray (twice) and everyone tells me Murray is a pro. It’s not that bad. Is it?
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, Ich bin kein Berliner.
Sheik Ybuti:
Don McLean might have started off writing “American Pie” about the Pillsbury Bake-Off (we’ll never know), but by the time it was all over, it was a lasting tribute to Buddy Holly and a wistful account of the sea changes to our society in the 1960s in general and popular music in particular. “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” in its finished form, is no less about West Virginia. When one considers the emotions and visions it evokes (melodically as much as lyrically), and the context in which the song is often performed, it seems merely a niggling detail that the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah River are barely within the State’s borders. The song transcends its origins, much as the “Star-Spangled Banner” transcends that Key’s words were set to an English drinking tune.
And our fight song has not been forgotten. Except for maybe the rarely performed first verse, which serves to remind us that “others may be black or crimson, but for us it’s Gold and Blue.” No mention of gray.
And the defense, your honor, rests.
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Oh, what to do with those gray walls now that they’ll no longer be gray? The possibilities are endless …
Brandon said:
I think you could do something pretty cool just with large vinyl prints (similar to what you see on field level at BCS games). Mix that in with the standard ‘rah-rah’ text (Mountaineer Pride, Play Fast, etc.) and it could be cool and interchangeable every year. Say a mix of classic images & current stuff. I’d nominate:
Maj in the end zone after “The Play” in 1988 vs PSU
Quincy trucking Merryweather
Slaton diving in end zone vs. UL in 2005
And mix in images of current guys now.That could be kinda fun – any other ideas for classic images?
Awesome. I’m positive the people have some ideas, but, sadly, that will not be the outcome — and more on that tomorrow. For now, why not have some fun and, at least in our minds, apply a little peer pressure?
I’ve got one image that won’t make the cut …
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Your long national nightmare, the one source of constant consternation that has confounded me the most through the years, is about to be no more. West Virginia University posted a Request for Bids Tuesday that specifically seeks options to make over the gray walls inside Milan Puskar Stadium.
“We’re going to kind of decorate the stadium a little bit with some new things, some new signage – and not advertising signage necessarily,” said WVU Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Parsons. “We’re talking mostly about the signage when you look at the stadium as a whole to add some color to the walls of the stadium and other places as well.”
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The Cavaliers are apparently out of the running for Kris Humphries, which is seemingly great news for Kevin Jones.
Not only is a power forward he was not going to beat for a spot not coming to town, but seeing as though Cleveland was reportedly willing to unload Luke Walton, it would appear the Cavs view Walton as expendable. Maybe?
So in that three players, two positions thing we’ve been working like a Rubik’s Cube, KJ may look safer now than ever before … even with Luke Harangody in place.
Wait. What? I knew I spoke too soon.
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Know what bothers me most about Twitter, specifically, and social media as a whole?
It’s not the people who, I believe, misuse it. I really couldn’t care less about that — it’s a free medium and I don’t have to follow you or be your friend if I don’t care for or agree with what you’re out there doing.
What gets me — and I mean gets me going — is the people who aren’t on it because they don’t get it. This is different than people who aren’t on it for some other reason. Mom isn’t on a computer too much or doesn’t have a smartphone. Uncle Ned is a truck driver and doesn’t have time. Those two and others like them, hey, that’s on you. No big deal.
I just wonder and probably even worry about the fella who says, “I don’t want to be on Twitter. I don’t want people knowing I just got a haircut.” Um, they don’t have to know. And to the lass who says, “I don’t need Twitter. I know it’s hot out.” Don’t follow the person who says something you already know.
It is both misunderstod and misused and I feel many are thus missing out
The best part about Twitter is the freedom, ability and direction involved in crafting your timeline. You control what you see, and that’s on top of controlling what others see from and about you.
And it may be time for me to follow Daron Roberts …
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The above is Shawne Alston’s career highlight in a career that last season expanded to include many highlights.
It was a basic outside zone run play that was blocked pretty well despite the snow and a Rutgers defense that, for some reason, listened to Greg Schiano long enough through the years to do a fairly nice job contesting that design.
But the linemen also did their job, even in the slush, and engaged and even double-teamed their defenders, and Stedman Bailey adapted and blocked upfield/outside on a play in which he’s supposed to block inside. And then Alston ran wide and patiently and found the gap and hit it hard.
The description by the analyst is pretty good and would have been better if not for the fact it’s on top of the extra point. Call me crazy, but I would have preferred words with pictures of the run.
Again, not perfect, but perfectly acceptable given all that happened on that snap.
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Looks like a gigantic NBA trade is about to happen involving Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic, Brooklyn Nets and Cleveland Cavaliers.
It’s been reported all over the place that Cleveland is getting Kris Humphries, a power forward and an acquisition that only adds to the frontcourt Kevin Jones is attempting to crack. However, it does seem like Luke Walton would be on the move and solely to make the money right.
All along it’s seemed like two spots for three players — KJ, Walton and Luke Harangody. Harangody is coming back and Walton might be gone, but Humphries, obviously, gets top billing.
Certainly there is a lot involved and it remains interesting to see how the ability to make moves affects KJ … who seems to have some sort of a name up around Cleveland.
Hey, Mary: Why aren’t fans talking about the undrafted free agent Kevin Jones from WVU the Cavs signed? This guy averaged 19.9 points and over 10 boards per game. He has the potential to be a very good NBA player. He lacks size and a jump shot but was a second team All-American. — Bob Price, Erie, Pa.
Hey, Bob: It’s a long way from the summer league to an NBA regular-season roster, but the Cavs are intrigued and will take a long look. He could earn an invitation to training camp.
That’s Bob Huggins, the WVU men’s basketball coach, landing in Raleigh County just days after dropping out of the school’s first Final Four since 1959. He arrived furtively and with no fanfare to visit and console those who were affected by the tragic event at Upper Big Branch.
As best as I can tell, he’s never really opened up about that, and that’s more of a personal preference than a pained experience, I always thought. The picture stood alone and it certainly does say something to see that guy lugging water and something in the black duffel bag. We’ve had to fill in theblanks in our mind over time, though it always seemed a noble thing he did and for which he never sought or even accepted attention.
That changed over the weekend when he finally spotlighted what he did, why he did it and what that day eventually became.
