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Friday Feedback

May 18, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which last night confirmed the house sitter and lined up the lawn mower and then prepared a lazy post to hold things over whilst I vacationed.

But then I got a phone call and, well, here we are.

Just a quick note to start, and let’s start right there: President Clements made a few phone calls Thursday to say his athletic director wouldn’t be going anywhere. I was one of a few, somewhere between first and last, because I’d called him previously to discuss it. That’s my job. His is to address things as can, and a few days later he got back to me when he could actually discuss it. He tends to do that.

I nevertheless thought that was strange — the Tweet was supposed to express that … “So President Jim Clements just called me” … “So J.B. got hammered at the wedding and passed out at the table, only to come to and pump his fist during the chorus of ‘I Love Rock ‘n Roll’ ” — because aren’t we used to people not telling us stuff like that because, if for no other reason, they don’t have to? I know I am. I was not expecting that.

I thought Clements was proactive and I told him that. I’ve said this a lot, so much so that I may have to amend it, but WVU doesn’t do things like that. It doesn’t, or didn’t, address conjecture. Clements pretty much stamped out a smoldering rumor that many would not seek to extinguish. I mean, every time Oliver Luck was asked and he extended his no comment, it became, for some reason, a comment.

Now all those interactions with Luck or Clements, all those emails and texts and voice mails for Clements from people he does and does not know, all the Coaches’ Caravans that WVU personnel including Luck attend don’t have to involve that — and, by the way, people are more apt to give to an athletic department they know Luck is going to lead into the future.

I don’t know, unusual, shrewd, out of place, right on time, I guess it depends on your perception and perspective.

What I do know is I’ll need your perspective to maintain the perception of this blog while I’m gone. A post will go up Monday and be there for the week. I told people I was leaving two days ago, but I did it for you, and we witnessed the fruition of the WVU v. Alabama game in 2014 and the resolution to Luck’s connection with the Stanford job. I suspect one thing will happen while I’m gone, but I tried to sweep up the other stuff before I left.

I return stateside Friday and I’ll be in Charleston for the Vandalia Gathering Saturday at the West Virginia Book Company tent. Stop by and say hi and, I don’t know, buy a book or have yours signed.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, keep moving.

Josh24601 said:

Not that anyone would ever say it aloud until way after the fact, but might Luck be a mite miffed that Clements scorched the WVU-beat earth with news that Luck isn’t interested in other jobs? If Luck wanted to say that, every reporter Clements called would have taken Luck’s call.

Maybe there is genuine collegial enthusiasm here and that’s that. Maybe Luck has been strongarmed and an Other Shoe has been hurled into orbit — lo, it looms.

Yeah, I had the same thought, but two things came to mind: 1) Luck just doesn’t do that stuff 2) Those two don’t make decisions involving or impacting one another without some sort of a consensus. Wait, three things: 3) Clements is the boss.

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I can’t wait to see this in action

May 17, 2012 by Mike Casazza

College officials may be empowered to assess technical fouls for the way coaches and their assistants and support staff members conduct themselves in response to calls and no-calls. Say hello to a potentially ridiculous level of subjectivity.

Officials could keep their ears open for “profane, vulgar, threatening, or derogatory remarks” made to officials or opponents and comments that question an official’s integrity – and that would include pointing out a disparity in foul calls made against the two teams.

They’ll similarly keep their eyes open for extended reactions to calls or no-calls, demonstrative responses that dramatize the play or express disbelief, negative responses calls that include approaching an official, removing a suit jacket or throwing items in disgust.

Dunne said the officials will try not to react to spontaneous actions, but also don’t want the coaches and their staff members to overstep their boundaries.

“Emotion is a big part of the game, and you don’t want to take it out of the game,” Dunne said.

“But you can still be emotional without displaying unsportsmanlike behavior.”

Here’s the thing that worries me: Jamie Dixon’s strict policy of ignoring the coach’s box, Buzz Williams shedding his suit jacket, Jim Boeheim’s Hall of Fame look of disbelief, just about everything Jim Calhoun does, so on and so forth.

And what of your Bob Huggins, who can be demonstrative and sometimes smart alecky the sideline — sarcastically praising bad calls, clapping for whistles he disagrees with, throwing two hands at an official he can no longer take — but also subtle and restrained?

I have a running joke with a friend of mine in the coaching business who long ago pointed out Huggins will sometimes pantomime to the official the sign for a call he believes that official should be making. Specifically, he’ll signal carrying and over-the-back.

That’s designed to be subdued and peaceful … but, by definition, it would be subject to a technical foul. Good luck with that.

And exhale …

by Mike Casazza

In a fascinatingly proactive move by the WVU president, Jim Clements is calling around to share with writers that Oliver Luck has no plans to leave his job.

“I knew his name had come up for Big East commissioner, the Big 12 commissioner, it had come up for Stanford, so I said, ‘I’m just asking in general, because I know the next big university, like Texas, is going to need an A.D. and your name is going to be on the list, so I need to know because we’ve got a lot going on here,’ ” Clements said Thursday.

“He said, ‘Jim, I love it here, I love what I do. I think we’re making great progress. This is my alma mater and this is where I want to be.’ “

The details of that conversation could have stayed private and the particulars of Luck’s career preferences could have remained exclusive to him and his confidants.

Clements thought it was smart to share his discovery.

“We know how much West Virginia means to everyone and I don’t want Mountaineer Nation to continue to be stressed out about it,” he said. “I don’t want Oliver distracted from his work or me distracted from my work. I’d rather just squash the rumor.”

Sweet home, Georgia Dome

by Mike Casazza

West Virginia’s football program is returning to the scene of its prime to open the 2014 season: The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game against Alabama in the Georgia Dome. Unless a hacked-off Senator picks up the phone and throws a tantrum, this thing is basically done. It got out a little earlier than WVU wanted, but that’s because, as I’m told, minds were just made up about one specific item.

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You tell me what this means

May 16, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Falling somewhere in line with the things we were talking about earlier today, take a look at this and tell me what you think it means as WVU heads into a new conference, plays host to Marshall and a blue blood program and has, you know, all that talent on the field and on the sidelines.

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Remember him?

by Mike Casazza

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IjR1XxvJRs

That is Quantavious Leslie. A one-time WVU commitment who didn’t make the grades (and who a former coach assured anyone who was bothering to listen at that point would be back in Morgantown in the future) and possessor of one of the best Twitter handles out there (@hi_i_q), the 6 foot, 4 inch, 190-pound Leslie is off to Louisiana State University.

There was hardly any relationship after Leslie left, but he’s one who got away from the Mountaineers.

WVU’s place in possibly related Big 12 statistics

by Mike Casazza

You know what? I wasn’t at all surprised yesterday when I saw USA Today’s really well-chronicled account of spending in college athletics. It’s detailed and it elaborates and even kind of foreshadows a little, I thought. Yet in the end it tells you what we already knew. Texas has deeper pockets and longer arms than anyone else.

Have some fun with that chart. Click the revenue and the expense tab and look at the divide … but then hit the conference tab. You see all of the 2011-12 Big 12 and the 2011-12 Big East, one on top of the other. Among WVU’s soon-to-be new neighbors, you won’t find Baylor and TCU because they’re private and, as such, excused from the exercise.

Nevertheless, of the 2012-13 Big 12 teams, WVU is the only one that operated on a deficit in 2010-11 … and figure that has almost everything to do with paying all those football coaches, but also a rare dip in ticket sales revenue and a difference of more than a million dollars in — wait for it — rights and licensing.

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Geno Smith can perhaps play NFL football

May 15, 2012 by Mike Casazza

I don’t know what it is, but I have a thing for reading scouting reports — and of course you know this.

If the voice is an authority’s, I lean forward intently. If it’s someone I don’t know or revere quite the same, I still lean forward, though for different reasons. If it’s someone I consider to be a dubious source, I want to know how much I agree or disagree.

And that only covers the person or the publication giving me the scoop. The interest is there, and in the same frame, for the topic of the reports.

The common denominator, I suppose, is I probably have scouring reports, either written down or stored somewhere upstairs. And I think the same, if even informally, could be said of you.

Really, you’re at the pub and chatting away and your friend says, “What do you think of Kilicli next season?” or “Will DeForest’s 3-4 work?” and you have a reply sorted out and ready to go. If not, you’re working one up so you’re not left out the next time.

Football being what it is here and Geno Smith being who he as as WVU moves into the Big 12 seeming ready to compete for the conference title, I thought this was a pretty compelling question: What kind of a QB prospect is West Virginia’s Geno Smith?

That position is tricky and detailed and so dependent on the minutia, but that’s what makes these reports so worthwhile. You agree and disagree and file away certain things. Me? I came away with no consensus and I thought over a few things and decided to track others as we move forward. And then I had to go back and watch this …

Seems Everhart and WVU could have some longevity

by Mike Casazza

If you listened to the gentlemen speak on a teleconference yesterday — that is, if you could hear them over the one dolt who was not familiar with the *6 mute concept and breathed heavily throughout the call to basically cover up and mute everything Bob Huggins and Ron Everhart said — you heard how Everhart’s deal with WVU came together pretty quickly and just last week.

I wonder if Everhart was talking with someone before the “interview” and that someone told him to break a leg. Because the guy broke a toe to get with Huggins previously.

But this had been in the works for a long time and even further back than the little getaway the two had in the beginning of April. If you had some concerns over how long Everhart would be on the staff, if you worried Huggins might be making a third move in as many years next offseason to find the right mix that has seemingly eluded him of late, all because the head coaching itch is too strong for Everhart to not scratch, get a look at this: Everhart does not sound interested in being a head coach again and said he might have left a head coaching job to join Huggins anyhow.

No, seriously. It nearly happened before and Everhart still thinks about that decision and what it meant.

“I messed it up one time before and I was really hoping it would work out better the second time,” he said. “Earlier in my career, I considered it. I really was going to leave a head coaching position to go work with Coach Huggins, and maybe in a lot of ways I regret not doing that at that point in time.”

I suppose this is an indication of today’s news

May 14, 2012 by Mike Casazza

 

We’ve been talking about this since the two hung around out together on the Bob Huggins farm early last month, but it appears Ron Everhart has joined the WVU men’s basketball staff. Nice addition, though the duration is an immediate question. Everhart has been a head coach since 1994 and, presumably, looked into continuing that. Then again, figure Huggins and Everhart discussed taking a year off and what that might mean a year later. Nevertheless, here we are.