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

Here we go again

March 29, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Another non-conference basketball mystery! WVU started the scheduling with 28 openings. Eighteen go to the Big 12 games in the double round robin format, which means a home game against Kansas State instead of a Civic Center date with the Wildcats. Then come 10 non-conference openings.

Nine of those are filled, including the Old Spice Classic, Michigan, Purdue (!), Marshall and Duquesne back at that Consol Energy Center. The remaining group is three mid-majors and one high major at home to start a non-conference series. The mid-majors are done and WVU isn’t sharing in case something happens and a deal falls apart. The other?

“There will be one more very good, high major coming to Morgantown,” Calhoun said. “We’re looking for one more high major for a series, not just for a game in Morgantown.”

Unlike last year, when WVU knew the mystery mid-major opponent and teased me with it and wouldn’t tell me and we ended up guessing about it all summer and saw it was Kent State in that 10 a.m. game, this high major opponent is not yet known. So rather than guesses, we have to go for guesses. Early candidate: South Carolina.

Matt Lindamood and football are no more

March 28, 2012 by Mike Casazza

WVU confirmed today that fullback Matt Lindamood has left the football team. No official word was given, except that it was his decision and he wasn’t asked to go. Remember, too, that WVU can’t say anything about medical issues and that the Parkersburg native was bothered by what he called a “messed up neck.” The time may have come where Lindamood could take no more of the pain and the hassle. Best of luck to him and his future.

WVU baseball loses 7-5, talk is instead about 11.7 win

by Mike Casazza

Allow me to preface this properly, same as I did when Oll Stew was in last place in the Big East and his job was clearly on the line. I truly don’t care who coaches the teams I cover. I might make light of what Marlon LeBlanc wears to a press conference. I might make a point of Dana Holgorsen and his water bottle. I might laugh about Bob Huggins and Jimmy Johns.

That’s different. It’s not my business to say someone has to stay or go, not my interest to try to get a guy fired or retained, not my ability to make such decisions without the full spectrum of knowledge and resources. I am but a beat writer with a blog, about as spoke-on-the-wheel as you can get.

Yet I do wonder where things are going with WVU baseball, and I don’t believe I’m alone.

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The untimely and tortured tale of GVZ’s season

March 27, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Newish AD, new conference on the horizon and obvious impetus to have a respectable program as soon as possible and an 11-15 record entering tonight’s non-conference game against Morehead State in Charleston leaves Greg Van Zant in a tricky spot. Appalachian Power Park is where he might be coaching his Big 12 games next season. It might also be where someone else will be coaching WVU’s Big 12 games this season. Let’s not lie to ourselves.

All of that said, and while fully aware that timing is everything and timing is something you can rarely ever control, baseball has not been very, very good to him this season.

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Eron Harris gives a damn, and why that should matter to you

by Mike Casazza

One of the three incoming freshmen as part of the 2012 recruiting class, Eron Harris had what you might classify as a forgettable senior season at Lawrence North, in Indianapolis.

Except, Harris will never, ever forget it.

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Marlon LeBlanc has a new home

by Mike Casazza

A press conference at 10:30 this morning will address conference affiliation for the men’s soccer team. Don’t tell anyone, but WVU will be playing in the MAC.

Useful move for the Mountaineers. Not the Big East, but it’s better than the Big 12 because, of course, the Big 12 doesn’t have men’s soccer. Early prediction? Well, Akron has something going and the Zips have been nationally important for a few years now. But after that?

Well, again, the MAC is nice, but it’s not the Big East. It’s not as deep and there aren’t multiple soccer powers. Akron and Northern Illinois made the NCAA Tournament last year and NIU had to win the MAC Tournament to get there after Akron was shocked early — and Akron the 2011 national champion, ended up unseeded after a somewhat shaky 2011 season.

The Big East, by comparison, had seven NCAA teams.

Really, WVU should be right there at the top in 2012 and, who knows, a win against the Zips and anything can happen.

Kevin Jones filling the display case

March 26, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Following USBWA and third-team The Sporting News All-America honors, Kevin Jones was named a Wooden Award All-American and later a second-team Associated Press All-American.

Your top four WVU receivers are …

by Mike Casazza

Stedman Bailey outside, Tavon Austin inside and then … well, you’re going to have to read this.

“We said this from day one: We try to get the best four receivers on the field,” receivers coach and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson said. “If he’s one of the best four receivers in our opinion and he’s stuck behind two outside guys we’ll give him a chance inside.”

Way, way too early to put a lot of weight into anything, especially with so many seemingly capable receivers on the way in the summer, but right now the Mountaineers have eight receivers they feel pretty good about in spring practice. Eight. And the incoming group is said to be pretty talented.

Friday Feedback

March 23, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which will never raise the price of admission. Not until I get fired and then take this thing independent and have to charge so I can feed my finicky beagle. Until then, we’re good.

In my experience, there’s nothing as quite as, I don’t know, sternly or uniquely divisive as the rising costs of tickets. The conversation, the argument, goes around and around and it gets most interesting when it spins back to this one point. “It has to happen.” Those who accept the rising costs lean on that pillar. Those who are against the rising costs seek to chop down that pillar. And I think both sides know that explanation, as flawed or as elementary as it is, is actually pretty succinct and true and thus valid.

I can’t put my feet in the wet cement on either side. I’ve written both angles and I’ve supported and sympathized with both parties. I guess what I can say is I hate seeing people made to stretch themselves to be a part of something they love and have loved for so long and I really hate to see people walk away because they can’t stretch any further than they already have.

There’s a lot of hand wringing and worrying about how much WVU will spend to get into the Big 12. Then there’s the brown paper bag that comes from how much money WVU make from the move. Call me crazy, but those ought not be the issues. It’s the money needed to compete and remain in the conference that should have your attention. And WVU is about to spend a lot of money to compete and remain in the conference.

On West Virginia coaches’ contracts: “We have to change them (with the move from the Big East to the Big 12,” Luck said. “We have to do it from Dana (Holgorsen) to Huggs (Bob Huggins) on down to the rowing coach.”

He said that Holgorsen’s formal contract still isn’t finished, but “would be done before the season.” Huggins’ contract has a clause relating to the veteran coaches staying in the upper half among Big East coaching salaries. “Obviously, that has to be redone,” Luck said. “I’d imagine we’ll get it done by the start of the (2012-13) school year.”

Asked if Holgorsen would have a “non-compete” clause in his contract that would prevent the former Texas Tech and Oklahoma State assistant from leaving for another Big 12 job, Luck said he didn’t think that was necessary “and I doubt Dana will go for a non-compete … but there will be a buyout in there.”

He said WVU ranks “mid-tier … upper-middle … fourth or fifth” among 10 schools in Big 12 football assistant coaches’ salaries. The nine Holgorsen assistants total $2.45 million. Texas is at the top, at $3.2 million.

Luck said he wants to do coaching contracts relating to the Big 12 salary scale, and try to rework operational and recruiting budgets in similar fashion.

“Just a few days I ago I asked one of our people to run all of the Big 12 baseball coaching salaries, operating and recruiting budgets,” Luck said. “We’re woefully behind in those, way behind. I think (Coach) Greg Van Zant makes about $60,000. I think the lowest baseball coach’s salary in the Big 12 was about $200,000.”

(Lots of good stuff in there. The roughneck Inspectah JackBo on the set. A rebel, he makes more noise than heavy metal.)

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t be silly.

Mack said:

Your book is doing very well considering Amazon searches for “waiting for the fall” and for “casazza” do not bring up your book.

It’s a phenom, in that regard. I don’t understand how those search operators work, but I know the entry “waiting for the fall” brings up a list of options and “waiting for the fall casazza” is one of those. So why wouldn’t separate searches of the title or the author do the same? Here’s what does help. Leave me a review. If you’re read the book — and I can really look the other way on that — go here and leave me an honest review. I can take it. The attention, be it good, bad or indifferent, helps me end up in “might also like” or “also bought” lists.

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And the winner is:

March 22, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Check out the anticipation before this Oklahoma drill in Thursday’s practice. Everyone stopped and looked.

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