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We know by now Bob Huggins likes to roll with a sideline look for as long as he wins with it. If he busts out a new pullover or fresh khakis and wins, he rides it until he loses.
We remember he debuted the black uniforms in 2010 against Rutgers because he knew WVU would win and didn’t want to risk losing the first game in them.
Players and coaches are weird like that. Habits matter and some guys are really superstitious.
Now, all of that said, I don’t think Huggins is going to sit Truck Bryant at the start of tomorrow night’s game at Notre Dame simply because WVU won its last game when Truck was the sixth man. I’d have to believe Huggins and all the Mountaineer believe they won because they played a pretty good second half and were just better than Pitt for 38 minutes, 10 seconds. It had nothing to do with fostering good luck and everything to do with needing that game. Why, they wonder, can’t they just do that again, no matter the lineups?
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Any time you try to build something and incorporate some sort of financing that involves bonds and taxes and, in our relevant case, tax-increment financing for a proposed new WVU baseball stadium, it can be a little confusing. And intimidating. I passed out yesterday. For starters, though, know that this is something Oliver Luck has done before.
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Oliver Luck tells the Daily Mail WVU will try to use a TIF to fund construction at University Town Center. Still developing this story … and my intellect. I have no idea what a TIF is. I do know if you’re going to build one of these things in Morgantown, you need a hook. Behold, minor league baseball. Farewell, my extended summer vacation.
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(And now the budget is exhausted for 2012…)
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which scrawls so hard and isn’t going on a hiatus, no matter what conference constituencies are involved. Fun one last night highlighted by a sequence I don’t think came across on television. WVU was ahead 40-33 in the second half and beginning to take long paces away from Pitt when when the game went into a timeout. The cheerleaders did a T-shirt toss and one made it to a WVU fan in a higher elevation.
He threw the T-shirt back and just couldn’t have been happier with himself. The WVU fans spread throughout the arena were just as pleased and stood and cheered and the fella who threw it back was playing it up as the crowd grew against him.
The timeout neared the end and security made its way to the WVU fan, which is always exciting in a gym because everyone can see it happening and can see the security approaching in their distinctive outfits from a variety of directions. They bounced the fan, the crowd erupted, Travon Woodall scored a three-point play and the game was suddenly very interesting.
I was wondering if that was the story.
Alas, the Mountaineers persevered and got just what they needed as they prepare to go to another gym where they never win. I think Syracuse has the one crowd/environment that bothers (susceptible) teams the most in the Big East, but I think Pitt has the best and most revered atmosphere in the conference. In the first nine years at the Petersen Events Center, the Panthers were 149-12, and WVU was 1-7 with the one win coming in 2005
Pitt is now 10-6 at home this season and has been beaten down three times — and I’m counting Long Beach State’s 86-76 win because it was a clinic. That inspired the Mountaineers, who sent the Panthers to a still-sparkling 159-18 record at the PEC.
“I’m part of the 18,” Kilicli said. “Think about that. I’m in that record. This team is in that record. That’s pretty cool, man. That’s all I’ve wanted since I was a freshman.”
“I said before the game started, ‘Why not us? Why not now? Why can’t we win here? We can win here,'” Jones said.
They did and with a new look, most notably with Truck Bryant coming off the bench, doing some good and, perhaps most significantly, not doing as much damage. Obviously, too soon to say if he starts Wednesday at Notre Dame. There’s a long break and Huggins said he benched Truck because he’d played too many minutes, but I think Huggins should stick with it. If it worked Thursday and WVU had success where it rarely had before, then use the same plan to win at Notre Dame’s Joyce Center, where the Mountaineers are 1-11 with 10 straight losses.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, take this serious. Serious as a … nevermind.
pknocker40 said:
Received my Orange Bowl DVD in the mail yesterday. Nice appetizer for the bball game, to say the least – though the DVD had a parental advisory sticker on it for explicit material…
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… Since we here, it’s only right that we be fair. Psycho, I’m liable to be go Michael. Take your pick: Jackson, Tyson, Jordan, Game 6.
That’s the student section rally towel tonight and it’s just awesome.
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Pitt and West Virginia are forever linked with their histories. Pitt played West Virginia in 1904 before the university fielded a varsity team. They also played an unsanctioned game in 1905 before the first recognized game between the two schools took place in 1906, the first season the Panthers fielded a varsity squad.
The two universities have kept each other in mind when planning historic moments as well. The final basketball games played at the Pitt Pavilion, Fitzgerald Field House and WVU Field House were between Pitt and West Virginia.
That leads us to tonight. It’s the last Big East regular season game they’ll play against one another, though there are actually ways they could meet in the first round of the Big East Tournament. One would like nothing more than to beat the other if this is the end, even if it sounds like both sides want to find a way to play when the time comes to talk about such things in the future.
WVU can revoke Pitt’s membership in a pretty exclusive club.
Only Kansas, Pitt and Gonzaga have won 20 overall games and 10 conference games and made the NCAA Tournament the past 10 years. The Panthers can’t get to 10 Big East wins if they lose tonight.
The Panthers also can put a wrinkle in Kevin Jones’ candidacy for Big East Player of the Year. The WVU senior forward leads the conference in scoring (20.6) and rebounding (11.1). Only St. John’s Walter Berry (1986) and Notre Dame’s Troy Murphy (2000) have done that for a full season.
They won player of the year, something no WVU player has done in the Big East. Berry led the Red Storm to the NCAA Tournament and Murphy led the Fighting Irish to an NIT final.
And remember, Jones hasn’t played all that well against Pitt in his career, including the 7-for-16/0-for-5 performance in last month’s loss. A loss pushes the Panthers (15-11, 4-9 Big East) very far from the NCAA Tournament. A loss puts WVU (16-10, 6-7) in a really tricky, though not impossible, spot for both the NCAA Tournament and even a one-round bye in the Big East Tournament.
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The now-former West Virginia defensive end, now-future NFL outside linebacker — “To be honest with you,” Irvin said, “I don’t think there are 32 players in the country who are better than me.” — is using the hard sell to convince listeners he’s NFL ready.
And when I say hard sell, I don’t necessarily mean comparing himself to Clay Matthews, which would make him an attractive option early on in the draft, particularly with the Green Bay Packers, but rather by saying life was once hard and he’s come too far to go back now.
In short, there was no school, no football and barely flickering hope in Irvin’s life.
Even after Irvin’s mother moved in with his stepfather, he didn’t change. “Ignorance,” he said. In May 2007, Irvin spent three weeks in jail as a juvenile. When he came out, there was no welcome-home party. His mother and stepfather kicked him out of the house. For at least two months, Irvin bummed off friends.
A couch here for two weeks. A floor there for three weeks. A basement for a while.
“It made me a better person,” Irvin said. “It made me realize to take life a little more serious. Life was way more important than getting quick cash and having fun.”
And there is one distinct turning point. For some reason, Irvin had the sudden urge to take his General Education Development (GED) test and reboot a once-promising football career in November 2007. He moved out of one friend’s house for good, the same house that harbored drugs.
Literally one day later, that house was raided by police. Irvin’s friend was caught. He was free. On Nov. 14, 2007 – a day Irvin recites instantly – that friend called Irvin from jail.
“He said, ‘Go to school. God got you out of that house for a reason. Go to school and don’t look back,’ ” Irvin said. “I’ve never looked back since then.”
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Watch me go out on a limb here: I think Mike Carey is a really good basketball coach.
No offense to his Xs an Os, but I’m partial to the way he gets through to his players more than what he teaches his players. Let’s be honest: At a certain level, basketball is basketball and you can only teach so many things. The message is the message, but the audience is more receptive and malleable if they respect the way it’s being delivered.
And that has become Carey’s thing, and perhaps improbably. Watch the guy go and you’d think he might rub people the wrong way. You’d think it might not be for everyone. You’d probably be right, but only for a small sample. For the people who accept and adapt and understand the intent is to stand a player up and not to knock a player down, for the people Carey wants to be around, it really works.
“On the court, Coach Carey is always intense and even if he says something jokingly on the court, you don’t want to smile because he’s just so intense,” center Ayana Dunning said.
“As a player and as a team, you’re so committed and so focused on the court that you know him screaming and hollering at us is his way of teaching us as players and as a team.”
This was all on display Wednesday night as WVU won its third consecutive game, each against a ranked opponent, with a come-from-behind 60-50 victory against No. 21 Rutgers …
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Live from the Coliseum for WVU’s encore act after winning at Notre Dame Sunday. The Mountaineers play host to No. 21 Rutgers. That’s followed by Saturday’s home game against No. 24 DePaul. Win both and the team that beat No. 14 Louisville at home before going to South Bend could have its first four-game winning streak against ranked teams. A win tonight makes it three in a row for the fourth time ever … and not once in the prior three were the three games in succession.
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A donor and dollars due: Take a look at how WVU really won’t pay quite as much as $20 million settlement with the Big East Conference suggests.
