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The lawsuits now behind us and the final Backyard Brawl for the foreseeable future ahead of us, it seems like a good time to dust off the chat.
So, please, at 11 a.m tomorrow (Wednesday) feel free to Ask Me About Stuff (Anything). (Hey, new feature! Version for mobile participants.) And be sure to find two quarters tomorrow morning and grab a Daily Mail for some pretty specific and secret details about Tuesday’s settlement.
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Busy morning, fluid story but here is the WVU side of things. Not to be outdone, but to be beaten to the punch, the Big East’s counters and says it essentially fired the Mountaineers …
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Involved in a “reported battery” at 2:40 a.m. Sunday. Bob Huggins said Monday evening, “We’re aware of the situation. Truck is fine and we look forward to playing Thursday at Pitt.”
Let’s keep the speculation on a leash here. I’ve heard some strange versions of events and can’t pin down a reality. Sure, it is a little mysterious — Was he alone? Why was he alone? — but there might be simple explanations — Maybe he refused medical attention because he didn’t need it … or, as Huggins said, “Truck is fine.” And, of course, this is a college town and I don’t have to explain to everyone what might happen at 2:40 a.m. on High Street. Let the story tell the story here.
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Losing streaks lead to unfamiliar territory, where people will do unusual things. You’ve seen it building for two weeks now and you saw it fully formed Saturday.
The truth about WVU right now is the inexperience is overshadowing the experience and the two groups are now united by something. No one knows what’s happening right now, how to get out of it or what comes next. Basically, everyone is beginning a freshman season in February.
“I don’t know,” said junior Deniz Kilicli, who turned back the clock to his most inexperienced days with a game-changing error in the first half of Saturday’s 77-74 loss to No. 24 Louisville. “I don’t have a clue. I don’t have a clue what we’re going to do. I don’t know if we’re going to lose our next game or if we’re going to lose all of them.”
The Mountaineers were 15-5 overall and 5-2 in the Big East 23 days ago and tracking toward a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. They’ve lost five of the past six and have their 10th loss earlier than any season since going 8-20 in 2001-02.
Five games remain, beginning with Thursday’s 9 p.m. ESPN game against Pitt. WVU (16-10, 6-7 Big East) has lost six in a row at the Petersen Events Center.
“I’d be lying if I said we don’t feel a little bit of pressure, maybe even a lot of pressure, but I still have faith,” senior Kevin Jones said. “All we can do is keep fighting and find a way to win some games. Coach told us we’ve got to get to 10 (Big East wins) in order to have a chance. Hopefully we can get 10 wins, but we’ve got to find a way to get them and fast. The games are winding down.”
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Did not see that coming. I mean, Mike Carey thought his team was capable of something like this, and Mike Carey is perhaps as good a coach as there is among coaches no one really talks about as being good coaches, but seriously? Big win on the road at Notre Dame … where the men are 1-11 with 10 straight losses.
The Mountaineers were very good last year and went 4-5 against ranked teams, but had just one win, in the NCAA Tournament, after Jan. 15. This team is 3-2 against ranked teams and has two wins in eight days.
WVU was 0-26 against top-five teams before Carey, and then he lost eight in a row to start his career with the Mountaineers, but he’s won three now and all in his last 11 opportunities. That makes you forget that WVU had a 50-game losing streak to ranked teams before Carey and WVU ended that against Virginia Tech in 2004.
Also, I need to take a second to commend this video. Someone from the rather small WVU contingent that travels to road games decided to grab a flip cam and capture Brooke Hampton making her game-winning free throws. This is a big, big moment in a big, big game and you can tell because someone got it on video.
It’s silent in the gym. You can hear the hushed tones of WVU’s radio play-by-play guy. The crowd is in disbelief. And look at the players. Hampton is a pretty cool kid — good free-throw shooter, doesn’t turn it over, doesn’t foul — but she looked a little shaky on that first foul shot.
It’s a huge spot and the reaction is priceless. Quick stomp, like she’s mad at herself, almost like she missed it, followed by arms over the head and a step away from the basket to remind herself she’s a cool kid who is a good free-throw shooter, doesn’t turn it over, doesn’t foul. Then Ayana Dunning and Asya Bussie — who’s become a force — step in to remind Hampton of the aforementioned. They’re the only veterans on the team and they do a very veteran thing. The second one is all net. Cue the celebration.
Big home game Wednesday against Rutgers and, don’t look now, but WVU is quite likely a NCAA Tournament team, provided the Mountaineers don’t fall apart, and that becomes Carey’s biggest challenge beginning today.
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After wearing those Lemonheads sneakers for a long time and then switching to white kicks for Wednesday’s 0-fer game, Truck Bryant is in black Nikes today — you’ll have to trust me. I’ll withhold comment/judgment because I don’t know the inspiration here, but generally people who are switching shoes or following some sort of superstition worry me. Beilein’s teams had guys who messed around with that sort of thing and it never went well. A few guys isnce then have had similar experiments and results.
But who knows, those white things may have just been uncomfortable. These things might be shoes he’s been breaking in a while. If he goes wild today, I’ll ask.
Speaking of going wild, Brian O’Connell, who was the ref on the backside of the missed goaltending call at Syracuse, is on the whistle today with John Cahill and John Gaffney. Cahill, who had the Duke v. UNC game Wednesday, worked Thursday with O’Connell for North Carolina State v. Georgia Tech in Atlanta. This will be Cahill’s fourth WVU game and O’Connell’s second this season. Gaffney hasn’t had the Mountaineers.
10:57 am: Rick Pitino has a 10-6 record against teams coached by Bob Huggins (1-0 Kentucky vs. Cincinnati; 5-4 Louisville vs. Cincinnati; 4-2 Louisville vs. West Virginia).
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Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which needs to learn how to ride this unicycle and then stop by the Fiesta outlet in Flatwoods.
You’re damn right it’s Red Panda time. She’s the halftime entertainment for tomorrow’s game. In my world, WVU v. Louisville is the first and third act at the Red Panda show. We can probably agree to disagree. Highlight of the season for me. See Brutus the Buckeye? That’s basically me every time I see her, except maybe with a little more And-One mix tape.
This clip is hilarious, too, because she really plays up the tension at the end and all of a sudden it’s Truck Bryant dribbling down the court at the end of overtime against Providence. Then she nails it and does the arms-out-“Whooo!” It’s just … I can’t. I can’t.
I need to know more about Red Panda. Is she a Big 12 act? Why wasn’t this a more contentious part of the settlement negotiations? What’s she like? I mean, when Matt Wells comes to her dressing room and is all, “Ms. Panda, five minutes…” is she on her Blackberry texting friends like Shaq and Caley Kuoco and Lil Wayne and Jay Bilas and snapping bubble gum and doesn’t even acknowledge Wells? Or is she sitting on her unicycle signing autographs with her feet for little children seven feet below?
Haven’t seen her on the road or, of course, at a home game this season. And don’t tell me this isn’t a coincidence. Red Panda is the don’t-leave-your-seats halftime entertainment and WVU football has its junior weekend recruiting soiree — heavy on the quarterbacks — featuring seats at Saturday’s basketball game.
Blue chipper: Coach, coach! This unicyclist … is she here often? Dana Holgorsen: That’s what Mr. Luck assured me in December 2010. Blue chipper: Well, I’m ready to give you my verbal commi– Dana Holgorsen: In a minute, kid. In a minute.
Somehow I suspect that is not why you’re here today. We did see the tentative agreement reached last night to end the lawsuits — and from what I’m told, the terms are fairly similar to those proposed at the beginning here. So I have to ask: What was all this about?
WVU has done exactly what it said it would do and got exactly what it wanted. I didn’t necessarily agree with what the University did — which was say with conviction from the beginning it was in the Big 12 come July 1 and there was no conversation to the contrary — but at the end, I do have to admire the resoluteness. It worked.
I mean, if WVU looked bad at the beginning of this for thumbing its nose at the Big East and its bylaws, there is at least some credibility to what it has previously stated and stood behind. The Big East has made a series of underwhelming additions and basketball decisions and, I have to believe now, didn’t have what it needed in order to do what it wanted to do to WVU. Basically, the University held its breath longer and the Big East reached a point where it stood to lose way more than it was going to gain.All stuff we’ve been over here recently now, but this time with what I trust is a conclusion.
So, really, what took so long? Why are they settling now and not, I don’t know, months ago? I hope we get answers to that, as well as a few other questions, over time here.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, get fired up (and get your legalese figured out before the judge calls you on it.)
Better Lucky Than Goode said:
I’ll say this for Truck — when he succeeds, he succeeds magnificently, and when he fails … he fails magnificently. Absolutely no short-term memory, which is a good (albeit sometimes frustrating) quality to have in a cornerback and a shooting guard. He never seems to let a missed shot deter him from taking another one.
You might say this Truck doesn’t have a rear-view mirror, either.
You might say that. I’m furious I haven’t said that before you just did. Treadmill…
eersfaninbmore said:
So what you’re saying is that Kilicli needed to be “grounded” to play well?
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Source familiar with the negotiations tells the Charleston Daily Mail WVU and the Big East reached a conditional agreement Thursday night. Story soon now at www.charlestondailymail.com. And for the trillionth time, these things happen at night.
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Bob Huggins was pretty honest, emotional and, dare I say, resigned in last night’s postgame press conference. Not sure I’ve seen him quite like that before. Not sure you can argue with anything he says, either.
Such an odd game and it has to hurt. WVU didn’t play well at all and really had a chance to win. The three turnovers were the fewest in a game since 1953 — and, boy, did that 1952-53 squad value the ball. Deniz and Jabarie were, I though, pretty solid in a game they needed to be pretty solid.
Even Truck had managed a worthwhile game even if he was 0-for-6/0-for-3. He never had eight assists in a game before and he didn’t turn it over until the absolute worst time, and that wasn’t long after nearly turning it over in a similar spot before. Does he need to shoot it more? His teammates said yes, but that the shots weren’t there. Huggins agreed, and Truck really isn’t a guy who’s going to make a lot of forced shots.
And yet it was right there and it got away on a night when the rather small margin this team plays with was exposed.
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Sorry to leave you hanging so long here, but we were trying to beat an early edition deadline on this WVU-Big East settlement. A few things here that I’m sure you wonder about because I wonder about them too.
