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

Why you and I have headaches tonight

January 28, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Here are the sights and, more egregiously, the sounds from where I sat for Saturday’s game — and what a game that was. Those people in blue at the near basket are Mountaineers. In the distance, you’ll see the other basket, which explains why initially I didn’t have a very strong opinion of the Keita/Kilicli play late.

Lots of craning of the neck, which wasn’t any fun with the back as it was. Band directly behind me and patrons in front of me — and they were good people. They apologized for standing, which I thought was both bizarre and polite. Then the ushers came over and made them sit down. I’d be ticked off if I paid good cash to sit there and I was told I had to sit on my hands.

Fortunately for WVU, there was no prohibition for its bench to get on its feet and scream and yell. The Mountaineers exploited that on the decisive play. Really, watch the reaction … and they’re right there for it. Again, I didn’t have a great view, but in the moment, I could see the bench and I saw the reaction and I thought they were celebrating.

So much to go over …

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WVU v. Syracuse: Once more, with reeling?

by Mike Casazza

Quite likely the last regular-season game ever for West Virginia at the Carrier Dome and they’ll go out in style. Today’s game, which starts at 1 p.m. on ESPNU, will have the largest crowd  for a game this season. The Mountaineers have lost nine straight to the Orange here — can’t forget the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight wins here in 2010 — and have lost all nine in the series since they won here in 1996.

Per my experiences, this is the arena that affects the opposition the most. When the crowd gets going, the other team struggles and Syracuse surges. It takes a very mature team — not necessarily old or experienced … just mature — to handle the inevitable roars and runs. It takes a simple skill to keep a lid on things: Don’t turn the ball over.

The Orange lead college basketball in steals per game (10.3) and turnover margin (plus-7) and no one turns a live-ball turnover into points like these guys. Just watch them get a steal, flip a switch and turn defense into offense. It happens fast, it usually ends with a dunk or a 3-pointer, and nothing gets the crowd going like that.

Not sure what to think of the Mountaineers in this specific area. They actually average fewer turnovers (13.3) in losses than they do in wins (14.1). In home games, they average 14 turnovers. In road games (I count Kansas State and Marshall because they were up against the crowd in both) they average 13.8. In the two games in Las Vegas, they totaled 28.

WVU is good for about 14 turnovers a game, no matter what. That can’t change for the worse today if they want to change their recent past here for the better.

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Friday Feedback

January 27, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is scratching its head and actually liking it.

Nothing is as it seems. Really, you have three openings on the defensive staff, two hires, one co-coordinator, one opening and umpteen rumors about who might join.

You have two lawsuits and one seemingly inevitable outcome and one conversation that puts the seemingly inevitable outcome in jeopardy.

You have 26 players committed to the 2012 recruiting class, a rule allowing no more than 25 signed players, ample loopholes to allow for oversigning and just five more days before signing day.

Then there’s your basketball team, which was aiming for a top spot in the Big East and may now be battling for just a one-round bye — and really, isn’t this just two Gary Browne 3-pointers away from being a very different season?

And best, or worst, of, I have no answers. I think I’ve known what wasn’t going to happen at some points with this staff search, but I don’t know what happens next. I never know what happens in the legal process. Or recruiting. Too many variables attached to too many personalities there for anyone to ever know for sure, and the same late twists always come to define both subjects.

Basketball? What once looked settled is now jumbled and tomorrow’s game at Syracuse is either an elixir or ipecac.

Truthfully, you’d like something in between, no matter the outcome. Hope they don’t get too low with a loss or too high with a win, but you know as well as I know that we never really know. And that’s why we watch and write.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, be creative.

Wayne said:

It seems to me that some of the “panic” about the staff hires originates from people stirring the pot on messsage boards. I wonder how many of those people have an agenda per WVU, Luck or Holgorsen. On the other hand, it is the silly season for college football fans.

I wouldn’t make fun of the establishment. I have friends who run and work for those things here and elsewhere. There’s a niche and people pay and enjoy to inhabit those places. Noy my cup of tea, but I think this story is the sort of thing that keeps those boards humming  — and on some level, it is newsworthy, though the level is beneath obsession. Certainly, though, many have agendas. I just don’t see the premise for this panic. I mean, you couldn’t put players through a more dramatic change than what the offense went through this past season. Turned out OK, right? I hear the, “Well, we got Dana Holgorsen. There’s no Dana Holgorsen out there on defense!” There may be something to that, but to be perfectly honest, defense isn’t as complicated or as hard to teach as is offense. How many offtackle schemes can dream up out of all the formations? How many Cover Two schemes are there?

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This is going to be easy

January 26, 2012 by Mike Casazza

That’s what I thought when I sat down to fire up the blog today by beginning with an explanation of last night’s loss. And that’s sure what it looked like WVU thought when it took the floor last night against St. John’s.

Quote Bob Huggins, who was wonderfully quotable after the loss: “We somehow got an inflated value of our self-worth.”  That’s not good, particularly when the objective beginning last night, after working so hard and playing so well to reach a certain level this season, was to act like it belonged. Said it yesterday: “It’s now upon WVU to handle its triumphs as well as it did its stumbles.”

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WVU v. St. John’s: Extra MSG

January 25, 2012 by Mike Casazza

6:27: Greetings from the Garden at the end of a surprisingly uneventful day. The blog is up and running and I spy a few WVU dignitaries in the crowd this evening.

Perhaps they just want an eyeful of the Mountaineers in what is quite likely their final regular-season conference game in Madison Square Garden. It’ll be interesting to see how Bob Huggins shoehorns the Mecca into his schedules when he’s in the Big 12. There are a few tournaments he can get into, but there are also opportunities to play some Big East or East Coast teams here in neutral-site games. I feel like the metro area and the arena are too important to neglect. Smart people agree.

I suppose they could play in Newark and that would be fine, but this little area has been good to WVU recently. Heck, so has the entire state. They could play this on campus at renovated Carnasecca Arena and WVU would have a good chance — witness a 10-3 record in the last 13 games in the Empire State.

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Buckle up, I’m traveling

by Mike Casazza

Something is bound to happen today and I’ve been cringing recently as I’ve seen something coming. I’m in the air late this morning until early this afternoon for my flight to LGA before tonight’s game against St. John’s.

The Red Storm is a team a lot like WVU in that they’re young and — well, that’s about it. Don’t be fooled. St. John’s is actually more inexperienced less experienced than the Mountaineers and, as such, has been more inconsistent.

Bob Huggins said the Red Storm youth is “more athletic than ours,” but theirs is also a team  that is 1-5 at the Garden and overall has 266 turnovers and 202 assists and a minus-2.8 rebounding margin. St. John’s shoots 24.4 percent from 3-point range and lets opponents shoot 34.2. Five of the past six losses — and all in seven games — have been by at least 15 points.

WVU has just been more resilient and has ably handled losses this season. It followed its first two losses with three- and five-game winning streaks.

After the loss to Baylor in the championship game of the Las Vegas Classic, the Mountaineers beat Villanova to open Big East play. After a 19-point loss at Seton Hall, WVU led by 25-points at the half and won easily at Rutgers and won at home against then-No. 9 Georgetown to end the Hoyas’ seven-game winning streak.

The Mountaineers led by 10 in the second half and lost to then-No. 17 Connecticut, but again roughed up Rutgers – which, by the way, has wins against Florida, Pitt, UConn and Notre Dame – before winning the Capital Classic against Marshall and ending Cincinnati’s seven-game Big East road winning streak Saturday.

The challenge now is for the Mountaineers to handle success as well as they have disappointment.

“We try not to give them much choice,” Huggins said. “It’s kind of like after the (second) Rutgers game. They came in the next day and we were only going to practice for an hour-and-a-half, but they were awful. So we ran.

“Here’s what I tell them: They’re here all summer. They lift. They run. Obviously, they play before the season starts. They lift. They run even more to get in shape for practice and we practice pretty hard. So why go through all that and not show up and play hard?”

After further review, Big East officials are … wait, what?

January 24, 2012 by Mike Casazza

There were 14 coaches’ challenges in 56 Big East games this season and three were winners. Three! That’s not bad. Just to restore our sanity, in which we think the crews had a bad year, the 14 challenges was the most since 2007. In all, officials overturned nearly 30 percent of the plays they reviewed. That’s more like it.

 

Browne quite good at taking things that aren’t his

by Mike Casazza

Where might West Virginia be without Gary Browne this season? WVU’s freshmen guard has twice sent games to overtime with 3-pointers and twice WVU has won when it seemed it might lose. He leads the team in steals and improbable possessions, those hustle player where he just gets a ball he has no business getting to, be it a loose ball, a long rebound or a bobble.

He is equal parts basketball player, volleyball player, shortstop and cat burglar, but his greatest contribution has been letting the Mountaineers play big when they play small. His rebounding has helped fill that void on the wing.

“I don’t box them all out, but I find space to get to the ball,” he said. “I don’t care who it is, they don’t jump that high to catch the ball over the rim. It’s always going to come down. If it comes down to the floor, I want to get it.”

Suppose WVU runs a 3-4

January 23, 2012 by Mike Casazza

I don’t yet know, but I am supposing that’s the way this  is going to be at WVU with Joe DeForest, Mike Smith and others coaching the defense. Might have to add Steve Dunlap to that list because he’s been recruiting and he was at Saturday’s halftime ceremony. Still, it looks like the hires Dana Holgorsen has made are with a 3-4 in mind. Smith seems to already have ideas about the 3-4 after messing with it for a few years in the NFL.

“We’re going to move around. We’re going to stem,” Smith said Wednesday from the Jets’ facilities, where he worked for two seasons as a defensive intern under Rex Ryan. “We’re going to show different coverages. We’re going to disguise. We’re going to play with good fundamentals and techniques. That’s kind of who we are.

“I understand in college, you can’t run the New York Jets defense, the entire package. But you can run that style of defense, the way we teach it and play it, you know.”

This could be all wrong, but that would defeat the purpose of the exercise and I’m not going to admit defeat here. Let’s assume the defense is a 3-4 next season. It’s not a 3-3-5. It’s different. It’s going to juggle personnel, not as much on the defensive line, but certainly at linebacker and definitely in the secondary — and WVU is recruiting a lot of safeties this year.

Talk about your lineup …

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How high or low can WVU go?

by Mike Casazza

Northern Kentucky University isn’t far from the University of Cincinnati. Right across the Ohio River, in fact. But WVU’s men’s basketball team has come a long way from losing an exhibition game to the Division II school in November to beat the Bearcats Saturday. The Mountaineers are 15-5, No. 11 in the RPI and No. 2 in strength of schedule. They should be ranked this afternoon

A year ago, WVU had five losses after 17 games. The record was a game worse after 20 games. So far, so good, right?

“It’s the same team, but it’s just maturing,” said senior forward Kevin Jones, who had his 13th double-double of the season in the Mountaineers’ 77-74 overtime win against Cincinnati on Saturday. “The talent was always there, but I think the younger guys didn’t know how much of a challenge college basketball was going to be. They got a reality check from a Division II team.”

Which leads to this: What is reality today?

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