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

Ray Gaddis gets to wear the BIMBO jersey!

January 12, 2012 by Mike Casazza

This is the sort of thing I ought to include more often, though I wonder if people care: I have a friend who works in Major League Soccer and this person 1) Raved about WVU’s team 2) Consistently checked in on Ray Gaddis. 3) Told me the D.C. United is looking for a staff writer.

Every time I saw WVU play the past two years, I was impressed with Gaddis. He plays a critical position — right back in soccer is key because he pushes up to play offense and flick in crosses, but then has to scurry back to play defense. He never scored, but he was always clearly one of the best players on the pitch … and that’s a subtlety that probably explains why so many people don’t understand/like soccer.

Well, Gaddis was drafted into the MLS Thursday and was selected in the second round by the Philadelphia Union.

Gaddis is arguably the highest decorated defender in WVU history, playing in 73 career games and leading the Mountaineers to two NCAA Tournament second round appearances. Gaddis logged 6,687 minutes in his career and finished with six assists and 24 shots taken.

“It is a great honor and blessing to be selected in this year’s draft,” Gaddis says. “I want to thank all of the coaches, West Virginia University and the athletic department for putting me in the right environment to become a pro. I also want to thank Coach LeBlanc who took a chance on me and thought I deserved to play for WVU. It’s a very exciting moment for me and family and it is what I have dreamed of and worked for all my life.”

Gaddis earned a plethora of awards while attending WVU that include; two-time MAC Hermann Trophy Watch list member, third team All-American in 2010, first team NSCAA all-Northeast in 2009, two-time second team all-BIG EAST, two-time all-BIG EAST Preseason team member and a 2011 CollegeSoccerNews Second Team Preseason All-American.

Don’t sneeze at his future, either. MLS salaries are up and the average annual salary is actually $154,000. Guys can, and do, make good money in the MLS these days.

More defensive staff stuff

by Mike Casazza

Another day, another name and another batch of “news” about who is maybe possible reportedly connected to the vacancies at West Virginia.

Understand this about the way Dana Holgorsen and Oliver Luck will do this: They’re going to talk to a lot of people. They have to and for a few reasons. For one, they have three vacancies, which means not everyone you hear about is necessarily a candidate for defensive coordinator. Those two gentlemen also have a coveted ability right now to showboat a little bit because of a what the program has going for it as it moves forward. Why not talk to as many people as possible?

In the meantime, you’ll discover a lot of names out there. Who you were excited about a week ago might not be who you’re excited about today. Deep breaths, everyone.

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Don’t look now …

by Mike Casazza

… especially with a Rutgers team that I find very interesting coming to town Saturday, but that Capital Classic Wednesday is going to be very competitive and significant.

Really, how about two possible NCAA Tournament teams on the floor at the Civic Center? It’s the sort of occasion that makes JackBo chat.

I think Rutgers is tricky, though. I have, for some reason, seen them play a handful of times this season and watched losses to Miami and Richmond and even LSU, but you could see they had some talent and a pretty good coach in Mike Rice. Then the Scarlet Knights beat a top-10 Florida and you figured it was coming together.

They were among the last to know and followed with losses to USF and WVU … but then beat UConn and Pitt in succession — and what in the world happened to Pitt? That’s going to be an important game Saturday. Says Jack, “If WVU takes care of business at home and can split its remaining six Big East road games, the Mountaineers will be in the big bracket for a fifth straight season under Huggins and seventh time in eight years (to go with an NIT title in the other).”

 

Huggins feeling antsy about his offense

January 11, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Bob Huggins was not pleased with how his players dominated the ball and didn’t share it in Monday’s loss to UConn.

“I used to have an assistant say, ‘They killed ants,'” Coach Bob Huggins said. “There wouldn’t be a damn ant alive if they had any in there.

“I’m telling you, we would have killed them all. We just dribble it and dribble it and dribble it and dribble it and dribble it and we don’t pass the ball.”

A lot of the blame would go to the freshmen, many who froze either with ball or with the weight of the end of the game on their shoulders. That’s discouraging, but perhaps doubly so when you consider WVU got a lot from its freshmen in a double-overtime win away from home in December.

“That was a month ago and we should be even better than earlier when we really didn’t know what to do in front of this type of crowd,” Jones said. “Guys know that we have to bring it down and run offense sometimes.

“But at that point with a lot of young guys on the floor, they get anxious when stuff isn’t going our way. We have to get them to calm down and learn how to use the clock, especially when we’re up.”

Coaching staff stuff

January 10, 2012 by Mike Casazza

A little late here, but I’ve been (traveling and) working on this today and I fully expect Jeff Casteel, David Lockwood and Bill Kirelawich to be announced at Arizona tomorrow. Riveting, I know.

Everything Tuessday pointed that way — first a source telling me, then Arizona confirming just that the school would hire a TE, LB, DL and CB coach and then visual confirmation, of sorts, when the Wildcats website briefly posted biographies for the three WVU coaches.

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‘Selfish plays down the stretch’

by Mike Casazza

Told his team — and Kevin Jones played, and had to play, most of Monday’s game as if it was his team — had done a few of the things a visiting team just has to do to beat Connecticut on one of its home floors, WVU’s leading scorer was asked how the Mountaineers nevertheless lost again to the Huskies.

“Selfish plays down the stretch,” WVU senior forward Kevin Jones said. “We were up 10 and that’s the time you really want to run offense and get good shots. We didn’t do that.

“We were sloppy with the ball and acting like we were down. We took fast shots and drove at the basket and they blocked our shots. We’ve still got to work on that. We’re still a young team, but that’s not an excuse.”

WVU (12-5, 3-2 Big East) led 46-36 when Deniz Kilicli sank a left-handed hook shot with 11:24 to play, but missed 12 of the final 14 shots and missed all six of its 3-point attempts.

UConn (13-3, 3-2) responded with a 17-3 run and regained the lead for good 51-49 on a three-pointer by Jeremy Lamb with 5:11 remaining.

The Mountaineers missed four of five shots and had four turnovers that led to eight points to start the UConn run. WVU turned the ball over just three times in the first half.

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WVU v. UConn: Who will excel?

January 9, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Just about tip time here from the XL Center, the building in which WVU is 0-2 as part of an 0-8 record all-time on the road against UConn. The Mountaineers and could really use a win tonight to distinguish themselves, at least early on, as something more than one of a bunch of meddling teams.

Put it this way: A win on UConn’s home floor is going to look good later on this season and also go a long way toward satisfying a mythical number of wins the Mountaineers might need to gain at-large status for the NCAA Tournament. It’s nicer to nab those wins now, especially when the opponent has struggled enough to lose back-to-back games, than it is later in the season, when improvements and desperation and fatigue and injury and other variables become factors for everyone.

6:58: Big fan of Shabazz Napier. I think he’s got a great game and moves that are just very hard to handle … but his shoes are going to test me tonight. You have to see them.

6:59: Speaking of “see to believe,” Andre Drummond is enormous. That’s a legit 6-10, 270-pound freshman. He makes Alex Oriakhi look quaint. Obviously, WVU is going to have its hands full under the baskets. Shots and second chances there aren’t going to be easy.

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When last we left the XL Center …

by Mike Casazza

… I had no idea about the now famous Bob Huggins speech to his player in the locker room after the March 2010 loss to UConn. The story after that game was Huggins getting ejected, WVU playing poorly, then recovering, then fading on the road and what, if anything, could this once top-10 team do in the postseason.

The traveling media didn’t know about what Huggins says is “like the Gettysburg Address in West Virginia now.” He rehashed it for the radio audience, but never brough it up in his press conference. His players weren’t quite sure what they’d just witnessed and didn’t really know what do to with it.

“It was definitely a special moment,” said Jones, who with Truck Bryant and Deniz Kilicli are the only current players who played in that game.

“We didn’t know it at the time, but looking back on it now, that moment was really pivotal toward our success the rest of the year. You don’t want to come out and repeat the same mistakes anymore.”

Huggins doesn’t have to give the speech, or some variation, these days. Jones, Bryant and Kilicli protect the image they helped to craft. They make sure the younger players understand what they were once made to understand.

“When you have a bunch of young guys, they can kind of get bored of you talking to them over and over about the same things,” Jones said. “But when me and Truck come in and express to them what these Big East games mean, I think they get it a little better.”

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Is this, despite its youth, a ranked team?

by Mike Casazza

Hey, don’t look now, but West Virginia is No. 14 in the RPI — two arrows up! — and is playing the nation’s fourth-hardest schedule. The Mountaineers are 1-2 against ranked teams after Saturday’s home win against Georgetown, which was the 20th for Bob Huggins against a ranked team at WVU.

Remember, WVU beat Kansas State this season and they were ranked last week. Seton Hall ought to be ranked. 

Still, WVU is in second place in the Big East, has two marquee players in Kevin Jones and Big East player of the week Truck Bryant, is playing and winning a tough schedule and seems to be figuring out how to commit to, and then play, defense. I mean, the Mountaineers made Georgetown look very ordinary Saturday and not like a top-10 team that had won 11 in a row.

The Hoyas had 10 assists on 23 baskets and committed 15 turnovers. They struggled to get scores with the backdoor cuts common in their offense.

“That was probably the best job that we’ve done for an extended period guarding, and they’re hard to guard,” Huggins said. “Honestly, that was maybe the best job digesting the scouting report that we’ve done.”

The polls come out in a little while: Will WVU be ranked? Should WVU be ranked?

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WVU v.Georgetown: Can these guys get to 70?

January 7, 2012 by Mike Casazza

Starting here in just a few moments and it occurs to me no one on this WVU team has ever lost to Georgetown.

Serious, check the box score from the last time the Hoyas beat the Mountaineers. That’s pretty impressive. A win today against the 9th-ranked Hoyas gives WVU five in a row in the series, which has never happened in the Big East and only happened once ever between these two schools. That was way back in 1933-35.

Hell, put an asterisk on that one. The first game in that five-game streak wasn’t a game at all.

Some fun with 70: WVU under Bob Huggins is 83-12 when it scores 70 or more points and has won 60 of the past 69 such games. The Hoyas, meanwhile, have allowed 70 or more just twice — 88 in a three-point win in overtime in November against Memphis and 70 in a three-point win Wednesday against Marquette.

Here we go …

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