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

What do we discuss today?

May 26, 2011 by Mike Casazza

There are probably only a few hours left in the WVU baseball season because the lads obviously don’t read my work lost to Seton Hall yesterday in the double elimination Big East Tournament. Today it’s Notre Dame and that rarely turns out well when the Mountaineers need it to.

Or is the topic WVU’s storm-chasing track and field performers who are about to participate in the NCAA regionals?

I can say with relative certainty my biggest worry will not come true and the much anticipated next page of WVU’s drama with the NCAA case will not be written this weekend. Oliver Luck will be out of town and a few athletic department officials who have big plans this weekend are privately relieved they won’t be interrupted.

I’m tapped out from the past few days and woefully behind on personal and domestic things I need to do … and I still have a full day or work and chasing to do today.

I also imagine the discussion will continue to center on Dana Holgorsen getting run from the dog track in the Cross Lanes crisscross.

Fine, and I still think the prevailing matter is what happened inside the place that prompted the security to call police. I understand the Nitro PD said it was a generic and uneventful call, but that’s once they were dispatched to and arrived at the scene. Security, quick triggers or no quick triggers, doesn’t blithely call police. There was a cause and I continue to hear the past 36 hours this perhaps wasn’t entirely Holgorsen’s fault. Some want names named to identify who was with Holgorsen so others are implicated for contributing to this episode, but that’s not happening here and do understand they might have done some good work, too.

Now, what was Holgorsen’s fault? This: All hail the Big East casino, which is kind of brilliant.

Finally, three words: Gambler. Parody. Please.

(P.S. Regarding yesterday’s radio shenanigans, the producer and the co-host separately spoke to me Wednesday afternoon to make that situation better — and before statements from Oliver Luck and Dana Holgorsen and a press release from Nitro PD cemented this alleged non-alleged incident did occur. I need to mention that because I appreciate that. I should have said this earlier, but I was busy at my five-days-a-week newspaper job.)

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Good morning, everyone. Sorry I’ve been sparse lately …

May 25, 2011 by Mike Casazza

… but my attention has been elsewhere.

Let’s be responsible and appropriate here, but also honest and, if necessary, blunt. Try to remember there was no arrest and no punishment has been assigned or announced. Might have been a long day and a bad night. Might need to know better, too.

Still, there is a discussion to be had here and I think it begins with a question: Where, if anywhere, do things go from here?

(I never do this because I never care about this — and that’s a flaw of mine — but the outlet getting credit in very small circles for breaking the story most certainly didn’t break the story. I realize larger circles are pointing the finger in the proper direction, but little things eat at me. There’s credibility involved and it bothers me when others allow theirs to be falsely enhanced. Finally, would you be surprised to know I’m leaving town Friday morning for four days and a graduation in Birmingham, Ala.?)

(Continuing very important things in parentheses, the final round of sit-downs at the Big East meetings was cancelled today because of earlier-than-expected departures. Brett McMurphy — See?! It’s not that hard! — reports Oliver Luck needed to get back to campus ASAP.)

(I’m told WVU will have a comment, either in a release or a conference call, before the end of the day in which the situation will be updated or advanced.)

(Here’s the text of a press release from the Nitro PD this afternoon:

On May 18th 2011 at approximately 3:20 am, Nitro Police responded to a disturbance call at the Mardi Gras Casino in which the Casino wanted a patron escorted from the property.

Upon the officers arrival they spoke with a male, who was identified as Dana Holgerson.  Officers asked Mr. Holgerson to walk outside the casino, to which Mr. Holgerson complied.

Officers asked Mr. Holgerson to sit on a bench and await a taxi cab to pick him up.  Mr. Holgerson sat on the bench outside the casino and awaited the cab.  The cab arrived and Mr. Holgerson got into the cab and left.

No report was taken in this matter due to Mr. Holgerson not violating any laws.

Really, there’s nothing new in there and it looks quite innocent. The hook, though, is that something or some things happened inside Mardi Gras Casino & Resort that prompted the call to the police. An officer who responded to the call said they are typically dispatched there when someone needs to be removed. No one at the casino is talking, so we don’t know what encouraged them to call the police. That’s the blank that needs to be filled, ideally by the casino.)

(And, alas, here is your statement from Oliver Luck and Dana Holgorsen … with still nothing from the casino. And I mean nothing — no humans answering phones, no returning of messages, no indication the establishment will do anything other than preserve the privacy of its customers.

OLIVER LUCK:

“After looking into the details and throughly investigating what took place last week, I believe inappropriate behavior did occur.

“Coach Stewart and I have made it clear, and will reiterate, that our coaches and staff are representing the University and the state at all times. We expect them to always display appropriate behavior.

“I take this matter very seriously, but I do not plan on commenting on it further.”

DANA HOLGORSEN:

“I learned a valuable lesson from this incident. As a football coach, I am always in the public eye and I have to hold myself to a higher standard, which is what I ask our players to do. I’m sorry that this incident has put the University and the football program in a difficult position. I will not put myself in that situation again.”

Your thoughts?)

The latest round of APR scores, if you need it

May 24, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Good news? WVU will receive no scholarship restrictions based on academic performance from 2006-2010. The bad news? That’s a trick question. There really is none.

Out of all the teams in all the sports in the NCAA only eight teams face the postseason ban for poor academics: Men’s basketball teams at Cal-State Northridge, Chicago State, Grambling, Southern University, Baton Rouge and Louisiana-Monroe; football teams at Idaho State, Jackson State and Southern University. Seven more teams were looking at a postseason ban, but received a conditional waiver for this coming. Teh NCAA says these waivers “can be granted for a variety of reasons but generally include demonstrated academic improvement, active presidential involvement, meeting certain APR benchmarks and implementation of an APR improvement plan.”

Five of those seven were men’s basketball teams. So of the 15 teams that were staring at trouble, 10 were men’s basketball teams. This is worth mentioning because we went over WVU’s retention problems — 10 players have left since Bob Huggins arrived in 2007 — as well as the very good APR.

Huggins’ Mountaineers have been in the top 10 percent of its sport the past two years. They were 990 last year and are 995 this season. Huggins, long hounded for the academic pitfalls of his past, has done quite well at WVU.

Greg Van Zant, believe it or not, did a good job this season

by Mike Casazza

This is what Greg Van Zant told me Sunday night about a 14-5 win the day before that ended a six-game losing streak for WVU’s baseball team: “I’ve told a lot of people that was one of the biggest games we’ve had since I’ve been the head coach here.”

I don’t believe he was exaggerating. You know the guy. You know the criticism. You know the state of affairs and evaluation in the athletic department.

It is understood a regular-season record just three games above .500 overall and just one game above even in the Big East is not extraordinarily endearing and, when lined up next to some recent records, probably doesn’t do a whole lot to put Van Zant in a different perspective for the rooting public. He and his baseball team had another one of those late-season slides and, truth be told, aren’t a real threat for postseason success.

That much we know. What seems to be unknown is what may be most important, though.

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Big East meetings not quite full of sound and fury

May 23, 2011 by Mike Casazza

They won’t exactly signify nothing either as the coaches and athletic department administrators from the conference’s 17 basketball/nine football schools huddle in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., this week. Still, don’t expect a lot of news or even a lot of traction toward news to come out of the three days of discussions and brainstorming.

A primer …

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And J.T. Thomas is all that’s right with sports

by Mike Casazza

I’ll let the words do the work on their own, but bravo, Mr. Thomas. Bravo.

Friday Feedback

May 20, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which was a game-time decision today. Slight and misunderstood accident with a lawn mower last night where I went to remove grass from the exhaust and a rock got loose and flew into the middle finder on my right hand at approximately 213 mph. It looks like my big toe right now.

Yes, the mower was on … insert lecture here. Yet I soldier on and didn’t even announce my decision to publish on Twitter. Key strokes are to be cherished today. Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. I’ve already given you comedy with my deformed finger and questionable ability to make domestic decisions.

Spatial Angel said:

Virginia Tech is ACC to most people, but to old WVU fans, they are just Virginia Tech. I’d take that game anywhere, any time.

Just about everyone else would, too, but WVU is, under ordinary circumstances, going to avoid two ACC schools, or two schools from the came conference … ie, Marshall and East Carolina. Also, Bill Stewart has given strong indications in recent years Virginia Tech won’t enter into a series with WVU.

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A little more about the monster we’ve created

May 19, 2011 by Mike Casazza
(Looks like WVU at Mississippi State Dec. 3 in the Big East/SEC Challenge.)

I’m receiving email guesses and being directed to message board threads about WVU’s “Mysterious Mid-Major” opponent. This is all very fun for the idle days of May, but I do feel kind of guilty because, first, I used that term months ago and, second, this wasn’t a disingenuous attention quest. I really was only interested in how the scheduling would go as opposed to who would go on it.

And yet, there we were again Tuesday spraying Windex on the window to get a better look at the process and, specifically, who is and who is not a mid-major.

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Despite roster hits, WVU basketball in no real APR trouble

by Mike Casazza

The APR is a little confusing, what with all the variations through the years and the way these academic things are made to be so intimidating. What most people know of the APR is that if a player leaves the school, and thus does not graduate, the school gets a slap.

Not so. And this is why WVU’s men’s basketball team, despite losing nine players during the four years Bob Huggins has been the coach, is actually one of the country’s best APR teams … and the APR, mind you, looks at a four-year period.

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Big East meetings to focus on bigger Big East

May 18, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Shocker, huh? It’s still the ultimate talking point within and surrounding the conference and will surely come up more than, say, altering the Big East Tournament, which should certainly be mentioned … a lot.

Nevertheless, there is incentive, both figuratively and literally, to advancing the expansion discussions this time. After all this time, it sure seems there are benefits to being behind because the Pac-10/12 is providing a pretty good model to follow — and this is probably not good news for Villanova.

Last June, as the Pac-10 was moving on the Utes and Buffaloes, one Chicago marketing firm that works with college athletic programs was estimating that the two schools would add to the Pac-10 potential, but not significantly to a conference that already had Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Seattle and Portland, Ore.

One estimate was $14.5 million per school in the new deal. The Pac-10 members will go that figure $6.3 million better, starting this football season through 2022-23 (and creating its own Pac-12 network, too, holding back 36 football games for telecast there, for starters).

“I’m not saying Villanova is that or isn’t that, or can be that. I don’t know. That’s up to the commissioner and other people in the conference office to decide in talking with the TV people. But it does tell us what might be possible if you do get the right teams.”

“What happened there struck a chord with me,” Luck said. “There’s a lesson in that for us in the Big East. What’s the lesson? Well, if you do get the right teams, the right schools, it can be a real plus. It can provide a real bump, and we need that.