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

Will today be the day?

February 19, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Odd streaks are on the line as WVU plays host to No. 8 Notre Dame and tries valiantly to outscore the opponent in the second half of keep the other team below its first-half point total in the second half.

Maybe that changes today. And maybe this is the day we get the elusive and mesmerizing Tim Higgins Block Shuffle.

He’s in the house today, along with Ed Corbett and Sean Corbin.

Corbin, by the way, is a college rookie. He spent many years in the NBA and actually scaled back his schedule by going to the college game. None of these three called a game last night.

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Friday Feedback

February 18, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, on the eve of what is being presented by many as a make-or-break game for West Virginia. It’s Notre Dame and the Mountaineers in the first of three remaining home games against ranked teams. Soft bubble or not, WVU needs wins, and for teams like that wins at home are really no different than road wins — they’re good to have.

WVU has won the past two in the series in the Coliseum and Notre Dame, for a time, wasn’t very good on the road. The Irish started 3-3 in the Big East with losses at Syracuse, Marquette and St. John’s. Hey, the Mountaineers have lost to the same teams and two of those were on the road. It is there where a similiarity between the two teams takes shape.

Notre Dame, picked to finish seventh in the Big East and now No. 8 in the country, is defined by who isn’t on this team and doubts projected on the Irish have inspired those who remain. WVU was picked to finish fifth in the Big East and, like Notre Dame, had to replace important parts. The Mountaineers were also motivated to replace missing parts, but have struggled with the replacement process.

So get a look of Notre Dame led by Ben Hansbrough and his — as described by Coach Mike Brey — “borderline craziness” against WVU in one of the final chapters of what — as described by Coach Bob Huggins — “hasn’t been the most storybook year.”

“In all honesty, what’s affected us is losing our entire freshman class,” WVU Coach Bob Huggins said. “You take away two guards and the length the other guys had and we can’t do the things we really anticipated doing when you sit down and try to prepare for the season.

“That’s hurt us more than anything. You’re going to lose guys. We all knew Devin was going to leave. Da’Sean was a senior. Wells was a senior. You plan for that. What affected us was losing the new guys.”

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t have a cow.

Foul Shot said:

Seems like we see the same refs, game after game, year after year.
And, they continually seem to tick us all off.
But, the refs don’t decide the game – unless it is a missed goal tending call at the end of the G-town game a couple of years ago. I dont think I’ll ever forget that one.
Hoping to get the next game against Depaul and then to make a strong stretch drive.
Still, 20 wins always seems to be the magic number to get into the Big Dance – still hoping we can get there.

Don’t fixate on 20 wins. It’s not a magic number anymore. If I heard it correctly, the selection committee’s mock selection this  week predicted WVU to finish ninth in the Big East. That doesn’t sound like 20 wins to me. But WVU was in the field. The SOS and RPI are too healthy. In the past 16 years, no team with a top 21 RPI has been left out of the field. Right now, WVU is No. 23.

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A two-part pop quiz needs you!

February 17, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Kemba Walker had a nice night and one nice play last night. The latter got Jim Calhoun thinking about a past game against a Big East team.

“I haven’t seen the bank play in quite some time, as in never,” Calhoun said. “A kid from West Virginia tried it against us one time and it was unsuccessful. That one was him. Obviously he was wonderful.”

Unsuccessful is puttling it mildly. Do you remember that kid from West Virginia?

Whether you do or not, you may proceed. I had a full schedule today, including a swim meet, and it kept me from conducting the weekly chat. Tomorrow being Friday, I’m willing to do the Friday Feedback or a live chat. You make the call.

‘The truth of the matter is, we’re all over-worked’

by Mike Casazza

Couldn’t agree more, Bob Huggins. The WVU coach, he of a quick and stunning technical foul Monday night in the Carrier Dome, recites the most recited, yet most grounded explanation for the less-than-stellar state of officiating.

The WVU coach does believe that there is a problem, though. Many people are starting to point at the amount of games that referees are calling and saying they are over-worked. Huggins agrees that they are working too often.

“You have guys that, maybe they’re here one day, and then they’re supposed to be in Lawrence, Kansas or Stillwater, Oklahoma the next day,” he said. “It’s harder. It’s gotten a lot harder.”

Who will make hay?

February 16, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Dana Holgorsenwas talking earlier this month about how his new WVU players were watching Oklahoma State clips — on their own — to get some ideas about the offense before spring practice begins next month.

He was asked if he’d give last year’s WVU film a look to get some ideas about the players he inherits.

The answer was that he would not, though with a purpose. “I have absolutely no interest in what happened here last year offensively. I don’t know what they did. Football’s hard enough already. You don’t need to enter a bunch of other stuff into the equation.”

His coaches have expressed similar sentiments through different quotes. Robert Gillespie, who will more than likely become the offensive coordinator in 2012 when Holgorsen becomes the head coach, is basically holding an open audition.

“Can they make plays? That’s what it’s all about – putting guys on the field who can make plays,” he explained. “We’re going to put the best playmaker out there and if we don’t have one then we’ve got to go find one.”

Not unusual in a coaching transition, where freshmen are seniors and seniors are freshmen. Everyone, in essence, is even. Everyone starts fresh. Some will separate themselves sooner than others because of what they can and can’t do, but that’s for them to display.

Holgorsen won’t review film from last year and get any ideas that aren’t really relevant to what he needs to do. Gillespie is looking for players. Could be a veteran. Could be a freshman.

So offensively, who are the players — old and new — who can take advantage of this situation best?

Football scheduling won’t be easy come 2012

by Mike Casazza

In a cozy existence in a nine-team Big East, WVU would play eight league games every year and four each on the road and at home. That leaves four spots to fill every year and two would be BCS opponents, one home and one away. 

Do the math and that’s five home games. WVU wants seven home games, meaning the two remaining vacancies have to be at Mountaineer Field. One would be a Football Championship Subdivision team for a season-opener. One would be a second one-time “guarantee” game, though from the Football Bowl Subdivision — think UNLV or Bowling Green.

That, of course, will make it very difficult to schedule Marshall. And remember, too, WVU has a six-game, home-and-home series with East Carlolina from 2013-18 … and the Thundering Herd and Pirates play in the same league.

There are ways to massage that situation, like playing one BCS league team, but that takes away from the stated goal of crafting a national championship-level schedule.

And as much as all of that might make Mike Parsons and Oliver Luck’s heads hurt, it doesn’t even account for the still-real possibility the Big East adds a 10th team and introduces a nine-game Big East schedule. That would have WVU playing five games at home one year and five on the road the next, all while still trying to get seven of those $2 million-a-date home games.

Any way you look at it, there are some hurdles WVU will have to clear. And don’t worry: WVU is already looking at it.

These guys? They’re not consistent

by Mike Casazza

Every now and then you see something you haven’t seen in a while, if ever before. You might not think much about it. After all, it’s either relatively or completely new.

Then you see it again. And again. And you wonder.

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Who are these guys?

February 15, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Just finished writing a column for Wednesday that dives into an annual premise I like to explore. Basically, there comes a point in a season when it’s pretty clear and mostly agreed upon that a team is what it is. Call it the “You Are Who You Are Axiom.”

Typically throughout the course of a season, a team trends in specific directions and games are defined and decided by familiar themes. Old habits are hard to break. New ones are difficult to acquire. Your season is quite likely going be extended and perhaps ended by those things.

Monday night WVU lost to Syracuse in the Carrier Dome and it seemed like a good idea and a good time to draw these lines. Not because the Mountaineers are in need of help, but because there are ideas about indelible identity now.

The Mountaineers are now 2-4 against ranked teams with four more games remaining against ranked opponents.

The style with which WVU played was, at the very least, familar across many levels, but also surprising and, as far as the Mountaineers are concerned, disappointing. 

“We’ve got to realize teams are going to come out harder in the second half,” guard Casey Mitchell said. “We tried to do the same things in the second half that we did in the first half because we had a four-point lead, but we didn’t realize they were going to come out hard and hit more shots because they wanted to win the game in the second half.”

The games look familiar. The explanations sound familiar. There are some of those common themes mentioned above.

There have been stretches in games and over several games where WVU has looked great and not so great. There are reasons for both, reasons that generate optimism as well as pessimism. There are pitfalls to avoid and predictions that can me made for these Mountaineers.

So today’s question, as I travel back home, is a this: Who are these guys?

Big Monday: A battle of bewildered expressions

February 14, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Two of the best in the business tonight. Jim Boeheim brings 849 wins in 35 seasons at Syracuse with him to combat Bob Huggins and his 686 victories across 29 seasons at multiple schools.

What we’re walking about and looking for tonight are the sideline expressions on Big Monday. They may not be in a class of their own, but you don’t need much time to take attandence.

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Owen Schmitt had a birthday party

by Mike Casazza

Actually, more a bash or extravaganza at the Waterfront Place. A concert with the Davisson Brothers Band. “A good little event,” he predicted. I propose if the NFL has a lockout, Schmitt and Deniz Kilicli form a superband. WVU fans would combust across the map.