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

Friday Feedback

January 14, 2011 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is, um, all atwitter over John Flowers. Fantastic game last night that deserves the full vetting.

– The 24-point game was his career high … by eight points.
– Add the steals, blocked shots and assists and what they preceded and he chipped in 28 additional points scored by his teammates.
– He had one foul. One!

That’s where things get predictably fun, if for no other reason than because John Flowers is involved.

“The thing I’m most proud of is I didn’t foul out,” he said.

What about starting 6-for-6?

“I was looking at my hand at one point and said, ‘What’s going on?'” Flowers said. “I hadn’t missed a shot yet. Then I missed a 3 and I said, ‘All right, there it is. That’s the John Flowers I know.'”

What about handcuffing Marshon Brooks and holding him to 13 points, well below his 23.8 average?

“I tried to get in his mind a little bit,” Flowers said. “Coach said he was like Kobe Bryant, so I kept calling him Kobe all game. ‘I got Kobe.’ The shot clock would be running down. ‘It’s Kobe time. Don’t let Kobe get the ball.’ But he’s a really good player. A great guy.”

And what about the headband, which was nowhere to be found Thursday night?

“I give them away too much, so they stopped giving them to me,” Flowers said.

And can you teach me how to Dougie? I ask because last night, of all nights, WVU debuted a video that has Flowers doing the dance. And not only that, but the video was revealed after one moment that was completely ridiculous and apropos at the same time.

Cam Thoroughman tried to lob a pass to Flowers for an alley oop, but was off by a few feet. Flowers still caught the pass and flicked it to Kevin Jones for a layup. Providence called a timeout and the video started. Bob Huggins had a hard time keeping his team’s focus in the huddle.

“Coach yelled at us a couple times to pay attention,” Flowers said. “It was pretty funny.”

Let’s tie this all together. At its lowest point(s) this season, it was evident WVU was lacking personality. We’ve said it before, but you need competitors like Devin Ebanks to be a monster every game. You need attitudes like Da’Sean Butler’s that keep it silly when it’s going well and bad. You need someone to stand in front.

And it was Flowers who after the Duquesne game pointed out the Mountaineers were missing voices.

“This is the first time that when I’m sitting on the bench no one is clapping or anything,” said Flowers, who is starting full-time for the first time in his career. “It’s just dead. The old teams, when I was on the bench, I was getting hyped up, standing up and clapping. Everyone was. We need to get back to that. I think it’s very important to just be ready to play. We have to support our teammates on the bench.”

This is not to say Flowers will do that every game now, or even more often than not. He is who he is. He does what he does. That said, he’s their dancing, Go-go listening, Twittering, skit-filming, trash-talking, headband-wearing, shot-blocking presence. He’s valuable in a variety of ways on and off the floor. And now WVU has won three in a row and has a little more swagger, a little more attitude, a little more belief than it had two weeks ago.

KJ can’t become that competitive jester. Ditto Mazzulla or Mitchell. That’s not them and you can’t fool your teammates. Flowers can be that guy and for proof, witness his two-handed dunk/and-one that was followed by a brief body rock in the paint and then an  impassioned waving of the arms to get more noise from the fans. Circle it!

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, maybe don’t go West.

KMS said:

Is it me or did Mazzulla seem to play better last year with the injured shoulder? I was happy with the improvement in the team effort on Saturday and think that Huggs has them on the right track. My biggest concern is still that no leader seems to be emerging. I thought Mazzulla would take that role with his documented aspirations for a future coaching career. But, so far, we seem to be without a leader.

Wait for it …

Parks said:

KMS– I think JF is as close we have. Seems to be the only one that seems energized whether he is in the game or on the bench. He is not yet a leader by example as he can’t seem to stay out of foul trouble but he has been the most consistent (according to Huggs as well) and the best source of energy around. I really expected Mazz to step up as well but we all know come Feb 1 and onward he will be explosive–just never seems to fail. Saturday showed that when this team plays as a unit they can be very good this season.

That was from earlier in the week. Well done!

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WVU v. Providence: A live blog

January 13, 2011 by Mike Casazza

 

The Providence Friars have lost four in a row after an 11-2 start in non-conference play. Each loss is in the Big East, which, if you haven’t heard, is tough this season.

Providence’s losses have come by 13 at home against Rugters, but also by seven at Syracuse, two at home against St. John’s and four in a giveaway at home against Pitt.

WVU has won six in a row and 10 of 11 in the series. Providence guard Marshon Brooks averages 23.8 points per game, the fifth-best total in the nation, and has double figures in all 16 games and 20 points in each of the past 11. 

He’s one of the better all-around players in the league, too. He adds 8.0 rebounds (second on the team) and shoots 50.5 percent from the field and 35.6 percent from 3-point range (both are best on the team).

Don’t pay too much attention to him, though. Doing so lowers the guard for Vincent Council, who chips in 15.2 points per game. The Friars have a very good freshman guard in Gerard Coleman, who averaged 10.6 points per game.

WVU’s defense, meanwhile, did well against Georgetown’s tandem of Austin Freeman and Chris Wright Saturday and is coming off its best defensive performance of the season.

But would it surprise you to know the Hoyas shot 50 percent that game?

All is better for the Mountaineers, but it’s premature to say all is well. That game Sunday against Purdue, and, to a lesser extent, the Capital Classic, are on the horizon and one wonders if an eye wanders and attention strays a little tonight. This game will say an awful lot about how this team has learned to play.

Speaking of tonight, deadline looms, and while my contributions will be minimal on this particular post, I never leave my wingmen/wingwomen. Enjoy the game. Commence with the comments!

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‘And that’s how to carry the cabbage’

by Mike Casazza

Reminder: Live chat at 1 p.m.

Reading through this story about Hal Mumme and his influence on Dana Holgorsen, I was pretty intrigued by how the “Air Raid” offense was, well, stolen and then developed over the years. Mumme, formerly of Iowa Wesleyan College, Valdosta State and most notably Kentucky, now of Division III McMurry, admitted as much as he described the evolution of the offense through the years.

“No one person is the guy,” said Mumme, 58, who is in his sixth college coaching stop. “When I got the job in Iowa, I went to BYU to pick up on some stuff, stealing like everyone else in coaching does, and then Mike and I put our spin on it.

“We’d get into the car and drive long distances from Mount Pleasant to study stuff. Most of it, and most of what Dana is bringing to West Virginia, is based on Bill Walsh’s fundamentals and practice plans and game plans, and the old BYU offense that Coach (LaVell) Edwards ran back in the ’70s and ’80s.

“Then we started no huddling, shot-gunning and quick screening out of it, kind of putting a 21st Century spin on it. Everybody’s contributed to it, I suppose, even Dana. He’s done a lot with it.”

Bill Walsh, LaVell Edwards and a 21st century spin on decades-old ideas. That sounds interesting, effective and entertaining. Then — and some of you might want to sit for this — I got to the part about quick screens … and a line I’m extremely confident we’ll be using a lot from this point forward.

“Dana was then like he is now; he loved those quick screens,” Mumme said, starting to laugh. “He had good speed, but he wasn’t a game-breaker. He’d come off the field and come up to me and say, ‘The quick screen was there.’

“So, I’d put another guy in and call it and we’d get big yardage and Dana would get really mad at me. So one day we’re playing a team, I think from Illinois maybe, and I called the quick screen and finally left him in. He took it 65 yards for a score.

“He came back and said to me, ‘And that’s how to carry the cabbage.’ But you know what, you want guys like that on your team. You want guys who want the ball, who want to score. He was a bright guy. You could see it then; you can really see it in his coaching, too.”

Pop quiz, Jack Traven

by Mike Casazza

How do we explain the mini-resurgence West Virginia’s men’s basketball team has produced the past three games? Is it:

A) fill-in-the-blank tests on the scouting report?
B) random requests to draw up plays in front of the team?
C) an increased emphasis on accountability?

Trick question! It’s D) all of the above.  

“What does this player do? Does he go with his right hand or does he go with his left hand? What does a certain post player do?” guard Casey Mitchell said.

“We have to study every player, from all the guards to the big post players. Everybody has to know what everyone is going to do.”

What was new that day was an old trick for Coach Bob Huggins, who’d grown tired this season of watching his players forget things he’d gone over again and again.

“I’ve done it before when we’ve had knuckleheads,” Huggins said.

“Our attention to detail wasn’t very good. You put a test in front of them and you find out who’s paying attention and who’s not paying attention. And they have gotten significantly better the last three games at test-taking.”

We can cover all this and more in today’s 1 p.m. live chat. It’s at 1 p.m. and it’s live. Drop your questions in the queue there or the comments below. Here’s your link to today’s chat.

The Big East looks west

January 12, 2011 by Mike Casazza

First it was John Marinatto solidifying his Big East and its future by acquiring Texas Christian University from the Mountain West Conference.

Then WVU athletic director Oliver Luck looked to the left to find his new offensive coordinator and next head coach, Dana Holgorsen, he of stunning stints at Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma State.

In announcing the decision, Luck offered a nod to Marinatto and TCU, which just finished a 13-0 season and beat Wisconsin in the Rose Bowl to finish No. 2 in the polls.

“Eventually, the road to the Big East Championship will go through Fort Worth,” Luck said at the time the expansion was announced. “We need to be prepared to go ahead and beat a team like TCU on the road to claim a Big East championship and get to national championship consideration.

“The addition of TCU is going to raise the bar for all of us in the Big East.”

Loud and clear … and here comes Pitt, first going a little outside its perimeter to hire Mike Haywood. His last three coaching jobs before leaving Miami (Ohio) to be fired at Pitt were at LSU, Texas and Notre Dame.

His replacement? Todd Graham, a Texas guy who made his name in high school coaching there, and then after a stop at WVU climbed from the defensive coordinator position at Tulsa to be the head coach at Rice and Tulsa.

There are common threads to all of this and you’ll see it play out in the Big “East” very soon.

Graham runs a unique high-powered offense that comes right out of the OK Corral.

“What you can expect is a no-huddle team, not just offense. We will operate extremely fast and with high octane. We will be the most explosive team in the country,” he said.

It is not the kind of spread offense that West Virginia will run.

“There is a lot of misconception about our offense. It is not a spread. We will run and we will throw. We are a two-back offense 70 percent of the time. We will be physical, and you can’t be physical without a fullback and tight end,” Graham said.

What they will be mostly, however, is fast.

“We want speed, then explosive power, but I’d list speed three times before explosive power,” he said.

Like Holgorsen, Graham is hired to compete with TCU, to bring in his own brand of western football and, perhaps, Texas recruiting.

He is also being hired to beat West Virginia. Matching wits with Holgorsen is something he has done before in two memorable games, Graham losing to Holgorsen’s Houston team in 2009 by a 46-45 score and then being buried in 2008, 70-30.

“We had some great battles,” Graham said at his introductory press conference. “He’s a great coach and a great offensive mind. I’m looking forward to it.” 

There goes the last piece of the 2010 class

by Mike Casazza

Noah Cottrill is suspended indefinitely, with no indication he’ll play for WVU any time soon, if ever at all. David Nyarsuk never qualified. Darrious Curry was medically disqualified.

Now Kevin Noreen is out for the rest of the season — and will pursue a medical redshirt.

From WVU’s sports information department release:

Kevin Noreen underwent surgery this morning on his right knee to heal a ruptured prepatellar bursa. He will be sidelined for the remainder of the season and WVU will apply for a medical hardship waiver.
 
Noreen, a freshman from Minneapolis, Minn., appeared in seven games this season, averaging 2.6 points and 1.7 rebounds per game. He had a season-high seven points and five rebounds in 14 minutes of action against VMI.

WVU roster up three, maybe three more

by Mike Casazza

The spring semester started Monday and the football team had its first meeting that night, which allowed the staff to confirm roster additions and defections.

With one previously known exception, everyone came back. On the surface, that’s encouraging. In the case of academic casualties in the bowl, it’s good news because they remain on track for graduation and that’s a major component of eligibility.

The exception was Barry Brunetti, who long ago tweeted he was leaving and tweeted yesterday he was “enrolling into” Ole Miss.

Also on the team now: Avery Williams, Josh Francis and Brian Athey. Notes on each:

– Williams was a part of the 2010 recruiting class and stuck with WVU
– Francis is a JUCO linebacker with a wonderful nicknake: Lights Out.
– Athey is a healthy quarterback.

I’m told the Roberts twins from Washington, D.C., are in the enrolling process, but are not yet finished. Vernard is a running back, and WVU would like to have some of those. Vance, the cornerback, is arguably WVU’s best recruit.

And then there’s this walk-on QB from Texas named Paul Millard, the first product of the coaching change.

Relax, count to 10 … that’s almost as many starters as the defense loses

January 11, 2011 by Mike Casazza

With Robert Sands making the jump to the NFL, WVU’s estimable defense will now lose seven starters. Offensively, Dana Holgorsen inherits a bunch of talent and only loses three three starters, but does have key holes to fill, including a void at running back for the first time in … 15 years?

And all of this presumes everyone returns and is eligible and on track to graduate and generally interested in being part of a coaching change.

Spring football is a long, long way away — which is great news for Geno Smith — but there’s a lot to think about with regard to personnel in 2011.

Mike Carey tousles his mustache, revisits his past

by Mike Casazza

The women’s basketball coach has led WVU to its highest ranking, best start to a season and second-longest winning streak. Mike Carey’s Mountaineers are viable participants in the Big East and national championship pursuits. It’s a new and exciting time for the program, but, truth be told, Carey knows a thing or two about these things.

He’s walked that aisle before as the men’s coach at Salem College, where things were serviceably similar, but also distinctly different.

“I think this is on a bigger level,” he said Monday before the team departed for Milwaukee and today’s 8 p.m. game against Marquette (13-3, 1-2 Big East). “I probably feel more pressure, with this being Division I and the Big East, than I did at Division II on the men’s side. We were pretty consistent winning the league there and pretty consistent being ranked there.”

Andrew Luck made the right call

by Mike Casazza

Oliver Luck pulls the curtain back to reveal the thinking behind his son’s ridiculously debated decision … and gets down to brass tacks.

Luck has spent a lot of time with his son at Stanford games, including their bowl victory this week.

“He couldn’t turn around without people asking him for his autograph,” Luck said.

Even Luck himself was not left out of the furor surrounding his son.

“I would have attractive young ladies coming up and asking for his number, saying they wanted to marry him,” he said. “But he kept his ego under control and did not let the whole experience get to his head.”