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

Mike Gansey turns back the clock

June 23, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Wellington Smith isn’t going to be drafted tomorrow night. It’s possible Da’Sean Butler won’t be, either. Devin Ebanks could hear his name called, but perhaps not in the first round. If he — of Butler — goes in the second round, nothing is guaranteed, least of all the money. Life in Europe or elsewhere, a scenario that probably awaits Smith if he wants it, is a major, major change.

The NBA dreams are big today, but can be reduced, if not removed, tomorrow. Who knows where they end up, either in the league, in the D-League or on another continent? Who knows how they react to news that may not be what they anticipate today?

Well, to be honest, Mike Gansey might know. It was 2006 and he was thinking he’d be selected in the NBA Draft. He was not and signed a free-agent deal with the Miami Heat. Then came the MRSA infection and a year away from the game before seasons in Italy and Germany. Now after a productive year in the NBA’s D-League, he’s wondering if he might make the most of an invitation to play for the D-League’s summer league select team.  

“I just want to keep playing as long as I can,” he said. “I feel like I had a good year this year at a top level so I don’t want to stop now. I want to keep pushing. When I was sick and trying to come back, I took a whole year off.

“I couldn’t do anything to get my mind off of it and I was so miserable. You go from playing basketball every single day to doing nothing. It felt like my life was over. But to be where I am now, after all of that, it’s like, man, anything now is a bonus.

“Why quit now?”

Super Devine helps kids back home

June 22, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Noel Devine returned to North Fort Myers over the weekend for Father’s Day as well as a second football camp he conducts for local youth.

“It just comes down to having a passion for it,” said Devine, the all-time leading rusher in Lee County high school history. “I know it means a lot to the kids. They motivate me to want it even more.”

By “it,” Devine means having a standout senior season before hearing his name called in the 2011 NFL Draft.

Patrick Ryan, a 2008 Gateway Charter Academy graduate and a college quarterback the past two seasons at West Virginia State, continues to root for his friend.

Ryan is transferring to Eastern Illinois this fall and will continue to play quarterback.

“I’m definitely proud of him,” Ryan said. “I think the they should give him the ball more. I think he could win the Heisman Trophy. I think he’s the best player in college football right now.”

Transition: I’m not sure anyone has won the perception-vs.-reality battle as emphatically as Devine. People expected one thing, he’s become another.

And where might this take Devine?

Continue reading…

Doc’s denial

June 21, 2010 by Mike Casazza

An “irate” Doc Holliday “vehemently” denied a suggestion he was the seemingly transparent source implicating WVU has self-reported NCAA violations.

“I would never do anything like that,” an irate Holliday said. “West Virginia is my alma mater, remember. I spent a long time there. I have roots there.”

Hmm. A person is accused of something and is angry at the accusation. Certain he is innocent and cautions not to be besmirched, he takes the initiative to insist he is innocent and what is alleged is not what  is real. Well, that’s a novel concept, don’t you think?

Good Luck

by Mike Casazza

Interesting piece of soccer news from Friday.

Oliver Luck, of course, remains the president and general manager of the Houston Dynamo and Amaugo Iwunze played — and played very well — for the Dynamo’s academy squad.

Joe Alexander back to the future. Again.

by Mike Casazza

A lot has changed for Joe Alexander since last we met and it seems, for a second, he doesn’t have the same bravado as before. Life in the NBA can be humbling … and when life is what it’s been like for Alexander, you expect as much.

Yet beneath the disappointment, there is no sign of defeat. His perspective remains positive, which is important. If others say and think you can’t do it, you better insist you can. And will.

And that’s Joe Alexander, who despite a well-known descent in the NBA remains convinced he’ll one day make it. Again. (And he’s still the best interview.)

He is not without perspective, though, and today Alexander feels a lot like the skinny, curly haired high school senior at Maryland’s Linganore High.  

“It’s exactly the same,” Alexander said last week as he returned to WVU for the third annual Bob Huggins Fantasy Camp. “There’s no difference.”

Well, there are differences, some major ones, in fact, but skip past those. They’re obvious and Alexander identifies and understands those as well as anyone else. In application, however, this isn’t exactly a foreign land for someone who grew up in Asia and is pretty good at acquiescing.

Alexander rather likes his position as an outsider trying to get back in, and certainly because he’s done it before. This time he’s an unrestricted free agent.

“It’s like when you’re recruited out of high school to go to college,” he said. “You want to pick the right fit for you. Your success depends as much on your skill as it does how you fit on the team and what type of opportunity the team presents.

“Being a free agent presents that type of situation as opposed to the draft situation where you’re not presented with any opportunity to make a choice.”

You are looking at a Da’Sean Butler nightmare

by Mike Casazza

 

His knee recovering rapidly, his confidence before the NBA Draft swelling, Da’Sean Butler is confident “once I get in I won’t get out.”

Marinatto nixes UCF/Memphis rumor, sends chocolates

June 17, 2010 by Mike Casazza

You knew the denial was coming, yes? Oh, and if you were wondering why ECU wasn’t mentioned in all these rumors …

Even East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland, on the school’s official website, gave his spin on what he believes the Big East will do regarding expansion. The Pirates have made it no secret they covet a Big East invitation.

“The Big East has been in a bunker mentality, hoping to keep enough of its eight current members to remain a viable FBS (formerly Division I-A) conference with automatic qualification for BCS bowl games,” Holland wrote last Friday in “A Message To The Pirate Nation”.

“Now that there is a possibility the Big East will not lose any current members, the Big East dilemma remains how to add football members when there is ‘no room at the Inn’ for other sports,” Holland wrote. “The eight Big East FBS institutions are locked into a successful consortium with eight other institutions who do not play FBS football in the Big East.

“The Big East is wisely going to exhaust every possibility to solve their dilemma internally before addressing the complications created by adding ‘football only’ members or leaving their 16-team consortium to create a new conference. The ‘internal’ solution of choice is for Notre Dame to agree to move their football program into the Big East. As long as there is the slightest possibility this could happen, the Big East will not close the door on that possibility by adding someone else as the ninth member.”

Noel no longer divine, but unquestionably super

by Mike Casazza

I didn’t see Noel Devine enter the Puskar Center, where today the media gathered to talk to random football players. Devine arrived, though, and was ready and willing to share thoughts about his summer thus far. I saw him sit in the chair and noticed he was wearing a personalized T-shirt.

Interesting, I thought, as I recalled my closet of “Casazza” Ts and jerseys. I couldn’t hear a word Noel had to say, so I moved around the chair and into the crowd.

So glad I did that …

Continue reading…

John Marinatto has my attention

by Mike Casazza

OK, so I wondered if and how the Big East might react to the Big XII (!) staying in tact — and this little rumor about Central Florida and Memphis getting an invite would satisfy my curiosity … but maybe not my criteria.

But you know what? No matter what the conference does — or does not do — no action or inactivity is going to trump Commissioner John Marinatto’s immediate response to the Big XII’s resolution.

So on Tuesday, Marinatto showed his appreciation with a small gesture. His office sent 10 red and 10 white roses to Beebe and the Big 12 conference with a card that simply read “Unity.”

“The color combination signifies unity and 10 — rather than a dozen — represented their new membership number,” Marinatto told FanHouse Wednesday.

That’s … that’s beyond words. I’m searching for an appropriate adjective. I’ll go with impeccable. I know it’s not relevant to anything and it’s not what’ll eventually save or doom the conference. I know it’s kind of corny and people will probably point and laugh. But I really like this and I’d been trying to figure out why. I mean, it made me laugh right away and I could only imagine what Dan Beebe was thinking when he was told John Marinatto had sent him roses.

Then it occured to me: It’s something I absolutely would have done … and I’m confident anyone who knows me would agree. Of course, I would have sent different flowers.

WVU football better than Florida football by $1

June 16, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Pretty neat compilation by Rivals.com on the minimum donations, the least expensive season tickets and the cheapest total cost to take in an entire home schedule for college football’s 120 FBS teams.

WVU ranks tied for No. 19 with Cal — the still available $0 minumum donation and the $325 season ticket in the no-donation section. The Golden Bears and the Mountaineers — who have the most expensive cheapest season ticket in the Big East — have the least expensive season ticket for a no-donation program.

What isn’t included — and ought to be — is a more thorough evaluation of the 105 schools that require no donation. Most — like WVU — have various and increasing donation levels, but do like to say seats can be had for no donation and at a low cost.