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

Friday Feedback

May 21, 2010 by Mike Casazza

(Disclaimer: Apparetly things are not entirely fixed with our wheel/hampster. The spellcheck engine is not working … and I’m just not very good at that in general. Apologeez in advance.)

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which no one says has to go first … but will, nevertheless. Yesterday’s haywiredness prevented the apppropriate discoure for the quizzical “Who said the Big Ten had to go first?” 

It’s obtuse, I admit, but aren’t all these angles as they relate to expansion? At least initially? I would argue yes and admit over time they make more and more sense. Isn’t that right, Bill Stewart? 

Anyhow, throughout the annual conference meetings you’d have to believe every one of the major conference and all of the second-tier — and their top-shelf members — have kicked around all the ideas. So what if the oh so silent Pac 10 invited Texas and BYU? Or Colorado and BYU? 

Well, now the Big 12 has to move and perhaps it lands Boise State and, in the meantime, organizes and gets its current members to commit to the long term. Suddenly Missouri and/or Nebraska is off the table for the Big Ten.

The Big East is reading the tea leaves and scoops up … oh boy, um … ECU, UCF, Memphis and Buffalo and gets Rutgers, UConn, etc. to commit.

And this is just the domino apocalypse for teams getting to 12. Imagine if the Big Ten didn’t have to be first and someone — SEC — jumped off and went to 16 by acquiring, say, Miami, Georgia Tech, Memphis and Florida State. Imagine then the ACC’s reaction and, subsequently, the Big East’s. 

If the expansion is so imminent and all these people in all these other conferences acknowledge, if even silently, they’re going to have to do something in response, why not be first and get what they actually want to be dominant/competitive/with the Joneses as opposed to what they need to do to stay in line. 

Again, it might sound crazy, but in a few months, it might not. 

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, check your deductible.

Jeff in Akron said:

It is refreshing, and endearing, to realize that our basketball coach that just took us to the final four, and the Big East title, isn’t screaming for a raise because so and so just got one. Plus, he isn’t screaming from the proverbial mountain top how he has saved the university just by dong his job.

Further, he and his agent don’t seem to be that concerned about the whole process. Simply put, he seems to trust the powers that be at WVU to do that for him and adjust it accordingly. I’m sure there are checks and ballances built in somewhere. But Huggins doesn’t seem to be that overly concerned.

What a difference a couple of years makes.

Absolutely. I feel good for Ed Pastilong, too. He can go to the Big East meetings without having his peers make fun of him…

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From out of left field, but maybe still a strike

May 20, 2010 by Mike Casazza

So we’re making the rounds of annual conference meetings with the requisite previews and reviews and the silence is both deafening and expected.

As brow-arching as the Big Ten meetings were — or seemed to be at the outset, given the environment it’s created — the Big East congregation is no less interesting.

They’ll talk about actual conference matters — new basketball tournament format? — but they also have a duty to put a lot of the expansion discourse on the table, too. What can they really do? Truthfully, almost nothing, though wheels can at the very least be put in place to later be put in motion … and that assumes the need ever arises.

Anyhow, in preparation for and in the midst of these meetings there have been a number of interviews and conversations and emails and texts and the like with people in different positions in relation to different conferences. One person (Edit: By the way, not quoted in the linked-to story, just to be clear) who’s going to have a voice in expansion made a point I at first dismissed and have since given consideration: “Who said the Big Ten had to go first?”

That’s … that’s not crazy.

A lad named Leo wears a neat hat

by Mike Casazza

Perhaps you watched the Lakers-Suns game last night and caught the celebrities in the crowd. And perhaps you, much like ESPN’s Ric Bucher— Aside: I read Bucher’s stuff forever growing up in Northern Virgina when he wrote for the Washington Post … I remained stunned there’s no “K” in that name — caught this:

Leo DiCaprio rolls in 4 min into 2Q wearing WVU baseball cap. (Pulled low, of course.) Random as random gets.

Bucher continues:

‘Cause when I think of Leo, I naturally think, “Mountaineers.” 

Truth is, this is, um, old hat for L.C. And what’s not “Mountaineers” about this: WVU fan who shops in Target at random hours showing up late for a game? Seems very WVU fan to me.

Then again, isn’t it really just a guy wearing a hat?

Accidents happen … and sometimes they’re awesome

May 19, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Kudos to Pete Thamel’s Twitter for sharing this gem:

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Huggins to try hand at public safety

by Mike Casazza

The celebration of WVU’s first Final Four team in 51 years goes on in earnest. Four days after WELLS and Jonnie West were grand marshals for the Strawberry Festival parade, Bob Huggins serves as GM of Charleston’s Public Expo Safety parade.

“He was able to take WVU and take them as far as he did, so obviously he’s doing something right,” said C.W. Sigman, deputy emergency manager for Kanawha County.

“Maybe he can give us some good advice. He took his team and made it great, and maybe we can take our teams and make them great.”

Stewart was, if nothing else, first to say it

by Mike Casazza

The Big East meetings begin next week in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., and Bill Stewart is looking forward to the visit, if for no other reason than he knows others are looking forward to speaking with him: “I wonder why? I guess I said something.”

Um, that’s one way to put it. I suppose Stewart can have a little fun with it … not that he’s happy to be some sort of clairvoyant. Yet he did pretty much paint the picture two months ago with his proclamation the Big East might be in a little trouble if things a lot of people thought and still believe would happen actually did happen.

Now that some time and truth has transpired, Stewart doesn’t feel different about his words and only feels for the timing of his statement.

“The timing was bad,” he said. “It was rough because of the Big East tournament, but I told myself when I was going to be asked I was going to tell the truth. The people in New York weren’t mad.

“They were just like, ‘Why would you say something that was not needed to be said?’ So the timing was bad because of the tournament, but the deal is this: It was going to be said sooner or later.”

Meanwhile, Jim Delaney speaks of beer and brats

May 18, 2010 by Mike Casazza

The popular Big Ten commissioner spoke for approximately 37 minutes at his league’s annual get-together today and said, for lack of a better phrase, a lot of nothing.

Why, it’s almost as if the speculation and supposition is running so rampant that perception has lapped reality and what is real is not what is presented to be real.

I’m positively stunned.

Certainly the greatest misrepresentation with which Delany is dealing  — and he’s made that condition so with his own own actions — is the imminence of a decision to expand and who to invite.

*Delany said the media was welcome to attend the June 6 meetings of Big Ten presidents and chancellors — “you bring the beer, we will cook the brats” – but added: “There will be no votes. That’s not in our time frame.”
 
*That time frame might be stretched in either direction, with the league not wedded to its timetable of 12-18 months. “Could it be 19 (months)?” Delany asked. “I hope not. Could it be 11? It may.”

Three down, 17 to go

by Mike Casazza

Three freshmen football players showed up on campus yesterday to get the obvious head-start on soon-to-arrive first-year players who will hit town next month.

The arrivals of quarterback Barry Brunetti, safety Travis Bell and cornerback Ishmael Banks were significant. Not only is each in a position where WVU could use some players, but each was a pretty interesting recruiting conquest.

The remaining 17 — and that’s a little fuzzy since three players are at least circled for academic reasons — are scheduled to begin college football on one of two dates next month. Several have a chance to help right away, though while talent clearly matters, it is circumstance that may matter more.

“Guys at some positions will have a chance to play before others,” he said. “Bell and Mike Dorsey play safety so they’re probably going to have a chance before, say, our linebackers, (Troy) Gloster, (Doug) Rigg and (Jewone) Snow. Are they good linebackers? You’re daggone right.

“Big Quinton Spain is more of a commodity than Marquis Wallace. Not because he’s a better player, but because of positioning. Marquis Wallace is an inside guy. We’ve got inside guys. We need tackles, so Quinton Spain is going to get more of a look.”

With friends like this …

by Mike Casazza

Sooner or later, and not necessarily with prompting, I figured Rich Rodriguez would speak up about conference expansion. Who, outside of a presidential office or A.D. lair, would have insight like his in this particular matter?

Once part of the Big East that was raided and later perhaps the greatest beneficiary of the reconfiguration, The Product is again in the center of the expansion.

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Who’d he have to hit to get this distinction

May 17, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Call an ambulance. Robert Sands, hardest hitter in college footballl.