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

Did Bill Stewart’s buddy just go Bill Stewart on Big East?

April 29, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Thank goodness I have readers in Connecticut or I may have missed this tidbit from UConn Coach Randy Edsall.

Q: Should a football ultimatum be given to Notre Dame soon?

A: I think that’s something the powers that be are discussing in terms of the strategies that they’re looking at to be proactive rather than reactive.

Note: In a question-and-answer session with the audience, Edsall said the football coaches have been asking the conference to deliver an ultimatum to Notre Dame to come into the conference for football or get out entirely for the last two years. He added that, if as speculated, two teams leave for the Big Ten, “the Big East is all done.”

Robert Sands has places to go, people to hit

by Mike Casazza

Maybe my favorite part of spring practice was rather insignificant, at least to the eye, yesterday afternoon. At about 4:40 p.m., more than half-way through the 14th of 15 spring practices, safety Robert Sands jogged onto the field wearing a fleece and sweat pants and holding a few sharpened No. 2 pencils.

He’d just taken a math placement exam downtown and had hustled back uptown to make the final six periods of an 18-period practice — and a dozen or so sideline-to-sideline sprints for everyone immediately after.

“I could have easily taken my time coming back,” the 6-foot-5 Sands said. “I could have easily not shown up at all. My coach knew I had a test, but I wanted to come back. It’s just my commitment to the team and to me being a leader out there. I needed to be out on the field with those guys at the time. The main thing for me is being out there because I need them just as much as they need me, so I wanted to do anything I could to be out there.”

Some may debate the usefulness of spring practice, especially for veterans who’ve been through it all before, but Sands understands it for what it is.

Turkish Hendrix plays Little Wing on little guitar

by Mike Casazza

Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairy tales. That’s all I ever think about. We knew he was talented, but who knew he could play an uninterrupted solo as his sunglasses slid off his dome and over his eyes?

Your A.D. search screening committee is interesting

by Mike Casazza

West Virginia eschewed independent assistanceand, just shy of eight weeks after confirming longtime Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong would gallop into emeritus status June 30, introduced its “screening committee.” 

“We are first looking at credentials and resumes,” Clements said, “and then will begin the process of conducting interviews to find the very best leader for our successful athletic program.”

“The search is under way,” said Professor Samuel Ameri, who will chair the committee, “and an important part of the review process will be maintaining confidentiality for the candidates.” Any future information will be released through News and Information.

That step is complete. There’s a Web site devoted entirely to the search. Committee members are not to spoken to about the search.

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Spring practice remains of questionable use

April 28, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Out of nowhere a few days ago, I got this weird revelation as I listened to Bill Stewart speak. His spring game would be the last one in the Big East … and probably the last among any name on his schedule.

His team started either later or at about the same time as many of those same schools, so surely he and his staff of information-gatherers were learning about what these opponents were doing and what form they were taking.

And wouldn’t that be a nice head start? There are three new opponents on the schedule and one has a new coach. Three Big East teams and Marshall also have new leadership. Some of the possible Big East favorites have small to severe personnel overhauls. News clippings, practice reviews, spring games, they’d all be useful for WVU to use in the offseason.

Brilliant idea, yes? Not exactly — though still appealing.

Stewart and his staff will begin reconnaissance soon, though, and some help has already arrived.

“I’ve got the LSU paper already,” Stewart said. “Somebody sent me that. People send me all that stuff and I read it all. The LSU writer had a big writeup after their game.”

When Stewart was traveling with his son, Blaine, for a baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., he picked up a copy of the newspaper tracking nearby Coastal Carolina’s spring.

Those articles, as well as stat sheets and other reviews from other teams, will be posted for the Mountaineers to see on their trips through the Puskar Center.

“I want the players to know who we’re going to play,” Stewart said. “If we play them, we’re going to learn about them. Everything’s on the Internet now. We’ll get starting lineups and everything.

“I’d like to hear from different people and we’ll check out who did what stat-wise and get a better idea.”

Bo (thinks he) knows the future

by Mike Casazza

Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim has been around the Big East since 1979. He’s seen the league grow and rumble through tough times — and that counts years separate from the threats and effects of expansion.

He just doesn’t believe that everything everyone says will happen will in fact happen … and that includes not just the possible moves, but the subsequent success most expect will follow.

He’s witnessed how the ACC and Big East reformed before and he took notes before, during and after. This is not necessarily a new view, but then again, it’s not what Boeheim says that matters as much as how he says it.

“Boston College is in the A.C.C., and no one cares about it there,” Boeheim said of the former Big East program that joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in 2005. “They have hung on in football, but Miami and Florida State will get strong again and they’ll be an afterthought in football.

“I don’t think we’ll do well in the Big Ten. It’s possible, but I don’t think we’d do well at all. I just don’t see how Syracuse or Rutgers fits in with Iowa and Illinois.”

Boeheim said that players in recruiting hotbeds like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, the lifeblood markets for Big East universities, probably would not find playing in a Midwest-dominated league appealing.

“Say a couple schools go to the Big Ten,” Boeheim said. “Who’s to say a New York City kid would want to go there? There’s no logical reason for that kid to want to do that. But someone with a big ego in a football conference is taking over. I just don’t think it helps recruiting to be in the Big Ten.”

No points for originality, but points for first attack

by Mike Casazza

We’re … well, I’m not counting the days, but we’re still pretty far away from the Coal Bowl down in that little pocket near Ashland (credit Bob Huggins, 2010). I’ve actually interacted with a number of WVU fans who think the Herd will get over WVU soon, if not this year. Combine that with the natural disdain, the uncertainty/tension about the future of the series and the new MU coach and you better believe it’s going to be an interesting game week this season.

So why wait? Marshall Coach Doc Holiday tossed out the first WVU-MU jab.

Once asked about his nicknames in high school — a question of interest earlier in the evening — Holliday did not speak on the topic.

However, a voice in the crowd did — much to his chagrin.

On point, Holliday asked the unidentified woman to stand up so someone could take a picture of her.

He then pointed out that it was the sister of Steve Dunlap, the current assistant head coach at “the school up north” according to Holliday.

“We don’t call them by name anymore,” Holliday said about West Virginia University.

Dunlap’s sister was standing in the crowd waving with a Marshall shirt on.

“Let’s see that in the newspaper tomorrow,” he said with a grin.

Big East bowls finalized

April 27, 2010 by Mike Casazza

Try not to think too hard here … but if you can explain this succinctly, please do.

The Birmingham News reported a few weeks ago that the Papajohns.com and Liberty bowls will share the SEC’s final two bowl picks. The two bowls will rotate who gets an SEC team when that conference doesn’t have enough bowl-eligible teams. When there are enough SEC bowl-eligible teams, the bowls will work together to make their picks.

The addition of the Liberty Bowl completes the Big East’s bowl lineup. The Big East champion receives a BCS bowl bid, followed by Champs Sports (vs. ACC), Meineke Car Care (vs. ACC), New Era Pinstripe (vs. Big 12), Liberty/Papajohns.com (vs. SEC or C-USA) and Beef ‘O Brady’s-St. Petersburg (vs. C-USA).

A case for WVU in the ACC

by Mike Casazza

By now we’re in agreement, I believe, that WVU is going to have to end up somewhere if/when the expansion happens and pulls the rug out from under the Big East as it stands today.

Life as an independent would be tough with all the monies pledged to the alleged super conferences. I can’t see an SEC on steroids taking WVU. I don’t believe WVU would align itself with also-rans from C-USA and/or the MAC. So then, why not the pumped-up ACC?

The Mountaineers would end up in the ACC – which, to be honest, could use the football and basketball steam that WVU could bring to the table.

The ACC’s bid to really enhance its football by taking those three Big East teams hasn’t panned out so well, because while the Hokies have been a major success, Miami and Florida State have dropped off.

The decision also has had a negative impact on ACC basketball (especially scheduling), while the Big East has advanced itself against its Eastern seaboard hoops rival.

Adding WVU and another Big East team or two would help the ACC improve the dollars in its next TV deal, which will start in 2011-12.

Curry dashes into fold

by Mike Casazza

curry

Darrious Curry was in possession of a signed National Letter-of-Intent April 12 to play basketball at the University of Texas-El Paso. A week later, he was on the phone with West Virginia and talking about playing with the Mountaineers. The next day, Bob Huggins and assistant Erik Martin were in Curry’s Houston high school watching Curry play. Curry was in Morgantown three days later. Yesterday he signed a NLI to play for the Mountaineers beginning next fall.

“We liked what we saw,” Martin said. “He’s a long kid with long arms and the kind of body that’s put together like John Flowers’. He can run and really shoot the heck out of the ball. He’s a lefty with good bounce and we needed a wing who if nothing else could score for us.”

Out of that meeting, Huggins and Martin convinced Curry to make a visit to campus over the weekend.

“Things happen kind of fast, especially if both parties have a mutual interest,” Martin said. “Once he got out of the letter he found out we were interested. Most people already know us. West Virginia’s the flavor of the month. Everybody likes us in recruiting.”

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