Listened to “I think we’re alone now” by Tommy James and the Shondells … Got me going on the way to practice … Great Song!!
Bill Stewart continues to tweet ahead of the pack. I don’t want to put words in his 140-character limit, but he fired that off Friday just as things got a little more interesting in this conference expansion drama. Children behave. That’s what I say when you’re together.
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I listened yesterday to a good bit of the memorial for those who died in the Upper Big Branch tragedy and I read up on anything I might have missed. Lots of touching comments and appropriate gestures …. which, if you think about it, cannot be easy three weeks later.
Everything and everyone succeeded in putting faces and personalities to the names of the late miners, but also those they left behind. They did what a memorial ought to do by mourning and memorializing the people and what they and others do.
And what, you must be asking, does this have to do with a WVU sports blog? Well — and I’ll be brief and careful here, lest I crash another Web site — it’s quite obvious there is a firm attachment between the blue collared workers in this state and their Mountaineers.
The miners are among those who feel so strongly about WVU and, yes, it’s an illustration that can and maybe should be made when you try to understand who those people were. Veep Joe Biden grasped the very concept.
As Nick Rahall said, they were fathers, grandfathers, sons, nephews, husbands, and fiancés. They loved hunting, fishing, riding horses and four-wheelers. They hated the way Coach Rodriguez left West Virginia for Michigan. (Applause.) They rebuilt cars. They loved motorcycles. And they practiced random acts of kindness. They had their given names, but as we all learned today, they answered to Cuz, and PeeWee, and Smiley. Some had — some had been mining for decades, some for months. One was planning a wedding; one was planning for retirement. As individuals, these men were strong; they were proud; they were providers. Collectively, they represent what I believe is the heart and soul and the spine of this nation. (Applause.) And, ladies and gentlemen, the nation mourns them.
Selvish Capers, seventh-round draft pick of the Washington Redskins, made a pancake for the occasion. The strangely interesting Sports Science feature ESPN used during the draft showed in its own way how Capers was able to stop a pass rush and demolish a defender. If only John Brenkus had a pick …
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which would like to thank John Feinstein. Preferably, it’d be in person, but for now this will have to do.
The text came through from Colin Dunlap, he of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the 6-10 p.m. Sunday slot on 93.7 The Fan, yesterday afternoon as I was mowing my lawn:
We were part of a small group, a very small group, that witnessed a man change history.
The NCAA yesterday decided it was going to “change” the best thing going by adding three teams to the field of 65. This, as you know, is a dramatic shift from what sure seemed like an unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. And I mean “unstoppable.” We all gathered in Indianapolis April 1 to cover the Final Four and a press conference that afternoon featured Dan Guerrero, chair of the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee and director of athletics at UCLA; Kevin Lennon, NCAA vice president of academic and membership affairs; and Greg Shaheen, NCAA senior vice president of basketball and business strategies.
The concept was to discuss issues related to men’s basketball and the NCAA Tournament and no issue was of greater significance than this idea of a 96-team field. Shaheen being of business strategies, he was to field many of the questions.
Enter Mr. Feinstein, who embarked on a …. yeah, legendary line of questioning with Shaheen. It was critical, it was combative, it was compelling. I was one of many who sat in a separate room working on a story about something else and then decided to stop what I was doing to go to the other room and witness this confrontation.
Q. Greg, you laid out in great detail the travel schedule for the first week. Just so I’m sure I have it right, you’re going to play the round of 64 Saturday/Sunday, correct?
GREG SHAHEEN: Uh-huh.Q. So you didn’t lay out the travel schedule for the second week when presumably teams will be playing Monday/Tuesday, then winners would go almost directly to regionals on Thursday/Friday, if that’s the schedule as I think it is.
GREG SHAHEEN: It’s one of several models that exist. But actually it doesn’t necessarily mean that the play continues on Monday/Tuesday. Actually, depending on the structure, there can be a break on Monday so that a team that, for example, is playing Saturday could play Saturday, then Tuesday. So they would have both Sunday and Monday without games.
You also have to keep in mind that on any day of competition, you’re losing half the field. Half of the teams are losing and returning home. So, for example, in the first four days of the championship, whereas right now you go from 65 during that time to 16, here you go from 96 to 32. So the majority of teams by number will be back home at that point in time.
But then for the teams that do advance, they would play — they could play that Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday, for example, going into regional week.Q. To follow up, if you’re going Saturday/Tuesday, Sunday/Tuesday then with the teams that advance if they’re playing Saturday/Sunday games, right?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would play Saturday/Tuesday.Q. So you’re not going to play any games on Sunday of the first weekend?
GREG SHAHEEN: No. You’d play half the games on Saturday, half the games on Sunday.Q. The Sunday teams that advance would play on Tuesday or are you saying Wednesday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Wednesday.Q. Basically they’ll be out of school an entire week the second week?
GREG SHAHEEN: Actually, if you were to look at the window for each individual team, you have to take each team and contemplate the fact right now you have half the field leaving campus on Tuesday, returning on Sunday or Monday.Q. If they lose. I’m talking about the teams that win in advance. You’re going to advance 16 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: No, actually in the current model you have teams that depart on Tuesday, and even if they win, return on Sunday.Q. We’re misunderstanding each other. Under the new model that you laid out, you play 64 teams Thursday/Friday. 32 advance to games Saturday/Sunday. Then you are down after those games to 32 teams.
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.Q. You’re saying you play games in the round of 32 Tuesday/Wednesday. They would then advance to regionals when?
GREG SHAHEEN: They would continue into the regional as it’s normally scheduled now.Q. So they would go Tuesday to Thursday, Wednesday to Friday?
GREG SHAHEEN: Right.Q. So they miss an entire week of school. That’s what I’m trying to get.
GREG SHAHEEN: If you listened to my original answer, they leave now on Tuesday.Q. I’m talking about the second week, not the first week. They play a game Saturday/Sunday, play a game Tuesday or Wednesday, then go directly to the regional. Tell me when in that second week they’re going to be in class.
GREG SHAHEEN: The entire first week, the majority of the teams would be in class.Q. You’re just not going to answer the question about the second week. You’re going to keep referring back to the first week, right? They’re going to miss the entire second week under this model.
GREG SHAHEEN: So they’re going to go to school the first week, and then they’re —Q. They’re going to be under the same schedule you said basically the first week, and then they’ll miss the entire second week.
GREG SHAHEEN: I’m clearly missing the nuance of your point.Q. You and I miss nuances a lot. Thank you
You’d have to be a fool to miss the nuances of yesterday. Clearly something happened that stopped this unstoppable movement toward 96 teams. Just as clearly, something happened that day. Mr. Feinstein had the gumption, to say nothing of the profile, the angle and the composure, to take and maintain a position. That press conference seemed, to me, at least, as a way to line those three up and pat them on the back and congratulate them for the 96-team thing. That didn’t happen. And for now 96 teams won’t happen.
Maybe I’m overstating what happened that day, though I doubt it was a variable isolated from the shift. You’d like to think an entity as big and as powerful as the NCAA can’t be undone by one person, especially when its convictions were once so strong. Still, it’s kind of inspiring and refreshing to see that one person, one voice, one instance can still have a profound effect.
So thank you, John Feinstein.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, pregame!
ccteam said:
WV can’t depend on the ACC or SEC to “save” them from a mid-major future. They can hope that will happen, but Pastilong needs to be pushing the Big East to act in its on self interest proactively before the Big 10 moves ahead. It is at least a possibility, if not a probability that WV will be on the outside looking in when the power conferences realign. WV needs to take the lead in making what is left of the Big East as good as possible. The Big East/Mountain West merger isn’t perfect, but it is the best option left to insure staying in the BCS picture.
I can assure you WVU is being proactive and no one has their head in the sand regarding expansion imminence. Someone in the Coliseum assured me WVU is “conscious of that and weighing options,” but was quick to remind me “weighing options and being invited” are separate things.
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Those BCS meetings in Arizona yesterday produced only one bit of news … and this is if you choose to believe anything or everything in this shadowy process. According to Commissioner Jim Delany, the Big Ten + ? is not accelerating its plans for expansion.
“There are no announcements, notifications, or is there a change in the timeline,” he said Wednesday, while taking a break from BCS meetings at a lavish resort hotel in Arizona.
Back in December, the Big Ten announced it was considering expansion and that it would take about 12 to 18 months to figure out what it wanted to do.
According to Delany, the league is still mulling over its options.
“It’s pretty clear that we may not act,” he said. “It’s also a possibility that we may. It’s a possibility that we may act in a way that would (add) more than a single member.
“There’s nothing Earth-shattering here. I wanted to put our announcement of last December into some sort of context given some of the reports.”
Whoa, boy. That last quote kills me. “It’s pretty clear that we may not act.” You just can’t trust anything anyone says. Hear it. Absorb it. Consider it. Don’t accept it.
The most informative/entertaining parts of this event were the quasi-press conferences the commissioners had with eager writers and the little nuggets the get-togethers produced. The best belonged to John Marinatto, he of the embattled Big East, who came with a new title.
Big East commissioner John Marinatto sat down at a table with writers and introduced himself as “assistant to Jim Delany at the Big Ten Conference.”
Will Clarke is a 6-foot-6, 265-pound redshirt freshman whose play this spring at defensive end has been about as impressive as is his physique.
He bats balls, tramples tackles, runs down running backs and generally has the sort of potential — that of a 290-pound play-making pass-rusher — WVU hasn’t had in a pretty long time. The Mountaineers have had some good ones at defensive end lately, but not with the size and skill Clarke might one day possess.
And just when you think you know what you’re getting from the kid, you get something totally unexpected. Clarke is quite quiet.
Clarke’s coaches brag about the way the 6-foot-6, 265-pound defensive end’s motor roars during spring practices, but it’s difficult for the redshirt freshman to discuss it with an almost-whisper that can get lost in the wind at Mountaineer Field.
“I guess it’s pretty much two different guys,” Clarke said Tuesday afternoon. “A lot of my teammates say I need to get mad. Before every game, I’m really calm and I just don’t say much – until I get mad. When I do get mad, I’m there.”
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The former WVU quarterback will be drafted this weekend, most likely Saturday when the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh rounds transpire, as the NFL goes to a three-day format for the first time.
That it happens when Brown is available kind of figures. The wait will be worth it, though, because he’s generally regarded as one of the eight- to 10-best quarterbacks in the field … and everyone, it seems, is looking for a quarterback.
And as for the teams showing an interest in Brown? That’s where things get good.
Brown will have a new home before the weekend is over, almost certainly through the draft, after solid workouts at the Senior Bowl, the combine and at his pro day on campus last month. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound Brown visited the Buffalo Bills and Cleveland Browns and worked out for the San Francisco 49ers, Cincinnati Bengals, Carolina Panthers and – get ready for this – the Miami Dolphins.
Miami drafted Brown’s predecessor, Pat White, last year, but still has a need at the position.
“I don’t really know what to think about that,” Brown said with a laugh, “but I’m going to be happy wherever I go.”
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Proactive measure No. 1: The Big East found itself a nice little ally today as it prepares to battle conference expansion and likely realignment.
Feel free to speculate. The conference mentions nothing of the obvious, but with Paul Tagliabue in fold, there’s a pretty accomplished and influential thinker/executor a phone call away when things start happening.
get email and questions from time to time that wonder what the heck a skeleton drill is.
Too often I overlook how just because I know what a term means there’s a remote possibility someone else reading does not. Drills themselves can be intellectually intimidating on name alone, be it a W Drill, Oklahoma Drill or the Thoroughman.
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OK, I lied.
The Mountaineers got two national titles, the first coming in what is quite literally the Big Dance.
WVU’s dance team switchfooted to the National Dance Alliance Championship last week in Florida. The Mountaineers topped Western Michigan, Southern Methodist, Florida State and Louisville … and I’m telling you right now, those last two make this an achievement.
Speaking of achievements, how about beating Virginia Tech, Purdue, South Florida and Rutgers to win a no-less-meaningful national championship?
