A source says it’s entirely possible. And by source, I mean Mike Carey, who leads West Virginia into the arena tonight against UConn.
“If I win that game, I’m retiring, I think,” said Carey, whose Mountaineers are 28-4 a year after finishing 18-15 and missing the NCAA Tournament.
Never mind trying to find a way to describe WVU, a team that has good offensive players, but struggles to score. A team that prides itself on defense, but frequently can’t stop the ball. A team that is never out of a game, but can never put a game away. A team that … well, in short, it’s a team that’d allow me to go on for a long time doing the whole “A team that…” thing.
These are not the Matadors for the way they guard or the Muntaineers because of how their “O” frequently disappears.
These are the geese!
“If you shoot at a goose, it flies away and comes right back to the same spot the next day because they forget – or that’s what I’m told,” Huggins said. “But they don’t know what happened the day before.”
But that’s OK. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. A 2 p.m. flight takes me from Pittsburgh to Laguardia and I’ll be setting up camp from the city for as long as WVU is in the tournament.
If you were to ask the Mountaineers, they’d tell you I’m coming home Sunday. That Villanova game did all the right things to the team’s psyche.
Even though a two-round bye in this week’s conference tournament and inclusion in the NCAA Tournament already were guaranteed, the Mountaineers needed more proof.
They had been 4-4 against ranked opponents with the wins coming at home and the losses coming to top-10 opponents – and 4-4 against the other teams in the top half of the 16-team conference.
“We definitely needed this,” said WVU senior Wellington Smith, who starred in the second half with 13 of his 15 points. “We needed it for our confidence. We needed it purely to make us feel good and to let us know we can beat a good team like Villanova.
“With the things they do, the players they have and the coach they have, this means a lot for everybody.”
Da’Sean Butler made first-team all-conferenceand could be named player of the year tomorrow — but the March 5 deadline for ballots won’t help. Some secondary superlative awards will be named and WVU has had a knack through the years of scooping up the sportsmanship award or the scholar-athlete prize, so stay tuned.
I’m going to make that a little easier on you with a running diary of news, notes, observations and things possibly pertinent. It’s New York Minutiae (right side of the blog’s home page, near the bottom, under “Pages”).
In the meantime, feel the pressure.
Da’Sean was named the Big East player of the week Sunday — didn’t that e-mail get my attention — as well as first-team all-conference.
Joining Butler were Notre Dame’s Luke Harangody, Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds, Syracuse’s Wes Johnson, South Florida’s Dominique Jones and Georgetown’s Greg Monroe. Butler, Harangody, Reynolds and Monroe were on the preseason all-conference team.
Now the fun part. One of those six will be named conference player of the year Tuesday.
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But you know what, Mike Carey is Big East Co-Coach of the Year. He wears what he wants to wear.
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which looks up and sees the ball beginning to drop as we approach FF100. Compose yourself, please.
Crazy time descending upon us. I like to call it the greatest time of the year. Can’t top conference tournaments and, despite what the NCAA insists, you can’t screw with the NCAA Tournament. I’m delighted. I even decided to reduce blog insults by 34 percent in honor of the at-large field … which may be the worst ever. I’m not even being dramatic.
I watched Wednesday as Maryland beat Duke, which every year seems to drop a conference game that somehow legitimizes another team or the conference as a whole. The Terps — ~dangerous~ — were already in, but now the ACC looks markedly better.
So I dug in and first thought off the top of my head “Who from the ACC is in?” Duke, Maryland, Clemson. I like Wake Forest, too. So four. Then, stupidly, I looked online. The ACC is widely projected to get seven teams. Seven! Add Virgina Tech and Florida State — 20 win teams — as well as Georgia Tech, which is actually above both in the RPI.
Virginia Tech, for no real reason, became my circled team. So-so RPI, weak strength of schedule. I searched around and really had no problem with the Hokies getting in, if for no other explanation than I couldn’t answer this question: Where are the other at-larges coming from?
The Big 12 and the Big East are tough and honestly deserve whatever they get. The ACC is down. The SEC is down. The Big Ten is top-heavy. The Pac 10 is atrocious and may only get one team if Cal wins the conference tournament … and if Cal doesn’t it must be asked if Cal is any good.
So not a great year for the Big Six. Here’s the kicker: The mid-majors are not good. They’re not. The exception is the Atlantic 10. It’s No. 6 in the RPI … two spots above the Pac 10. I’ll take Temple, Xavier and Richmond, but Rhode Island is 2-3 in its past five and lost last week at sub-.500 St. Bonaventure and Dayton is 5-6 in its last 11 with a loss at .500 Duquesne and a giveaway loss last night against Richmond.
The Mountain West (RPI No. 7) has New Mexico and BYU and … well, I guess San Diego State. The Missouri Valley gets Northern Iowa no matter what, but if that’s the tourney champ that might be all. Same for the WAC (Utah State), Colonial (Old Dominion), Horizon (Butler) and Metro Atlantic (Siena) in the conference RPI top 15. Conference USA and the Mid-American are winner-only leagues. The only mid-major from the RPI top 15 to get two bids no matter the outcome of the conference tournament — meaning possibly three total — is maybe the West Coast, which has Gonzaga and St. Mary’s, but is otherwise forgettable.
So, using very jagged math, I totaled up the teams I thought were in — from the Big Six, I took locks no matter what happens in the conference tournament because I figured one of them would win it — and added what I outlined from the mid-majors and then added the winner from the 17 conferences outside the RPI top 15. I came up with 54 teams. You need 65.
Just figure I was being lenient on some — I had UConn and Virginia Tech in, for example, because they’re better than alternatives — and account for some wiggle room. You’re looking at 10-15 marginal teams – likely both, definitely one of the two I mentioned — that are going to get in because someone has to.
All of which makes me think this: It’s an excellent time to at least have the debate about expanding or altering the NCAA Tournament.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, don’t monkey around.
ccteam said:
Huggs credited Bryant for the offense looking much better last night. Good for him. Hope he keeps it up. I think the double bye is advantageous for this team. They are not consistent enough to win 4 or 5 in a row in the post season.
Truck was very good, but he wasn’t on the floor when WVU needed baskets. That was Butler, instead. Point guard play is key. As for the bye, I really don’t think it matters for WVU. Even if they were to blow out Villanova and look really dangerous in the process, it’s not as if the Mountaineers are in some sort of a rhythm they don’t want interrupted. Rest, practice and preparation won’t hurt this team.
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By 2013, Ed Pastilong will have made $675,000 as WVU’s Director Emeritus. Give this man a placque!
Pastilong, connected with WVU as a quarterback, recruiting coordinator, scholarship office and athletic administrator for 35 years now, will make $225,000 annually as director emeritus. He’ll receive a $100,000 retention incentive for staying on through June 30 and is due $125,000 in deferred compensation split into payments to be made in 2012 and 2013.
Now as for the next in line, we have some more names and possibilities.
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“Good evening, folks, and welcome to Mountaineer Field! I’m Tony Caridi. Tonight, beneath an April sky filled with more stars than Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar’s afterparty, it’s the annual Gold-Blue game. Twenty four days and 14 workouts ago West Virginia University began its third spring practice under Coach Bill Stewart and tonight is the payoff as together the Mountaineers not only conclude the spring segment of their season, but break from tradition and play the intrasquad scrimmage for the first time under the Friday night lights at Mylan Puskar Stadium to benefit the WVU Children’s Hospital. Kickoff is just a few minutes away and it’s John DePasquale versus Coley White on the Mountaineer Sports Network…”
Dream scene? Not exactly.
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