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

Danny Jennings and his haymaker

August 20, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Try as I might, I just can’t pull myself away from basketball. Do you wonder why with a coach who shares tales like this?

Huggins told a story of how Jennings, a forward at 6-foot-8, 265 pounds, was urged by WVU’s strength coach Andy Kettler to take up boxing in an effort to improve his footwork around the basket.

”After Danny knocked (redshirt junior forward) Cam Thoroughman out with one punch to start the boxing class, no one would get into the ring with him,” Huggins said. ”So I’m not sure if it helped his footwork or not.”

Oh, and Casey Mitchell, who someone told me could have a 40-point game this year, is everything he’s billed to be … and less?

”There will be days you walk out of the Coliseum and say, ‘Casey Mitchell is the best scorer we’ve had here since Wil Robinson,” Huggins said. ”And there will be other days when you’ll walk out and you’ll say, ‘what the hell did Hugs recruit him for?’ ”

A small secret to his success

by Mike Casazza

Mesmerized by The Poet’s footwork? There might be a simple explanation.

“Small feet helps me with my quickness and my moves and helps me get in and out of shakes,” Austin, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Baltimore native, said. “I’m cool with having small feet.”

OK, OK, we’ll do this again, too

by Mike Casazza

Marshall’s new A.D. enjoyed his first day on the job Wednesday and was celebrated later at a pep rally in Huntington Charleston. The First Fan was there, of course, and you better believe people are reading between the lines today.

Gov. Joe Manchin addressed the gathering before Hamrick hit the stage, and reiterated his enthusiasm for the continuation of the Marshall-West Virginia football series, which is currently contracted through 2012.

“This series will have a long, illustrious reign,” Manchin said boldly. “I’m not sure, but I think it has a good chance of having a real long history. I only know that we win, win, win, win, win, every time we get together. No one loses in that game; we all win.”

Was it a hint that he was going to jump-start the negotiations, as he has done before?

“The governor’s already got one issue taken care of for me,” Hamrick joked.

OK, OK, we’ll do this again

by Mike Casazza

Not one, but two (it was there, I swear!) Web sites reported the imminent arrival of the eminent Tevita Finau Tuesday. That set of quite a stir in which WVU people were very “Wha? That’s news to us.” — and understandably so.

Once I shook the facial twitch, I got to work.

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Bowled over?

August 19, 2009 by Mike Casazza

The Big East and the Gator Bowl are no more. The Champs Sports Bowl is the pick. Jacksonville is out. Orlando is in. Gator paid out $2.375M, CSB pays $2.4. Gator is upping purse to $3M. CSB offers incentives. The hybrid with the Gator/Sun and the Big East/Big 12 is gone. CSB will have Big East or Notre Dame every year. Notre Dame could get into Gator/Sun twice in four years. Notre Dame can get into CSB once in four years … and probably Sun once in four years. The CSB isn’t on New Year’s Day, but is always in the ratings top-3 for non-BCS games.

In short, the Big East’s new bowl agreement is neither hot nor cold. It’s a mixed bag, but it’s a win in that it isn’t a loss.

“When I spoke with our athletic directors (Monday) night and told them we were about to announce our deal, I noted to them I could not help but recall what we as a conference have accomplished since reconstituting the Big East in 2005,” Commissioner John Marinatto said Tuesday on a conference call with reporters.

“That is, among other things, defying the critics and capturing victories in three of our four BCS games and posting an overall 12-4 bowl record the past three seasons.

“It only seemed fitting, like the Super Bowl commercial says, that now we’re going to Disney World.”

Chris Beatty was not misquoted

by Mike Casazza

WVU’s slot receivers/running backs coach was asked Tuesday how The Poet compared to Noel Devine and Jock Sanders. What followed was … well, it was revealing.

“He’s shiftier than those guys,” running backs/slot receivers coach Chris Beatty said. “He’s not as thick as them, but he’s quicker than those guys.”

Also, Austin’s other nickname is “Ta-Boogie.” I feel pretty good about this young man.

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How WVU measures up

August 18, 2009 by Mike Casazza

We touched on this briefly before, but the recruiting process has a way of literally stretching the truth. No one is immune to these inaccuracies. In a way, no one is to blame, though if a school takes a provided height and/or weight to be true and makes some sort of decision based on that without checking it out first, it’s their own fault.

Anyhow, when signing day arrived in February WVU released bios on the 24 players that included height and weight. Four were accurate.

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Stew not interested in Thoroughman

by Mike Casazza

However, Syracuse has named Greg Paulus its starting quarterback. I’m beginning to think Marrone has a good feeling about his team if only because he could opt for a promising redshirt freshman and the future or a somewhat reliable senior and the present and instead went off the grid a little and picked a former ACC point guard.

Or he and I could both be wrong. I’ll say this, the Big East will be fun to follow this season and Syracuse gives us another reason why.

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Move along, nothing to see

by Mike Casazza

So practices are pretty much closed at WVU now. After witnessing Saturday’s scrimmage, we’re allowed in for a bit Wednesday and actually all of Saturday’s scrimmage. I have no idea where I stand on this.

I really had no problem with the arrangement last week — watch an hour and then please leave — because you had time to take pictures and videos and eyeball some kids and then depart. I can’t imagine Bill Stewart is hiding an opening-hour ice cream social from us this week.

In both weeks, we media were prohibited from the actual practice part of practice, which is common. Heck, a lot of schools don’t even grant access for that first hour. So part of me wonders what I’m missing and another part knows it’s not much.

Why, last week I wrote something about how freshman offensive lineman Jordan Weingart was among the most promising newcomers. Someone who read that saw me at practice and said, “What makes you think that about Weingart?”

I replied, “Good question…” and simply walked away.

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Bravo, SEC. Bravo.

August 17, 2009 by Mike Casazza

I’ve read this three times now and I’ve thought about it a bit since it was first rumored a few weeks ago. I have to say, this is monumentally misguided and almost entirely impossible to enforce, but, hey, you go ahead SEC.

The SEC, one of college sports’ biggest, richest, most prominent conferences, earlier this month sent to its 12 schools an eye-opening new media policy. It places increasingly stringent limits on reporters and how much audio, video and “real-time” blogging they can do at games, practices and news conferences.

But even more interesting is that the policy also includes rules for fans in the stands. No updating Twitter feeds. No taking photos with phones and posting them on Facebook or Flickr. No taking videos and putting them on YouTube.

A conference spokesman said this policy was meant to try to keep as many eyeballs as possible on ESPN and CBS — which are paying the SEC $3 billion for the broadcast rights to the conference’s games over the next 15 years — and also on the SEC Digital Network — the conference’s own entity that’s scheduled to debut on SECSports.com later this month.

I don’t even know where to begin, so I won’t.

Hey, speaking of Tweets …

“Had expensive dinner at Porcini’s 2nite, then stayed until after closing. Made a new Louisville fan.” — Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.