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

Friday Feedback

June 5, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is feeling a little confused. Allow me to explain.

I honestly don’t know what to think about what’s happening at the Coliseum. We’re told one thing one day and then the next day we see something else. At the very least, the RFQs and RFBs distributed by WVU of late make me think what probably everyone else thinks: There is, after all this time, some smoke. Let’s temper our expectations about the fire.

But, yeah, that was a somewhat dizzying series of events and probably not as significant as the optimists want to believe. It was, however, something I didn’t need. Monday night witnessed a slight concussion during a softball game and Tuesday and Wednesday were a little … uh … what’s the word? … foggy. Things were slow here as a result. It’s back to normal now and I’ve got all my facilities — which is more than Huggins and Carey can say.

Onto the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In other words, stick to it!

Bill said:

Thanks for the info, Mike. I just signed up on-line to donate some of my hard-earned money for the practice facility. It was extremely easy.

I’ll make online donations one step easier: Click here then select basketball practice facility.

Continue reading…

What the…?

June 4, 2009 by Mike Casazza

I was reading the local newspaper the other day and spotted a RFQ for a construction project at the Coliseum. “Hmmm,” I thought. Then a person who knows a contractor said that contractor was poking around and it was, presumably, for the basketball practice facility. “Hmmm, hmmm,” I though. So I asked around and was summarily told one was not related to the other.

While not directly related to the basketball practice facility, it is at least a preliminary task. Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong said the job will make the eventual facility construction quicker and less complicated. The current improvement project had to happen before the facility could be built.

“It is another thing we have to knock out before we can begin,” Pastilong said. “At the very moment we have comfortable money in hand, we want to be able to get to work.”

Fair enough … but behold the local newspaper today:

West Virginia University on behalf of its Board of Governors, invites suppliers of construction materials for the new WVU Indoor Basketball Practice Facility. WVU haas released three (3) separate bid packages for the following RFB 90002070V-Site Electrical Materials; RFB 90002071V-Site HVAC Materials; and RFB 9000207072V-Site Utilities Material. Each package is for materials only – installation is by others.  

Sealed bids will be received by WVU Purchasing, Contracts, and Payments Services, until 3:00 PM, June 17, 2009.

A copy of the Request for Bids may be obtained by visiting our web site at: http://wvubids.finance.wvu.edu

Uh, OK, what the heck is that about? The hour is near, right? Right?

Kirelawich: Fan of baseball, fire

by Mike Casazza

Once upon a time Bill Kirelawich, WVU’s soft as sandpaper, tough as trigonometry defensive line coach, was actually a high school baseball coach.

Seems odd if you’re familiar with the man and the fire that still burns bright today because baseball doesn’t provide the constant intensity and adrenaline as does football. Baseball is a slower and more methodical game. Football is planned chaos. Baseball is susceptible to the elements. Football is susceptible to nothing … and neither was Kirlav.

Then there was this game they felt they had to get in, only it rained and it rained.

When it finally stopped — it always does, you know — Kirelawich wasn’t about to let a wet field get in the way of playing.

“I sent a kid out to fill up a 5-gallon can with gasoline,” Kirelawich said. “We set that infield on fire to dry the field. You do that today and you get arrested.”

Amazing!

by Mike Casazza

You remember this, right? You and some 200,000 others watched and devoured it to get us through the offseason between the 2007 and 2008 seasons. Well, welcome to the pre-2009 offseason and say hello to another, uh, divine time-killer.

First in a series of six you can find here or here.

Logo joins the Sports Guy

June 3, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Jerry West, who’ll be in town this weekend for the Bob Huggins fantasy camp, offers a finals preview, among other things.

A highlight comes rather soon when just about three minutes in Simmons calls West a top eight all-time player and the third-best guard of all-time, though in danger of losing his spot to Kobe. Welcome to the podcast, Mr. West!

It’s a classic, classy West reply and it just goes on to get better and better, including the way he and others more or less pioneered the concept of a collective bargaining agreement at the 1964 all-star game.

Biggest surprise? Thirty-three minutes with a guy who sorts avoids such exposure.

Flowers transfer? ROFLMAO

by Mike Casazza

Walk in the shoes of the WVU junior as he deals with a rumor.

The kid who committed to John Beilein and adapted to Bob Huggins was transferring.

One problem.

It wasn’t true.

How do I know this? Because I talked to Flowers? In a perfect world, sure. In today’s world, not at all.

Rather, it was all contained on his Facebook page.

I’ve been told a few times Flowers has a rather, um, enjoyable Facebook page complete with some very funny and/or insightful quotes and anecdotes. I now know just how popular it really is.

At 8:55 on a Friday night, Flowers, who we can agree isn’t the most mainstream player on the team, had elicited 15 responses and set off multiple threads on message boards.

He returned to his Facebook page and wrote, “Nahhhh y’all git it twisted I ain’t leavin these country roads LOL never that.”

Hey, let’s road trip to Seattle

June 2, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Our old pal Owen Schmitt will be premiering at a film premier Friday … and finally the film is about him. The name of the movie is “The Call” and chronicles the process leading up to the 2008 draft for Schmitt, two other rookies and their agent.

An unlikely bond forms between a small-town football agent and his working-class client as they face the most important year of their lives. Intimately shot with 1 camera in 10 cities over 5 months and starring top NFL rookies Antoine Cason (San Diego Chargers), Beau Bell (Cleveland Browns) and notorious facemask-breaking college walk-on turned EA Sports Video Game cover athlete, Owen Schmitt (Seattle Seahawks), The Call takes a candid look at the most crucial period in the life of an NFL hopeful and the most grueling part of the job for any agent – the harsh reality that all the training, preparation and pain comes down to a draft day phone call that may never come.

Awarded the STIFFY for Best Sports Documentary.

Hey, hey, hey … a STIFFY is a prize awarded at Seattle’s True Independent Film Festival. Check the trailer and you’ll see why it won. Of course, Schmitt was a producer, so that didn’t hurt, either.

The cost of doing business

by Mike Casazza

Take a peek behind the curtain to see how WVU and UNLV arrived at their game contract for 2010 and how it’s a big change for the Mountaineers.  

So, West Virginia is paying UNLV a guarantee of $740,000, plus 3,000 tickets (from which UNLV keeps the proceeds, at about $50 apiece) … and on Oct. 9, 2010, the Mountaineers will get what WVU Deputy Athletic Director Mike Parsons calls “about a $2 million day … that’s about our usual game day.”

It wasn’t easy for WVU to pay Vegas the big bucks, but Rebels AD and Kanawha County native Mike Hamrick made it clear that UNLV needed a big road check to pay its own bills.

So, the bidding began, but the notion of paying $740,000-plus for a football guarantee was foreign to the Mountaineers.

It’s $300,000 more than WVU previously has paid for a no-return game.

How Mitchell and I shared a laugh

June 1, 2009 by Mike Casazza

There was a certain irony I just could not let pass. NJCAA Player of the Year and incoming basketball recruit Casey Mitchell is taking a math class to finish his associate degree at Chipola College. Even he admitted that was kind of funny because of a, um, mathematical oversight he and his coach were fortunate to catch a while back.

“I found out you needed 55 credits to get into West Virginia and 62 to graduate Chipola,” Mitchell said Sunday. “That was a surprise. Usually it’s the other way around.”

He needs to hammer out only a few requirements in his remaining two classes in the next few days — and some days these are.

An ordinary weekday for Mitchell begins when he rolls out of bed around 10 a.m.

“I’ve got to wake up late, man,” he said. “I’m usually exhausted.”

Talking points

by Mike Casazza

… from the weekend that was. For your use in elevator rides, trips to the water cooler and other awkward moments on a Monday.

– You’ve got to be kidding me.

– Three qualified for NCAA Track and Field Championships.

– Darius Reynaud got a little work in the Wildcat.

– Pahokee won its spring game. Receiver commitprospect Fred Pickett did not play because he just transferred in and rules prohibit his immediate participation. Linebacker Zachary Allen and cornerback Merill Noel, who both had WVU on their short list and were supposed to announce their decision on Monday, decided they, too, would wait a while longer.

– Linebacker Jessel Curry, who committed two weeks ago, visited Auburn and is now a little uncertain.