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

How was your bagel?

March 11, 2009 by Mike Casazza

I’m eating a hotel lobby breakfast today and I have to laugh. Funny what can remind you of monumental occasions. Here we are, on the cusp of another postseason, and a bagel, of all things, got me thinking.

I mean, was it really four years ago WVU shocked the college basketball establishment and shockingly rallied to the final round of the Big East Tournament?

Yes.

Have you forgotten how hard that really was that year?

Also yes.

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Ouch!

March 10, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Only a little while after DePaul made history as the first 16-seed to ever win a conference tournament game, Wally Rutecki became the first backup official to get into a Big East Tournament game. That’s according to longtime commissioner Mike Tranghese.

St. John’s D.J. Kennedy was fouled driving to the basket and banged heads with official Mike Kitts with 16:33 remaining. Kitts, who booted Huggins from a 2003 NCAA Tournament game, was on the ground for three minutes, but eventually got back up after waving a stretcher off the floor. Classic Garden ovation followed as Kitts left and Rutecki entered.

Do you believe in Demons?

by Mike Casazza

OK, maybe not, but it didn’t take long for the first maddening moment to arrive. Yes, Cincinnati totally fell apart to end the season — “It’s been the same story for us here lately,” Coach Mick Cronin said. — but DePaul played a great second half and how do you not pull for a historically bad team and a likable coach, Jerry Wainwright?

“Obviously, we’re excited beyond reason for what we did today, and I’d like to say one thing. I know there’s been a lot of discussion, pro and con, and there are a lot of good points to be made. But just speaking as a guy who’s coached these kids the past four years, this is our second trip to Madison Square Garden and our first Big East Tournament win. There’s a lot to be said about that, and I think you would all agree. I know there were a lot of other factors, financial and everything else, but to have kids go through an 18-game conference schedule as tough as ours is and not have this reward of coming to New York is kind of anti what college basketball is all about. I hope we proved there is a lot of value in bringing everybody here. It’s been a tough, long season, but we kept our heads. We’ve got a lot of young guys and I can’t tell you how much this experience will help us next year.”

The Mitchell Report

by Mike Casazza

(Computer issues. Nothing is easy today.) 

Details are still trickling in, but it appears WVU did not cancel classes today even though Casey Mitchell has indeed committed.

Mitchell, of course, is the coveted junior college guard at top-ranked Chipola (Fla.) College. A 6-foot-5 shooting guard, he fills an immediate need in the backcourt, which, in all fairness, is a big deal. Through no fault of his own, though, he comes with the immediate juco disclaimer in that he could be a 30-minute-per-game offensive player and a five-minute-per-game defensive player. Does he catch onto the effort, intensity and intelligence needed to play offensively and defensively at WVU? You never know.

That said, it could be a very big deal.

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Talking points

March 9, 2009 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. Sponsored by “New York Minutes.”

– Devin Ebanks will be back next season, “no question.”

– The Big East put together a pretty good all-conference team.

– WVU’s women can’t finish, are finished in Big East Tournament.

– New president for the Mountaineers.  

– A new Mountaineer(e) for the Mountaineers. (By the way, nice of the students to boo the pick. Stay classy.) 

– Big win for Clara Grandt. Who, you say? Exactly.

– School record for Alex Rotilio. Who, you say? Exactly.

– Gymnasts remain on fire, still can’t win.

– Brenner pins down third EWL title.

Extended edition today because I’m leaving for The Tournament … and yet something’s missing. Oh, yeah, Alex Ruoff.

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Wake up to ESPN!

March 7, 2009 by Mike Casazza
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Check the fine print…bring on with the outlaws!

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Friday Feedback

March 6, 2009 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, for which every day is GameDay.

Neat little weekend here with a big game against a team/school that’s become a rival ever since that Elite Eight thing a few years back. Ruining the Product’s look at an unbeaten season didn’t help/hurt, either. WVU really thinks it can win Saturday and is just furious with the way it played for the first 20 minutes of the first meeting this season. Alex Ruoff said Wednesday it reminded him of a high school team. Ouch. Additionally, if Syracuse loses to Marquette in the 2 p.m. game Saturday, the Mountaineers take the floor at 9 p.m. knowing they clinch sixth place in the Big East — to say nothing of better NCAA Tournament positioning — with a win. If Syracuse wins, WVU is seventh no matter what it does against the Cardinals. Crazy how fast things change.

Finally, I guess football season started Wednesday with a pre-spring practice luncheon. The news, of course, was Quinton Andrews’ departure from the team, a seemingly amicable split since Q is apparently allowed to work out at the Puskar Center until the end of the semester. Also of note was the first take-it-for-what-it’s-worth depth chart. 

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, this is an emergency!

ENShawkins said:

“WVU students may begin lining up at the Coliseum Gold gate for the basketball game starting at 3 p.m. Saturday.”

Wait, so if a student wants to get in line before 3, the cops turn him away? Since when are they mandating times to line up for games?

However, I will say that I like the idea of rewarding the students who show up for the 11 AM broadcast. Its a lot better than their strategy of rewarding those who go to soccer games with lower level seats.

How big is the riot that develops when security kindly asks Camp Coliseum to disassemble about 9 o’clock tonight?

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‘Dedication’

March 5, 2009 by Mike Casazza
Welcome

Chris Armel (left) and Neil Reynolds would like to welcome you to GameDay.

I couldn’t sleep last night. Had nothing to do with the deadline rush or the mind racing through the game … or the fact I may have fallen asleep in the second half and therefore threw off my internal clock. No, I was thinking about what I’d seen leaving the Coliseum.

Students were already camping out for Saturday’s GameDay circus.

“Dedication,” said Neil Reynolds, a 19-year-old freshman from St. Albans.

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Central figure

by Mike Casazza

WVU likes to use a joke to explain why it’s so good at guarding the perimeter — it’s not good at guarding the interior.

 “I think maybe coming in teams feel like they can take us to the basket very easily,” the senior guard said. “That’s their scouting report. Don’t settle for jump shots.”

Well don’t look now, but teams are finding a little more resistance inside and the Mountaineers, perhaps improbably, are No. 5 in the Big East in blocked shots. There’s a twist: Teams give WVU a lot of chances because teams take a lot of chances. In the middle, though, stands a 6-foot-7 center who’s No. 5 himself in blocked shots.

Wellington Smith is on a bit of a roll.

But at 6-foot-7, Smith is making quite a name for himself as an elite shot blocker. When he skied high to swat away three shots in Wednesday night’s 82-63 victory over DePaul it gave him a streak of at least 15 consecutive games in which he had blocked a shot.

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Did Wainwright bookmark this blog?

by Mike Casazza

Quote the hapless DePaul coach after the 82-63 loss last night:

“Certainly a guy who should have his name listed — and we’ve had a lot of great efforts by coaches this year, I think — is Coach Huggins. He’s really done a great job with his team. They have good chemistry and really shoot the ball at home. When they’re making 3s and stretching you out, they’re really tough to guard. They have a really good mix of players all different sizes.”

Let’s add the Jerry Wainwright endorsement to the case for Huggins. Not only that, but the chemistry is something I forgot about, which is unacceptable because it was impossible for me to ignore earlier this season. And just for fun, Huggins rolled with seven guys or 38 minutes last night, because he can.

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