We can spend plenty of time — in fact, let’s! — on the correlation between the NFL and recruiting. It matters, for sure, but how much should it matter? I don’t know the answer, but my opinion is it shouldn’t matter as much as it seems to matter in the wake of last weekend’s seven rounds.
But this is not why we’re here this morning.
Continue reading…
For a long time earlier in his coaching career, Bob Huggins was assailed for the graduation rates at the University of Cincinnati. He would and he still will deflect, defend and even define the numbers — he’s long skewered the way the NCAA calculates such things — but they stick to him.
Continue reading…
The Anthony Gargano Show is on from 6-10 a.m. West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen was a guest at the top of the 8 o’clock hour. He woke up, warmed up and opened up about the two new Philadelphia Eagles. On Shelton Gibson: “He’s honestly been across the country the guy that people were scared of just because he could get behind you, and he could track the ball better than anybody I’ve ever seen.” And if you believe everything is about recruiting, Holgorsen manages to build that bridge, too.
8 Coaches are on the recruiting trail today#TakeMeHome18 l #WVU l #HailWV pic.twitter.com/hlsyrYApHp
— WVU FB Recruiting (@WVUFBRecruiting) May 1, 2017
Here are two outcomes from last week’s NFL draft that merit attention at West Virginia. One is obvious. One is a surprise. Both were noted by the WVU coaching staff as it went out recruiting this week.
Continue reading…
Friend of the Program Dick Vitale has his annual gala — an an ambitious goal — next month. He’s calling in the armada, including West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins.
Propelled by a sense of urgency to defeat the leading cause of death by disease in American children, celebrities will gather in support of the V Foundation and this year’s all-star Gala honorees: ESPN Hall of Fame Sportscaster Chris Berman, West Virginia University Head Men’s Basketball Coach Bob Huggins and University of Notre Dame Head Football Coach Brian Kelly.
In case you asked yourself recently, “What’s Kevin Jones up to?”
That’s the West Virginia all-timer who’s now the leading scorer and rebounder at Lokomotiv-Kuban. Don’t worry — laugh? — because he’s not giving up his day job. This was all for charity.
For two months, we had been collecting money for Anastasia Charity Foundation to provide children with necessary aid. And now Kevin Jones wants to thank you by a top music video Lyubi Menya Lyubi for a song by the Russian pop-band Otpetye Moshenniki. Feel the perfect Russian pronunciation of our center!
Now, for housekeeping …
Continue reading…
Before Mike headed west for vacation, he left us with a column that dropped on the first day of the NFL draft. Expect to hear some WVU names called this weekend. When that first name comes is anyone’s guess.
For receiver Shelton Gibson, it didn’t matter to him when the phone would ring, be it the first round or the seventh. He felt he was ready to become a professional football player.
WVU women’s soccer coach Nikki Izzo-Brown was in Charleston on Tuesday to talk to the Girls Scouts of Black Diamond Council’s Building Futures breakfast. She talked not only about her team’s memorable run to the nation’s No. 1 ranking and the NCAA championship game, but the future as well. One name was important in talking about both — Kadeisha Buchanan. Buchanan was instrumental in WVU’s run and will be a big gap to fill now that she has graduated.
To describe Buchanan’s impact on the women’s soccer program, she compared it to the impact of another legendary Mountaineer — Jerry West.
Izzo-Brown understood that some might consider that a bold statement. But Buchanan won the MAC Hermann Trophy, the college soccer equivalent of the Heisman, which was among several national player of the year awards she picked up. Buchanan also was a 2016 Olympic bronze medalist with the Canadian national team.
So what do you guys think, is Buchanan to WVU women’s soccer what West is to men’s hoops?
Hi everyone,
Special guest blog poster Derek Redd here. With Mike on a well-deserved vacation, I’ll be popping up here and there when news happens. And, sure enough, it happened Monday.
WVU announced that Jevon Carter will enter his name into the NBA Draft, but not hire an agent. The second part, as you know, is the important part. Here’s why:
A rule recently put in place allows underclassmen the flexibility to determine how they might fare in the draft based on evaluations and then return to college as long as they don’t sign with an agent. … Many players across the country have decided to exercise the rule, implemented in 2016, which allows players to go through the process and return to school 10 days after the NBA Combine, which is being held on May 14.
Welcome to a getaway day edition of the Friday Feedback. I had my feet on the ground for a few weeks, and there was a second there when I feared they’d sprout roots, but like a band of gypsies we go down the highway. I’m gone for the next 10 days … and part of the journey takes me to the Sunshine State, which I hear is gorgeous — gorgeous! My noble wife and her noble friends are being honored for the work they do raising money to help folks cope with and combat cancer. Their group is under the umbrella of Stupid Cancer, but together they “make it all suck a little less.” There’s a gala. I’m a plus-one!
That said, we’re minus-one here for a while, but I’m hoping the space remains lively. I’ll flip the ball to the bullpen on the way out the door, and they’ll get us through to the next round. There’s plenty happening — baseball games, football recruiting, the Big 12 golf championship, the NFL draft, the Penn Relays, Will Grier queries — and all I ask is for you to be civil with one another. With everyone else? Nah.
Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, take your time.
Sid Brockman said:
Pretty sure if Grier doesn’t throw one over Ruby off his back foot we’ll riot.
Just kidding…excited to see him though. The Durante/White/Simms battle for the two outside WR spots is intriguing to me. Hope Jennings and Sills settle in inside as well. On the D side I want to see free safety depth behind Dravon as well.
Continue reading…
