Check out Alex Ruoff’s numbers the past nine games. What do you see? Is it 18-for-65 from 3-point range or 24-for-42 from 2-point range? Is it the 65 3-point attempts or the 44 free-throw attempts? What about 38 assists and 19 turnovers? How about the fact he’s sat a total of 22 minutes? Say what you will his struggles, but I can’t recall a kid who plays so well when he (allegedly) plays so bad.
Still trying to sort out exactly what it means that WVU’s basketball practice facility (way too many letters … it’s now BPF) was included on a list compiled by state officials and submitted to the federal government as a way to secure funding for some $545 million in capital projects.
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Curious about WVU’s basketball practice facility? Join the club.
One large request is $26 million for a practice facility for West Virginia University’s basketball teams. The practice facility was approved on Dec. 12 by WVU’s Board of Governors contingent on private funding. Eleven days later, the state had the building on the federal funding request list.
The Poet sure seems like the most celebrated player in this recruiting class. He’s got the street cred and he’s got the rather ridiculous statistics. He also, like just about everyone else with a following, has a series of highlights up on the Internet. For some sad and strange reason, I cannot resist these things.
I fell for the Devine stuff way back when, but I’ve also learned film don’t lie. It can deceive — consider the level of competition as an example — but it’s usually pretty easy to see if a kid’s quick, smooth, strong, raw, so on and so forth.
Tavon Austin has something special. Could be the footwork or the moves or the ability to make the right decision or, more likely, the confidence to trust whatever it is he decides to do with the ball in his hands. It’s … OK, it’s poetic.
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I got to sit on the baseline and in the corner inside the Bradley Center when WVU played at Marquette earlier this month. Forget being within earshot. It was arm’s reach. At one point in the second half, Kevin Jones grabbed an offensive rebound and someone on the bench exulted, “Oh my God, Kevin got a rebound!” as a few others made note of the moment.
I had to ask. It wasn’t that Jones, a 6-foot-8, 230-pound freshman forward, simply got the rebound. He had to go get that rebound. In basketball, there is a difference between getting rebounds in your area and going outside your area to get rebounds. He’d been doing the former, but not the latter. Jones finished with six rebounds that game and a career-high eight the next.
His confidence has grown, as has his playing time, as he settles into his role. Jones is usually the first player off the bench now. He mad a big difference with little contributions against Georgetown and has developed a good mid-range jumper because knows that shot will come to him in the offense.
It’s accountability and it’s not a new concept to him. Over the summer, the school district back home threatened to cut sports at Mount Vernon (N.Y.) High. The community rallied to save the Knights.
“The team would go out with their jerseys on and ask people for any donations they could give,” Jones said. “I know that struck home with a lot of people once they saw the basketball team was giving that kind of effort. I think everyone else wanted to fall in line and help any way they could.”
That included Jones, who wouldn’t sit back and watch during his trip home and instead decided to go to city hall one night and speak at a meeting in which the situation was being discussed and debated.
“It came straight from the heart,” he said. “I know how much the sports programs meant to me and much it means to a lot of kids. I didn’t want them to go without sports.”
Sports were saved at Mount Vernon and Jones now knows he and other graduates must continue to keep a community proud and motivated to sustain the tradition. Tonight’s 7 p.m. Big East Conference game against St. John’s is one of those moments.
“It’s a New York school and I’m a New York kid, so it means a little more,” he said.
Now out-of-work, though once touted Cleveland Browns decision-maker Phil Savage — excuse me, I need to go break something … and we’re back — had a gig last week. He was called upon by Sports Illustrated’s Peter King to offer his thoughts and reviews from the Senior Bowl experience.
g. Pat White‘s been at the center of a lot of debate about whether he can play quarterback in the NFL. It’s probably a longshot at 6-foot and 190, but who knows? I’d love to see him play that wildcat spot. We had Josh Cribbs do it in Cleveland because he could throw the ball. I would think Pat White’s a receiver, probably, but he can be a third quarterback type and play the wildcat. He adds a dimension to the Wildcat because he can throw.
The other shoe has fallen and the Mountain West Conference is now looking for an automatic BCS bid.
Presidents and chancellors of the league’s nine schools addressed the issue during a meeting shortly after the Jan. 8 national championship game and, with Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson, will try to sit down with Atlantic Coast commissioner and current BCS coordinator John Swofford possibly in the coming weeks, Thompson says. The BCS will conduct its annual spring meeting in late April in Pasadena, Calif.
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Hands no longer wringing over the TBA, they are now applauding this Geno Smith, who made the PARADE Magazine All-America team.
Signing Day — I can’t believe I have to capitalize that — is just nine days away.
… from the weekend that was. For your use in elevator rides, trips to the water cooler and other awkward moments on a Monday.
– Bob Huggins applies less is more in describing loss to Pitt: “They’re good.”
– That Georgetown win doesn’t look so good now. But that Seton Hall win? Nice!
– Pat White adds another honor … wait … Pat White adds another honor and, quite frankly, surprises no one.Â
– Eight is enough as snake-bitten-on-a-troubling-level women’s team finally gets a Big East win.Â
– Not to be trifled with.
– Campus newspaper gets two links in Talking Points.Â
Welcome to the Friday Feedback, which is talking about what everyone else is talking about today. Hadn’t seen him do something quite like it before, didn’t think he could pull it off and was left speechless after seeing it — Bob Huggins wore a gold tie under his blue pullover.
After resisting the urge to ask him where my seat was, I found I rather liked the look. It’s formal and casual, which works perfect for Huggins, who’s gone from fantastic suits to pullovers to sports jackets and unbuttoned collars and other looks in his first year-plus. Seeing as if WVU won, and rather convincingly at that, we might see this more often. Huggins likes to ride a look for as long as it will take him.
Oh, and Alex Ruoff dunked.
Then, with Georgetown still hanging around, waiting for that one run that home teams always seem to make, Ruoff showed his true constitution and he took the ball at the top of the key, saw an opening, broke through toward the basket and while challenged, went up with a one-handed slam dunk that rattled the rafters.
Considering that Ruoff dunks about as often as Obama takes the oath of office, it changed the whole complexion of the game.
“I’d just missed a layup and I didn’t want to take a chance on another finger roll,†Ruoff said of his decision to go strong to the hoop.
It was another example of just what Ruoff means to this West Virginia team. Even on a bad shooting night, when he goes 3 for 10 and makes just one of seven 3-point tries, Ruoff finds some way to provide a positive spark to the team.
In the end, he finished with 10 points and nine assists. Count ‘em – nine.
Bad shooting numbers, but he did not play a bad game. Oh, and those nine assists? They kind of made up for his shooting.
Six of his assists, including all four in the first half, led to 3-point baskets. The other three went to Smith for easy dunks.
“Even if I’m not shooting well, I think (the opponents) know they can’t leave me,” said Ruoff, who had made 216 3s and 37.6-percent of his attempts in his career. “I do get a lot of attention, but this was almost like being a decoy.”
You can’t underestimate the importance of starting this ridiculous stretch by getting the Georgetown win before practicing for two days for Sunday’s game against Pitt, which hasn’t played since Monday.
Onto the Feedback. As always comments appear as posted. In honor of Chief Justice John Roberts, there will be no joke this week.
thacker said:
::uncorking the scotch::
Anxiety attacks always sneak up when watching this year’s ballclub. Â
But it hurts so good!
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