Remember yesterday when we discussed Tavon Austin and his respect for Rhodes scholars? Of course you do.
thacker said:
A kid who gets publicity because of his athleticism and wants an education and to play ball. Damn refreshing.
Well, it was treated differently elsewhere. Not disdainfully, but dismissively. (I wonder if that really is a word. Does someone want to check?)
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OK, I’ll admit it: As the firing unfolded at B.C. yesterday, I thought to myself, “I can’t believe Tajh Boyd didn’t decide to go there.”
Really — and in a completely serious, non-sarcastic manner — didn’t that seem like the next step? He promises his services to WVU, who promised he was their only quarterback in this recruiting class, then withdraws. He picks Tennessee, knowing a coaching change or a staff overhaul was probably coming, and is then politely told he’s not wanted by the new regime.
That left him with two options: B.C. and Oregon. Given the way things were going, it only made sense he’d pick B.C., then watch his coach get fired in an appropriately bizarre manner.
That never happened, but Boyd’s sad story continues. The day he earned MVP honors in the U.S. Army All-American Game, it was announced he’s had a torn ACL for months now. He’ll have reconstructive surgery Feb. 4 — National Signing Day. He hopes he’ll be good to go by August, though in reality his chances of playing as a true freshman are really compromised. But, gosh, don’t you kind of root for the kid now?
Everyone knew his knee was hurting. Against Warwick on Sept. 19, he went down awkwardly and came out for two plays. He missed the next two games, but since they were against overmatched opponents, few were suspicious. The official word: a sprain.
Boyd returned Oct. 10 against rival Hampton. And he played the rest of the year. But what Boyd, his family and Phantoms coach Bill Dee didn’t tell anyone was, his ACL was torn all along.
“We didn’t want to go public about it because we thought maybe some opponents would aim for his knee and he would get hurt further,” said his mother, Carla. “We didn’t want to risk that.”
Boyd faced a decision: Declare his high school career over and focus on college, or gut it out and try to win another state title.
“At first, I wasn’t going to play,” he said. “But we put so much work into the off-season, and I didn’t want to disappoint the team. So I felt I should at least try.”
The work really begins once he overcomes the injury. Depth charts at his prospective schools predict a battle for playing time.
The Mountain State debut for Deniz Kilicli, who committed to WVU in October, didn’t go very well back in November, but he’s been coming around lately and starting to solidify a lot of the faith people had in him at the beginning.
“I’ve played basketball 11 years. I learned to play basketball in Europe,” Kilicli said. “It’s hard to get used to it so quick. I think I’m going to get better and better every day.”
Kilicli isn’t about to forget that his European training helped make him the versatile big man he is today. He said that when he was young, all players ran the same drills for their first few years of organized ball — whether they were point guards or centers.
Fulford said Kilicli’s training has made him a unique player.
“He’s a dominating post player that can step out, knock down jump shots. He can shoot the 3,” Fulford said. “He can take you off the dribble. He’s just got a skill set that you don’t find in big guys.”
The point is then made Kilicli is sometimes guilty of trusting his skills too much, which takes away from his potential to be a physical force. That, he said, is why he chose WVU and Bob Huggins.
“I told myself, ‘He’s going to make me a beast,'” Kilicli said.
Plus, Huggins has much experience turning collegiate big men into NBA-ready players. Just ask Kenyon Martin. Martin, a 6-foot-9 forward, was selected with the first pick of the 2000 NBA draft. Huggins, the NCAA’s sixth-winningest coach, has had 16 of his players advance to the NBA. That’s a pretty good rate during Huggins’ 26-year career.
“His dream when coming here is he wants to play in the NBA,” Fulford said. “That’s why he chose West Virginia. Coach Huggins has the reputation of putting guys in the NBA.”
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Oh, that B.C. Fired a pretty good football coach today because he interviewed for the New York Jets job. This is fun on several levels:
– It’s an NFL job, not a NCAA job.
– He’s not getting that Jets job, so a proper spin could have turned this in B.C.’s favor (“Hey, look at our program! The NFL loves our coach! Play for our coach! The NFL could one day love you!”).
– B.C. wants stability at the top — Tom O’Brien bolted for ACC foe North Carolina State two years ago — but fired a guy who won 20 games and twice played for the ACC title in two seasons.
– B.C. reports it fired Jagodzinski “without cause” — magic words in the world of buyouts — and likely has to pay the remainder of his contract.
– This is B.C., the team that furtively fled the Big East only a few years back. Doesn’t this seem at least slightly hypocritical?
No, really. He plays for the Dunbar Poets, a nickname I can’t get enough of, but also does seem academically inclined, per his comments about his oral verbal commitment promise to WVU Tuesday.
“I went to West Virginia, and I felt like I was part of the family. … Besides, I thought I would play earlier at West Virginia. I did my homework, and West Virginia leads the Big East in Rhodes scholars. They graduate a lot of their players.”
I can’t recall someone making that point before. Maybe it’s happened, but not on my watch.
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There were 70 seconds remaining Tuesday night and WVU trailed Connecticut 57-55. Alex Ruoff was 4-for-14 and had missed his previous six 3-point attempts when on a 3-on-1 fastbreak he took a pass at the 3-point line and didn’t really even think before shooting. He missed, finished 4-for-16 and 2-for-11 from 3-point range as the Mountaineers lost 61-55.
“You can say it’s a team loss and all the stupid, cliché crap like that, but I missed the last three shots,” said Ruoff, who was averaging 17.1 points and shooting 40.7 percent from 3-point range. “That’s reality.”
Yikes. Here, though, is the great debate. Was he, at that moment and in that situation, the leading scorer and deadly accurate shooter or the guy having a miserable night? Was it a good look or was he excited to be open and unencumbered for a change?
Basically, was that a good idea or a bad idea?
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First, the good. Tavon Austin, a reputable record-setting running back from Maryland, committed to WVU.
Now the bad. If you don’t have ESPNU and don’t like bars or people that have ESPNU, I’m not sure how you watch tonight’s WVU-UConn tilt. You might catch it here or perhaps somewhere else on the origin site. As always, you can catch it on your MSN radio affiliate, where available, or at the MSNSportsnet live stats section (under WVU sports calendar). If you choose, you may sign up for streaming audio. Good luck. Â
Or .. the foul trouble of one Wellington Smith.
“You’re not going to fight your way through guys,” Huggins said. “You’ve got to use your athleticism and quickness and not let them get their body on you. He consistently wants to stay down there and, I don’t know, try and prove they’re bigger and stronger than he is — and he’s been pretty good at that; he has proved it.
“He’s got great feet and he’s quick off the floor. He’s got to use his athleticism and not stand dowmn there and try to get into a physical tussle with people because he loses all the time.”
You must admit this about Huggins — he’s absolutely not going to lie to you.
Let’s alleviate the speculation over what Joe Mazzulla intends to do. Sitting is killing him so he wants to play again this season.
“To be honest with you,” he said Monday afternoon, “I really don’t see myself sitting on the sideline for an entire year. I’m going to try to do as best as I can to get back out there and see what I can do.”
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… but you must check this out. It’s too good to deprive yourself.
P.S.
Vote!
