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

Gansey in the Bundesliga

August 26, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Round Two of the European Experience is underway for Mike Gansey. More than a year after playing in Italy — and leaving to play in the NBA’s developmental league — he’s in Bremerhaven, Germany. Eisbaren Bremerhaven plays in the Bundesliga basketball league, which means games against Johannes Herber’s Alba Berlin. Initial reports were pretty good. He’s up in a nice two-bedroom pad and was provided a car. Dirk Nowitzki isn’t that big of a deal and, quite surprisingly, neither is David Hasselhoff.

The team is now in Lithuania for a week-long training camp tour, which’ll include three games against some of Europe’s best clubs. Getting there this past weekend was a chore, though.

“When we got to Hamburg airport it was a zoo.  You couldnʼt even walk and the security line was a mile long.  It was literally chaos.  We checked in and after about an hour of waiting for the lines we finally got through.  I guess 3 Iranian men just ran and stormed through the security checks and tried to fight the TSA workers and obviously were arrested and that is why they wouldnʼt let anyone through and many flights were stopped and canceled.  What were they thinking just running though the place? Quite an interesting day at the airport.”

 

Punching out early

August 25, 2008 by Mike Casazza

For those of you who haven’t been here since the beginning, please allow me introduce myself. I’m a guy who’s punching out early today because I’ve been married for exactly one year and I’m a guy whose life can be appropriately explained with one story. The two are connected. Discover how after the jump.  

Continue reading…

Good news for you, the U

by Mike Casazza

Reed Williams…starter.

“Yes,” Coach Bill Stewart said this morning on the Big East Conference coaches’ media teleconference. “Unless something happens between now and Saturday and he’s nicked or dinged up.”

It’s not hype, it’s life

by Mike Casazza

Noel Devine: “I feel like I’m blessed and it’s an honor to be here, but it’s nothing new to me,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since I first started playing football. Certain people are just now starting to do it and the hype will get to them, but it’s been this way with me since I’ve been in football.”

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.

Photobucket

– The students are definitely back in town. Please note the baseball bat is, in fact, broken.

– One would have to assume pregame preparations for Villanova are going very well — Bill Stewart no-showed the University Chapter Alumni Association’s Countdown to Kickoff.

– Pat White is a senior, which seems … abrupt.

– The season-opening 3-0 win for women’s soccerwas witnessed by “a large crowd of 947,” which is not to be confused with a small crowd of 947. The men didn’t have very good news on the field or off of it.

– Darris Nichols, back in business.

Friday Feedback

August 22, 2008 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to a suite edition of the Friday Feedback. Try to get past the possibility the scoreboard might not be completed in time for the season-opener and that there seems to be no way to get the ribbons up and running in time, either. Mountaineer Field may welcome new suites … later rather than sooner, of course. Excellent week here as we get closer to football and the discussion about the team entrance was an all-time highlight. Really good critiques and suggestions … as well as a cameo by Don Blankenship? I’m not going to touch it here today because it stands on its own. I’ll only add that it’s been noticed.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. The good news is you’re not far from being able to hide from your errors.

Mack said:

Michael, I ask you, aren’t sports writers supposed to be smarter about this stuff than the average fan? Aren’t sportswriters, in some ways, the academians of the sports world? Why is it that sports writers, who are always quick to point out that they know a lot more than the rest of us, often times say things that are just ignorant/dumb about the very sports they cover?  

Deep down inside, some sportswriters despise their job and grow to loathe what they cover. What seems like an absurd statement is sometimes a manifestation of those feelings. That said, polling is a silly exercise. It’s crazy to ask someone to responsibly follow all the Division I teams and then rank the top 25 every week, but it’s crazier to actually do it and attempt to certify it. There are exceptions, but I think many sportswriters do it just to say they do it and pat themselves on the back whenever the opportunity arises. We’re largely egomaniacs and this sort of stuff serves to feed the monster. Look around and see who openly brags he’s a voter, he voted this team here, he thinks this team is too high, he thinks this team is too low. The only person who really cares is the person writing it.

Continue reading…

Enter the you

August 21, 2008 by Mike Casazza

It was written Tuesday that the football team’s entrance wouldn’t be very different this year than it was last year… and apparently this sort of thing interests people a great deal. I have to admit, I don’t pay much attention to the entrance. After the marching band and the national anthem, I’m usually loading up on coffee and stashing cookies for first-half sustenance.

Anyhow, this status quo didn’t really sit well with people and e-mailers let me know of their disappointment. Only one, though, offered a suggestion. Take it away, Roger Lowman:

Not sure about you but the inflatable helmet routine is not what I want to see.  It seems to be too much of a copy cat.  WVU needs something original.  I have always thought that they should remake the tunnel entrance/exit to look like a Coal Mine entrance complete with timbers, real coal etc.  Put a big ol’ lump of West By God coal for the players to slap on the way out right in the middle. Play any LOUD rock song you want while the video plays, fade the music and blast “fire in the hole” over the sound system and blow smoke out of the tunnel (dry ice I guess), then you hear, “Let’s bring on the Mountaineers” as the team runs on the field to band playing and crowd screaming.
 
That’s a blue collar entrance for a blue collar team.  I think the fans will appreciate the entrance look, the “Fire in the Hole” as all part of the great state of WV.  It’s something we can identify with. Certainly beats the blow up helmet.

I’m not going to lie to you: I’d watch that, cookies be damned. I might even get goosebumps. I thought I’d forward that along to WVU as food for thought, if not for this season, than for the future. But why send one when I can send many?

Fire away with your suggestions for the team entrance — and good luck topping Roger’s.  

Why, that’s Steve Dunlap

by Mike Casazza

The one thing I’m most happy I learned from watching WVU’s preseason practice? Not that Robert Sands is a rather scary presence in the defensive backfield or that Terence Kerns swings the ball too much and doesn’t protect it enough to cause his own fumbles. Not that Reed Williams is a better teammate than linebacker or that Quinton Andrews knows how to practice without feuding with coaches.

No, I was pleased to learn that safeties coach Steve Dunlap has a cannon.

Turns out, Steve Dunlap was coaching the safeties and, with no disrespect meant toward Patrick White, if all you had seen was the flight of the football, the accuracy of the pass, the velocity with which it was thrown, you’d have thought it had been thrown by the quarterback who is a contender for the Heisman Trophy rather than a 55-year-old former Mountaineer linebacker.

Steve Dunlap may not be the best passer on the West Virginia roster, but he’s close.

Cause for concern?

August 20, 2008 by Mike Casazza
Photobucket

I’m just telling you, but there are people in the athletic department who are very worried about this picture, which I took today. The season opens next Saturday and there is a lot of work to be done — and being done — to complete the new video board on time. The palms are sweaty.

Continue reading…

So how good (or not) is Pat White?

by Mike Casazza

(Mea culpa time: I screwed up Chaz Russell’s status today. He is, in fact, in town and with the team. My excuse explanation: I was told yesterday Chaz wasn’t at practice and there was a problem with his transcript. I intended to ask about it last night at the player/coach interviews, but someone beat me to it. From there, I simply heard something differently, which served to reinforce what I was told earlier. That led to me getting the story wrong. Whoops. Chaz did graduate and is in town. WVU is waiting to receive and approve his transcript before allowing him to participate. Apologies for the confusion. Don’t hate me.)

Maybe we live in a box and are surrounded by all things WVU and maybe it seems absurd to consider this as the reality, but there appears to be some merit to this thought that Patrick White may be a little underrated this season. I’ve seen and heard people doubt WVU for various reasons this season and some are legit and worthy of discussion. Others are outlandish, but nevertheless out there for everyone to consume.

The one topic that just doesn’t make sense is how White isn’t one of the very best players in the country and how he, like his team, just won’t get it done this season. That’s a prediction, not a fact, because pretty much everything White has done in the past goes against that notion. True, there are other stars out there, but are they really better than White?

Stewart says West Virginia University fans should “savor” every minute of White’s last season as a Mountaineer. WVU has set up a site, PatWhitePlaysHere, to hype White for the Heisman. White is the two-time defending Big East offensive player of the year and has received a number of preseason honors this year.

So is he that good?

Judging from the National Media Sports Hype Machine (ESPN, Fox Sports, the blogosphere, etc.), the winningest current college quarterback is merely an afterthought heading into this season to other superior players.

For instance, freshman Georgia Bulldog running back Knowshon Moreno, who is not only the best running back in the country, he may be the best player.

Wait, except for freshman Pittsburgh running back LaSean McCoy, who is not only the best running back in the country, he might be the best player.

Wait, except for Texas Tech wide receiver Michael Crabtree. Or Mizzou quarterback Chase Daniel. Or don’t forget last year’s Heisman winner Tim Tebow. Or…you get the point.