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

Of everything I’ve seen lately, this is the weirdest

If I hadn’t witnessed it with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it, but it happened and I have proof — and I understand how bizarre that concept is amidst our current events.

Anyhow, I zipped through news this morning to catch up with what happened overnight when I went to the Google News site I borderline obsess about. I typed in a popular term, or so I thought, and the result was startling. This has to be some type of error, but I did save the screen shot to prove I’m not (terribly) crazy.

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Lines of the night

Line from the box score: This was not Darris Nichols’ best shooting night this year, this month or this week.

MIN FG FGA 3P 3PA FT FTA OR DR TOT A PF ST TO BL PTS
Darris Nichols 37 4 10 3 8 4 4 2 4 6 3 1 3 2 0 15

However, the game changed when late in the first half he decided to assert himself offensively. He missed two shots, then made two and suddenly WVU was on an 8-0 run to take a 26-25 lead into halftime when, in truth, the Mountaineers had no business leading. It was their worst shooting performance in a half this season (8-for-27, 29.6 percent) and the second-lowest point total in a half this season. Nichols was critical in the second half, when WVU, convinced it could not be worn down and would instead pick the Bulls apart, decided to run its offense in the last 15 or so seconds on the shot clock — and execute it. Leave it to Nichols, who for good or bad is the player whose lead the team follows.

Line from the interviews: Joe Mazzulla probably deserves both. He was … well, he played the best game Sunday. He talked an even better game afterward. On a team of sometimes startlingly blunt players, Mazzulla is open after wins and losses, provided someone asks to speak with him. Obviously, he was asked to talk Sunday about the David duty he did to USF’s Goliath, Kentrell Gransberry.

“He was laughing at me because he weighs 100 more pounds than me. I was laughing at him because he couldn’t get the ball with a 6-2 guy guarding him.”

Friday Feedback

Well, let’s begin with the 112 phone calls and the apparent resolution to that intrigue — voicemail. The confirmation came from the University of Michigan. In records I was provided, WVU redacted all phone numbers, meaning the number dialed was blacked out and not visible. Had it been visible, I would have called it, just like I did with numbers that belonged to UM recruits. People should understand that. Should.

Voicemail was the hunch from the start, just because the volume of the calls, and I looked into this right away. However, I couldn’t have received less help from people you think would be able to help and even had one person tell me voicemail wasn’t possible because Morgantown is so far from Peterstown. In all honesty, that, too, was also my hunch. 

But let’s also look how and where this started: 13 words from the 24th paragraph of a story about a larger issue, one Rodriguez does not deny.

On Dec. 15, Rodriguez made seven calls to Peterstown, Monroe County, a place he called 112 times during November and December, often in succession, and also made calls to Boston, Toledo and Phoenix, where his agent works. On Dec. 16, he repeated the cycle with calls to each location. This time, the call to Phoenix lasted 29 minutes.

Somewhere out there, the story is quoted as labeling the calls “suspicious”  — that word never came from my story or the blog, where I used words innuendo, puzzling and intrigue, all of which I think are accurate. For some reason, the thing ballooned into something much bigger, no doubt because people would like to think the worst of Rodriguez, and I think it deserved some discussion, hence the posting yesterday. 

Let’s jump into the Friday Feedback and begin with a quote apropos of everything this week…

glibglub said:

Is it me or have we stepped through the proverbial looking glass?

So true…

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About the 112 calls…

Let the latest innuendo roll as many seem suspicious of the 112 calls placed by Rich Rodriguez to Peterstown in his final two months on campus. A lot of the phones calls are to faraway cities — Phoenix, Boston, Toledo, to name a few — but it’s easy to make logical connections to Rodriguez.

Peterstown is puzzling, though. I’ve gotten a bunch of calls and e-mails wondering about the identity or the person/people. I do not have the number. Every number was blacked out except for the calls made to and received from the state of Michigan. Why? I have no clue.

Anyhow, I remembered this morning that Rich Rodriguez asked former WVU defensive back Steve Newberry to be an honorary captain for the Mississippi State game this season and that Newberry, who was Rodriguez’s teammate for two years in the early 1980s, is from and still lives in Peterstown. So I called Newberry and asked the obvious.

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I’m not entirely sure how, but Jim Carty of the Ann Arbor News managed to strike a nerve with a lot of people with what he’s written on his blog this week. I mean this as no offense to Jim, with whom I’ve worked in the past, but based on e-mail and even phone calls people seem to really dislike him and what he’s written.

Of course, the same can be said of me and my apparent agreement with a certain choice of words used by a national radio host yesterday — though I contend I never used the words and only “agreed” with them as I went along with the analogy he was trying to make.

Anyway, Jim did voice the thoughts of many WVU fans Wednesday night with his rather poignant blog posting.

The first – and best – action the new coach could take is calling a press conference to announce he’s paying West Virginia the $4 million buyout that was in the contract he signed.

It’s the right thing to do.

You signed the contract. Live with it.

Yes, maybe you could pay some lawyers to weasel out of part of it, but Rodriguez needs to be about 100 miles from anything that involves weaseling right now.

He should pay the buyout, publicly admit he made some mistakes in the last month or so, apologize to West Virginia and its fans, and promise that the whole experience will cause him to be above question on these matters in the future.

More good news for WVU…

Quite a Tuesday in Morgantown. To review…

Mud slinging between WVU and former football coach Rich Rodriguez reached unpredictable proportions. A possibility also arose that WVU may have hindered its own lawsuit against Rodriguez. WVU officials knew for about two weeks files were missing, but someone chirped and made the news public when the athletic department was aware and apparently OK with keeping it quiet. WVU was then left without answers to many questions it was being asked, which is not entirely its fault.

Anyhow, the news prompted an agitated and — wouldn’t you know it — calculated response from the Rodriguez camp in which it became clear that if there are no backups to the vanquished files, Rodriguez could have evidence of institutional problems that contributed to his resignation. The buyout isn’t tucked as tightly in WVU’s pocket as it was 24 hours ago.

Oh, and two days after Coach Bill Stewart used him as a justification for Steve Slaton to leave school early and secure financial security, Pacman Jones went Pacman Jones.

Note to Steve: Stay out of the strip clubs.

Much ado about Tuesday

A brief recap of events from Tuesday, a day that began with the revelation Rich Rodriguez had (allegedly) destroyed documents before leaving WVU for Michigan. Let’s agree to call this the “Shred Offense” — sounds like spread offense, refers to the offense Rodriguez (allegedly) committed by shredding documents.

– Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Mike Fragale confirmed the athletic department is investigating the incident. That was all he knew and all he would say. 

– A statement from Rodriguez or his representation is expected this evening. 

Edit: Here it is:

“West Virginia University decided to file a law suit against Rich Rodriguez. While certain individuals have made a decision to take this public, Coach Rodriguez has withheld making any comments until the appropriate time in regards to this legal process.”

– WVU is not sure what was destroyed, let alone if copies exist. Both are central issues in the investigation.

– Law enforcement has not been involved. Yet.

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According to Jim Carty of the Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, Rich Rodriguez’s lawer is expected to issue some sort of a statement this afternoon regarding today’s reports the former WVU coach and those under his command destroyed files and records in their final days on campus. I got to know Jim a little through some obvious past experiences and I’d say this is probably legit. I’d also say you can expect what amounts to an outright denial.

The entire day has been spent with the proverbial ear to the ground. This … this is very interesting. As one WVU employee said to me today, “It’s getting really ugly.”

Tried to make the best of a rather obvious point today in explaining how and why home teams are so dominant in the Big East this season. I regret to say that in trying to enlighten everyone on WVU’s 14-game home winning streak, I forgot one rather important advantage. Seriously, look at and listen to the crowd!

To be honest, Jarrett Brown joining the men’s basketball team wasn’t “news” to those covering the team. A few had asked lately about the possibility and all were rebuffed, one as recently as Saturday. Brown showed up in a team sweat suit Sunday, which then made it news in that suspicions became confirmations.

Who so suddenly, though? Well, maybe it wasn’t about just basketball or just Jarrett Brown. Maybe there was more to this.

Such dual duties may help to lure recruits who are two-sport stars, such as Jeannette’s Terrelle Pryor. Previous coach Rich Rodriguez, now at Michigan, was pitching that possibility to Pryor even though few of Rodriguez’s Mountaineers competed in a sport other than football.