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WVU v. Texas: A future so bright?

February 20, 2017 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at the Coliseum floor, site of tonight’s Big 12 Big Monday showcase. The stage loves No. 12 West Virginia, even if the feeling isn’t always embraced. The student section can wear their sunglasses at night, if they so choose. They’re also set up with participation cues as well commemorative T-shirts. (Aside: You caught the meaning of the T-shirt, yes?)

Not a lot to add to this here post that we didn’t already cover today, but I think there’s a broad view of the Mountaineers to consider if not take. A win tonight, when they’re a 15 1/2-point favorite, would make them 7-2 in their last nine games. One loss was, true, at home to Oklahoma State … but the Cowboys are 8-1 in their last nine games. The other loss was at Kansas, and the way they gave that one away feels almost as uncommon as a Jayhawks home loss. Getting seven of nine in this league is good. It wasn’t long ago when I was writing about and we were considering WVU building toward a peak. It was right before the home game against Kansas State, in fact. WVU won that one and should have won at Kansas.

Baby, bath water, ya know?

So, consider that attempt at momentum, albeit with a massive misstep at Allen Fieldhouse, and perhaps take solace in a team that maybe rubbed its eyes in key spots Saturday. The Iowa State-Oklahoma State-Oklahoma-Kansas State-Kansas grind was brutal, and Bob Huggins was legitimately worried Friday about what would happen Saturday after his team had two days off. I mean, legitimately worried.

“When we won the Big East Tournament, we took two days off, and when we came back I didn’t think we were ever the same,” he said … of the Final Four team! “We were so used to playing the game and kind of having a lighter practice and practicing and playing another game. We were in such a routine that I think just the break in the routine hurt us a little bit. I didn’t think we had the same kind of pop we did before.”

So maybe Saturday made sense? I don’t know. Twenty-seven games of this makes Mike … something … something?

Big news early, though. Esa Ahmad is in a navy blue sweatsuit. He’s has a back problem and will not play. I would guess Dax Miles starts. He has the starting experience, which Huggins values, and Texas starts three guards. But the Longhorns can also play big with their reserves. Ahmad hasn’t been particularly good lately, but he plays because he’s a talent and because he’s long. More importantly, WVU’s bench wasn’t really long in the second half Saturday, and now you’re really down two subs because of Tarik Phillip and Miles now starting. Funny how that’s worked out, if only for a night.

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Baby steps?

by Mike Casazza

 

OK, so this didn’t look good or turn out well for West Virginia and for Beetle Bolden Saturday. This was at least symptomatic of the sort of errors the Mountaineers make throughout and seemingly especially at the end of ball games. This, of course, exasperated the head coach, Bob Huggins. “It’s hard to imagine what goes through some guys’ head sometimes,” he said.

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And down the stretch they come…

by Mike Casazza
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Kansas is going to win the Big 12 regular-season title one of these days, and that’ll be 13 in a row and that’ll match UCLA’s NCAA record from 1967-79. The sport was very different back then. Nine of these will be outright titles. Four are shared, and the Jayhawks tidied things up by winning the conference tournament title in three of those years and a national championship once. It’s a truly amazing run, and this, for some reason, is perceived by many to be bad for the league … and they might be wholly dismissed if not for Bill Self’s five first-weekend exits in those 13 seasons. But then again, the RPI has had the Big 12 No. 1 the last three years. (It’s No. 2 and gaining ground this year.)

However you look at it, the Big 12 title race is over. It either ended when Kansas finished win an 8-0 run to win by two at Baylor Saturday or, more likely, when Baylor lost at home to Texas Tech and Kansas outscored WVU 34-16 in the final 7 minutes, 58 seconds a week ago today.

But this is not to say the fun is over in the Big 12.

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Belk has contacts in bulk

by Mike Casazza

Tony Dews might be new to coaching running backs, as his new and second stint at West Virginia is also the first time he’s ever coached the position, but he’s not new to recruiting. Doug Welk? That’s a different story.

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No. 9 WVU 83, Texas Tech 74

February 19, 2017 by Mike Casazza

I think there’s a need to be careful when characterizing yesterday’s game. It was a fourth overtime game and it was defined by an opponent getting what it needed to give itself a chance. But this wasn’t Oklahoma or Kansas State or Texas A&M or Kansas. Ninth-ranked West Virginia plays and lives in different canisters, and some fit inside others, sort of like Russian nesting dolls. Disregard the outcome, which is an obvious distinguishing factor. Winning tends to do that. But what happened yesterday doesn’t fit inside what happened Monday.

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WVU v. Texas Tech: The embattled strike back

February 18, 2017 by Mike Casazza
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You are looking live at the Coliseum, site of today’s GRUDGE MATCH between No. 9 West Virginia and teetering Texas Tech. Today’s game is sold out, and the student section has its crib sheet as well as foam fingers.

I find the finger poignant today, because there was some finger-pointing yesterday. It was the first time the Mountaineers have met with the media since Monday night’s loss at Kansas. Well, check that. It was the second time. The first was the postgame postmortem, and that was odd. Ordinarily, Bob Huggins talks to reporters in a news conference setting, and the players are available before or after that outside the locker room.

It was different Monday. Huggins went to his news conference with Nate Adrian and Esa Ahmad. First time I remember that happening in a non-invitational regular-season game. I don’t know that that means anything, but maybe it does. Because when Huggins entertained reporters Friday, try as he might, he was not exactly subtle.

“I’m going to have a lot of things to say when I retire — how’s that?” Huggins said Friday. “A lot of things to say. For now, I’m going to save my money so I can retire.”

Commenting on officiating is prohibited, and violations can draw reprimands and fines. Huggins censored himself, but there was no mistaking the Mountaineers (20-6, 8-5 Big 12) were upset with the loss as well as how they lost.

“We turned the ball over too much, but — I can’t say a whole lot of things about what happened the other day, but you can’t guard guys out of bounds. That’s illegal,” Huggins said. “There’s just a lot of stuff that went on that shouldn’t have went on. You can’t plan for that.”

I wasn’t planning for that.

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Friday Feedback

February 17, 2017 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, your fifth starter and finishing the week (at times!) for 302 editions. Hold your applause.

Good work this week, everybody. It wasn’t easy, but it was honest and raw and informative. It actually gave me some ideas for stories I want to pursue, namely one about the clutch lineups. You’ll notice we don’t touch that post today, and I think you know what we’re going to discuss. You’ve been waiting for the next game, so let’s not any longer to spend even more time on the last game.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, look alive.

Sid Brockman said:

I would argue this could end up as the worst loss in WVU basketball history. Both because of how they lost the game, and also because of what a win would have meant. I don’t know how they recover from this one.

The story of this team is yet to be written, but the early draft should be “Missed Opportunities”.

To me, the recovery thing is a big deal. This identity isn’t new to WVU. Honestly, it’s not an identical match, but the behavior started in the Temple game, and it persists. That sort of shortcoming can weigh on a team. I think it bothers this one, and I think that it has been a trait for so long suggests it bothers the players and coaches that much more. Sooner or later, you realize it’s out there and it’s coming.

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Some truths about WVU’s press

February 16, 2017 by Mike Casazza
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You can find West Virginia at No. 13 in Luke Winn’s weekly power rankings, and in his reviews of both No. 3 Kansas and the Mountaineers, there’s some worthy information about the state of the Mountaineers and their pressure.

A footnote from the WVU-Kansas press charting in the Jayhawks’ blurb:

The Feb. 13 loss to Kansas was just the fourth time all season that the Mountaineers forced a lower turnover rate than their opponent. (KU’s was 24.6%, WVU’s was 17.6%).

The other three times that happened were Jan. 3, at Texas Tech; Jan. 18, vs. Oklahoma; and Jan. 21, at Kansas State.

West Virginia lost all of those games, too. The Mountaineers are 0–4 in games in which they lose the TO% battle, and 20–2 when they win it.

 

The past and maybe future of FakeBobHuggins

by Mike Casazza

There was a time when West Virginia football was trying to find out who was behind FauxHolgorsen. Let’s just say I don’t think people agreed with the portrayal. And on top of that, there was a suspicion this was coming from somewhere alarmingly close to home. I honestly can’t tell you who it is, not because I know and don’t want to share but because I don’t know.

It’s not me, I promise, even though this didn’t exactly help me debunk that theory. I don’t know who it is because I never asked. It’s really none of my business, either. But I’m confident I know who it is, and I’ve had WVU people mention that person as a candidate. There are a few others who are sure it’s that person, too.

I think what makes the case of Fake Bob Huggins so unusual and admirable is that WVU legitimately likes the account, knows who it is and set up a meeting between the person and the real Bob Huggins. You think about that!

Huggins only found out about the account when people decided to show him, because those people thought it was really funny. Huggins, a good sport if nothing else, was never alarmed by the prospect of being imitated 140 characters at a time. In so many ways, he’s a perfect foil.

“What are they going to say about me that they haven’t already said?” Huggins wondered. “I’ve been loved and hated more than anybody in the history of college basketball other than Bob Knight.”

Matt Wells, WVU’s senior associate athletic director, was the one who made sure the fake Huggins met the real one. Never once did he consider that it could be a bad idea, either.

“He has a track record,” Wells said. “He’s proven he’s having fun with it, and he doesn’t cross any lines. He hasn’t been problematic or been vulgar or nasty or inappropriate. He’s been somebody, from what I’ve seen and from what others have seen, who is pretty creative. He’s really done a good job.”

Wells oversees sports marketing and things like ticketing, apparel and sponsorships. Social media is an enormous tool in that line of work. There aren’t many limits, because the best in that world are always thinking about what’s new and what’s next and how best to generate a buzz. So I was talking with Wells and realized he was, I guess, a fan of the fake Huggins and how he’s used Twitter to craft, develop and popularize a persona. I asked about something popped into my head. It was unfair, but I was curious.

“Could you use him for something in the future?” I said.

“That’s a good question,” Wells said. “Anytime you’ve got somebody with that type of following, who’s out there talking about your program in pretty much a consistently positive way, I think that is helpful for the promotion of the program. I don’t know. I don’t know that I can say, ‘Hey, can you help us sell tickets?’ But I think because of the nature of social media, having a personality like that who’s always talking about your program is ultimately helpful.”

Perhaps there’s a future. I can say with certainty there’s a past. Seeing as if we here at WVUSBwMC take unusual pride in being your source for parody Twitter access and information, so please enjoy this out-of-character Q&A with the person behind @FakeBobHuggins.

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‘I thought it was hilarious. And most of them are.’

by Mike Casazza
Hugs online

 

It’s been pretty dour for a few days now, so here’s a tale to brighten your day. Twitter’s fake Bob Huggins — @FakeBobHuggins — was at the SEC/Big 12 Challenge game, the one West Virginia nearly gave away as a 20-point lead dwindled to just two. After the game, and after more than five years of imitating the real Bob Huggins, the two met.

Ad not by accident, either. It was set up by WVU, a true endorsement of the account and the relationship between its creator and its model.

“I told him he is really funny,” Huggins said.

What does it say these days when Huggins met a man who’s imitated him for years and extended his hand for a shake and not a smack? What does it say that the athletic department is willing to facilitate a meeting, never mind embrace the tweets?

“I think the thing for me that made me feel comfortable is I kept hearing people say, ‘Hey, did you see that Fake Huggins tweet?’ ” Wells said. “This is around the athletic department, among the coaching staff, among the people associated with the program. ‘Hey that one was pretty good. Did you see this one?’ ”

What it says is @FakeBobHuggins is real good. It’s not your typical parody, if for no other reason than it possesses the endorsement of the man it aims to mimic. It has accomplished the mission that began in November 2011, three months before Huggins joined Twitter and when a young professional decided to fill that void.

“Huggins seemed like such an accessible guy,” said the fake Huggins, who, understandably, wants to keep his identity a secret. “The Final Four year I think gave us great insight to him as a person: the speech after UConn, the way he held Da’Sean [Butler] and wiped his tears. I decided my portrayal of Huggins would be maybe just slightly exaggerated Huggins. Or maybe an unfiltered Huggins.”