Texas Tech 77, No. 7 WVU 76
by Mike Casazza
Two teams played really hard for 45 minutes, and the fatigue, both mental and physical showed on both sides. In the end, the very mature hosts managed and submitted just a few less mistakes and the ranked visitor was made to rue foul shooting and leaving a left-handed shooter open on the left side for a 3 with a two-point deficit.
Those are the breaks in a long season, and Bob Huggins was, as you might imagine, unhappy afterward.
After the game, West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was nearly inaudible — even as he slighted the Big 12 schedule, the timing of the game and his team’s effort.
“We haven’t shot well at free-throw line all year,” Huggins said. “When you miss free throw after free throw you would think it would bother you enough to go work your tail off to try to fix it and instead be the last one in damn every day.
“My fault for playing them.”
When asked about what he planned to say to his team tomorrow, he said he didn’t know — they’d probably be still sleeping.
“We get home at 6 a.m. in the morning, what the hell do you think we are going to do?” Huggins said. “We are going to try to sleep. The league has been great, but this is not. For us to play a 9 p.m. game on Eastern Time and get home at six in the morning is hard.
“When I watch film I have to listen to broadcasters talk about the hard trip they have to take to Morgantown, but they do it one time. We do nine. What do you want me to do with them? We are going to sleep.”
Continue reading…
WVU v. Texas Tech: Grab the wheel
January 3, 2017 by Mike Casazza
You’re looking at an old photo of United Super Markets Arena and the amazing and absurd pregame festivities from the past. Not sure if that’s happening tonight or not — I’m in Morgantown, sitting this one out for strategic reasons — but I will miss Lubbock and its odd penchant for motorcycles. I will not miss the awful WiFi and cramped press row seating.
So here we are for the game. I do not have ESPN News. I’m not subscribing for the sole purpose of this game. I’ll track down a copy in the morning. In the mean time, do me a favor and enlighten me and whomever else chooses to join you for this one. Enjoy!
Looking for silver linings? Things looking OK for WVU
by Mike Casazza
This won’t be easy, right?
by Mike Casazza
West Virginia could or should have lost the last time it traveled to Texas Tech. The Mountaineers were ranked No. 6 and scored the final eight points in the last minute, thanks to Tarik Phillip’s 3-pointer and three-point play, to win. The Red Raiders are better this year and should be 12-1 and perhaps ranked with a nine-game winning streak if not for a crazy loss Friday at Iowa State. Everybody’s going to want to talk about Zack Smith, but don’t forget Aaron Ross, who’s one of the Big 12’s trickiest matchups.
Continue reading…
WVU flew home last night
December 31, 2016 by Mike Casazza
Nathan Adrian and his brand of swag
by Mike Casazza
If you thought No. 11 West Virginia was unaffected by the environment Friday, you’d be correct. You’d also be delighted to know the Mountaineers were tiptoeing on amused that interrogators expected them to be swayed by people who couldn’t make a basket or pass out of a trap.
“Our guys don’t pay attention to it, really,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “I know people think that’s important, but they’ve played in enough places, played enough really good people and played for enough really big crowds that it isn’t.
“It’s kind of a unique group in that regard. They think they’re pretty good. And they are.”
This is WVU’s personality — do everything you can to bother the other team and do it even harder when you realize it’s making a difference — and the team gets its gait from its leader. Gallagher-Iba Arena could not stand Nathan Adrian, and that’s going to happen eight more times this season.
“Maybe,” said guard Jevon Carter, who had 15 points, six assists, four steals and one turnover, “it’s because he’s the face of the team, and they think if they get in his head, they can disrupt everybody.”
That did not happen to Adrian against the Cowboys, and the Mountaineers wouldn’t let it happen to them. The challenge now is to do that in eight more hostile Big 12 venues, which seems to be a little easier under Adrian’s watch.
“He’s got his own swag,” said guard Dax Miles, who led all scorers with a season-high 22 points. “Nate is Nate. He’s West Virginia.”
WVU v. Oklahoma State: Peep the scoreboard
December 30, 2016 by Mike Casazza
You re looking live at Gallagher-Iba Arena, home of Oklahoma State. Today, Big 12 play begins as the Cowboys play host to No. 11 West Virginia. The Mountaineers will go without Elijah Macon, who’s sitting out with a right knee injury. He was injured in the Dec. 23 win against Northern Kentucky, but Macon didn’t start that game, either. The honor that day went to Brandon Watkins, and that’s the case today, too. Macon is classified as day-to-day.
Oklahoma State, as you surely know, is coached by Brad Underwood, who spent the prior three years at Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks knocked the Mountaineers out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round in March. Underwood and WVU coach Bob Huggins have known one another since the late 1980s, when Underwood was a junior college coach in Florida and Huggins was in the area either recruiting or spending time at his New Smyrna Beach condo.
When Huggins was putting together a staff at Kansas State in 2006, it was a “no-brainer” to bring aboard Underwood, who was making a name as a fast-riser with a bunch of connections. Huggins saw Underwood as a tailored fit for the basketball operations job, because Underwood was also a former Kansas State player, and he knew the place and its people better than anyone else Huggins trusted.
Their friendship is pretty typical for the ones Huggins has with so many former assistants and players — or just friends in general — but some of the roots are pretty hilarious. Take this anecdote as the very best example.
That’s one of the very best Huggins stories I’ve heard through the years, and he loves telling it. These two really like one another. It’s apparent. Perhaps not surprisingly, their teams are statistically similar this season.
The Cowboys are No. 3 in points per game (93.3) and the Mountaineers are No. 5 (91.8). Underwood’s team mirrors WVU in other ways, too. Oklahoma State (10-2) is No. 3 in turnovers forced, No. 4 in steals and offensive rebounds per game and No. 5 turnover margin. WVU (11-1) ranks higher in each category, leading the nation in turnovers forced, steals per game and turnover margin and ranking No. 2 in offensive rebounds per game.
Takes one to know one, right? That was one reason the the Lumberjacks were so good in the first-round game. They had ball-handlers at every position, which helped, but they were well-versed on what to expect.
“We were three years in at SFA, so their physicality and toughness didn’t impact us maybe as much as it did some other teams,” Underwood said. “We’ve got to do a better job with our current program of letting them know what you’re going to get when you play a Huggs team.
“You can’t let them rebound it, you can’t let them get easy baskets and you can’t turn it over.”
Continue reading…
Texts from the Russell Athletic Bowl
December 29, 2016 by Mike Casazza
A quick note about our minds: They’re wired similarly. I was traveling yesterday — much longer than expected, it turned out — and had a chance to read through the comments from Wednesday and then from the day after once I’d written and sent my stories for today’s paper. There are a couple of things in today’s football story that will seem familiar.
The most obvious, most important example?
The average starting spot following the five punts was WVU’s 42-yard line, and the offense gained 10, 39, 16, 8 and 0 yards. The only points came on the second possession, a quick touchdown drive aided by a kick-catch interference penalty against Miami on the punt.
The Mountaineers only played six Football Bowl Subdivision teams that have winning records today, and each held WVU’s offense to 28 points or less. The 14 points, 95 yards rushing and 229 yards of offense were each a season-low total.
Miami’s defensive line, and the defensive tackles in particular, controlled the line of scrimmage, made plays by themselves and created opportunities for teammates behind them. Miami had nine tackles for a loss. Eight players had one and two shared one.
“I pride myself on being pretty good at being able to read a defense,” Orlosky said. “I couldn’t read a damn thing against Coach Richt. They did a good job disguising and a good job slanting and confusing us up front. That hurt the timing of the passing game.
“Skyler getting hit back there a few times probably made him a little uncomfortable back there throwing the ball. Our passing game wasn’t there and our running game wasn’t there, and that goes back to being out-played.”
And then I got into the texts.
I can’t say I was mad and disgusted and exasperated and spent like so many of you were, but it’s fair to say we were at least thinking the same things along the way. That’s probably because we were watching the same game, and it was pretty obvious what was happening and why the scoreboard looked the way it did at the end.
The Mountaineers were flawed, but Miami was more talented — taller, longer, stronger, faster, twitchier — across the field and had more edges, particularly in areas where WVU could be exploited.
The defense, for example, has a really good cornerback, but the Mountaineers aren’t what you’d consider supremely athletic in the secondary. Miami’s success running routes and winning on the bubble screens was because the pass-catchers were tricky matchups. I wouldn’t have believed it when it happened, but Rasul Douglas whiffing on Ahmmon Richards and then Richards zipping across the field for a 51-yard touchdown both swung and encapsulated the game.
The Hurricanes could not run the ball against WVU. I’d like to tell you that teams don’t run for 81 yards or less and win, but Kansas State beat WVU in 2014 with 1 yard on the ground. Teams were 3-7 when running for less than 100 yards against WVU since Tony Gibson took over as defensive coordinator in 2014. K-State has two of those wins. Oklahoma State had another this season, and what’d the Cowboys do? Jumped on Mason Rudolph’s back, won 1-on-1 matchups and took advantage of sub-standard tackling.
Another example? WVU has a savvy and strong offensive line, and though the linemen had their moments and maybe even their games pushing around lesser lines, they didn’t fare well when they went up a weight class or more. Miami was certainly a step up. Those defensive ends were crashing hard. The defensive tackles gave Tyler Orlosky a hard time in the middle. Congesting those gaps either let them make plays or created openings and opportunities for some slick linebackers in the other alleys. You need some able-bodied young men to do that, and Miami had them.
But we knew that — all of that — because we saw that. It was clear. Trust what you see, right? And here’s the thing: Afterward, I was talking to Someone, and he told me it was apparent in the pregame that Miami had an arsenal. WVU knew that from film, but in his estimation, it was the most impressive looking team in person since Texas A&M. Miami was up there with LSU in 2011. There’s a lot you and we can say about what WVU did wrong and what went wrong — and truly, the Mountaineers didn’t do anything well enough or for long enough to compensate for this next part — but I think there’s a part that has to be explained thusly: WVU couldn’t block and tackle better players. There wasn’t much the Mountaineers could do about some of the things that occurred in the Russell Athletic Bowl.
But you knew that. You saw that. And where’s the champagne? We need champagne. Now look as hard as you can with this text in your hand. And now hold up your chain. Slow-motion through the flames. Now cue the smoke machines and the simulated rain. My edits are in [brackets].
2:08:
Not once have throwback helmets been used. This is [frustrating] [bananas].
3:05:
I think I am more excited to see Skyler play his last game for WVU than for the actual bowl game itself
5:10:
Now we have to wait out [finicky] eat [salt] Pitt. [Carl]!
5:20:
Watching with my parents. A lot will be in [brackets]
5:43:
Sigh…Skyler…already. I can’t.
5:43:
Here we go. [Jeepers].
5:44:
Booing the fact of a turnover.
5:44:
A perfect Skyler play. Hard to blam him getting popped by a blazing Hurricane, hard to defend anything he does
5:45:
DAWGS
5:54:
My kid: Why can’t our qb ever slide?
5:54:
Throw the [fancy] ball!
Continue reading…
Thursday brunch: Miami 31, No. 14 WVU 14
by Mike Casazza
Hey! WVU found 45 seconds of highlights!
Wednesday night was not a great one for the Mountaineers, who couldn’t get the offense and the defense on the same page at the same time and fell to Miami, which has won five straight games and seven in a row over the Mountaineers and snapped a 10-year, six-game bowl drought.
“They were ready to play,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. “This meant a lot to them. I think you guys making a big deal out of the fact that they haven’t won a bowl game in 10 years didn’t do us any favors, but they were ready to play. They played well, out-coached us, out-played us on all three sides.”
After beginning the game with five consecutive three-and-outs, Miami’s offense found a first down and then found the end zone on four possessions in a row. Quarterback Brad Kaaya, who started the game 5 for 13 for 29 yards, completed 14 of 15 passes for 217 yards and touchdowns to four players in a span of 10 minutes, 26 seconds of game time.
The incomplete pass was a drop, and Miami turned a 7-0 deficit into a 28-7 lead against a defense that only allowed 28 points in three games during the regular season.
“He’s a streaky player,” WVU defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “That’s something you see on film when you watch them play. He gets rolling, and he’s hard to stop.”
The Mountaineers, who remain proud of their season and were duly impressed with Miami, finished with season-low totals for points, rushing yards and total yards, and perhaps that’s to be expected because it’s a bowl and a bowl in Orlando.
WVU’s last bowl here was a 23-7 loss to Russell Wilson and North Carolina State in the 2010 Champs Sports Bowl, which became the Russell Athletic Bowl two years later. That game also matched the fewest points WVU has scored in its last 14 bowls and was one of five times now when the Mountaineers didn’t reach 21.
In the past 14 bowls, WVU is 6-8 and averages 44.7 points in wins and 17.5 points in losses.
I’m up early and off to Oklahoma for Friday’s basketball game. I’ll keep an eye on the comments and interact with you as can.
Search this blog
Recent Posts
- Derek Redd reveals his AP Top 25 ballot, Part 1
- WVU basketball finishes season at No. 24 in AP Top 25
- VIDEO: WVU coach Bob Huggins’ Wednesday press conference at the Big 12 basketball tournament
- VIDEO: WVU players speak to the media Wednesday at the Big 12 basketball tournament
- Big 12 addresses Coronavirus concerns ahead of this week’s basketball tournaments in Kansas City
Recent Comments
- on VIDEO: WVU players react to Wednesday’s loss against Kansas
- on VIDEO: WVU players react to lopsided win against Iowa State
- on WVU’s Bob Huggins thinks rule change aims to ‘eliminate post play all together’
- on Mountaineer Matchups: WVU visits TCU for final game of 2019 season
- on VIDEO: WVU quarterback Jarret Doege on the Mountaineers’ win at K-State