Round of Reubens

Or maybe we should think about renaming this since West Virginia is the third-fattest state in the country. However, the good news is that the overall number of overweight fifth-graders went up this year because the morbidly obese numbers have been reduced. Most of the obese worked themselves down to overweight while a few went the other way and moved to "shut-in." Manufacturers of youth sweat pants are already concerned and thought to be considering countering with pie.

The men's baseball season has ended for WVU with a 12-5 loss to South Florida in the Big East Tournament. The Mountaineers finished 35-21 on the season. Tyler Kuhn set a school record with 101 hits this season and Freshman Jed Gyorko batted over .400.

Haven't heard about the Garrison-Bresch stuff for a while? Well, WVU lost three faculty members this week and two explicitly blamed the scandal while a third said it was definitely in their mind when considering leaving. First up Dr. Aina Puce and her million dollars in federal grant for research:

"I have decided to leave the university because I believe that the university leadership has caused a loss of academic integrity and I don't feel I would really like to stay here and be a part of that."

Next up is Dr. Steve Zdatny the chair of History and winner of teaching awards from the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences and WVU Foundation:

But the truth is that, without the events of the last year, I might not even have applied for another job," Dr. Zdatny says. "As it is, despite the many wonderful colleagues and students I leave behind, I am glad to be going. And I think it's fair to say that a lot of them wish they were leaving too."

And finally hello to, and then say goodbye to Brian Gerber an assistant professor in the Division of Public Administration of the School of Applied Social Sciences:

"I like it here," Dr. Gerber says. "I like WVU. It offered me a great opportunity to grow as a scholar. But one of the factors I had to consider [in my decision] was the leadership of the university. The Garrison situation sets a negative climate. His actions have called into question the integrity of the university."

But don't worry students the current plan is to have Lang and Sears take on some extra classes since they are back to teaching. And I hear the grading in their classes is really easy.

Basketball news today starts with Joe Alexander. The Gazette goes over different rotations next year with or without Joe, but doesn't include Joe Flowers in the rotation for either which is weird. On Alexander, Huggy had this to say:

"If you would have asked me two days ago, I would have said he's definitely going. But I've had conversations with him and he could come back. I don't think there's a great chance [he'll return to WVU], but he could."

Next up for Alexander is a pre-draft camp in Orlando that starts next week. The last date to remove your name is the 16th of June. Should Joe stay in the draft it looks like he'll have some undergraduate and international company. There are currently 63 undergraduate players and 21 international players that have declared for the NBA Draft. So not counting seniors there are 84 potential draft picks fighting for 60 draft slots and 30 guaranteed contracts. Some players are getting some bad advice and are going to end up Dingled. Finally, the schedule is already shaping up for basketball next year in the non-conference:

WVU is set to play at Mississippi and Duquesne, against Marshall in Charleston and four games in the Las Vegas Invitational. The Mountaineers will play two preliminary games at home and advance to Las Vegas win or lose for games Nov. 28-29. In Las Vegas, WVU plays Iowa and then either Kansas State or Kentucky.

Only six games remain to be scheduled so the final schedule could be done soon.