Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks

Possible Replacement OCs

2008-09-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

As if its not already obvious from our first three games of the season, time has come for a new offensive coordinator. we bastards have come up with a list of potential replacements. Feel free to contribute your ideas in the comments:

1. Ask Corso - NCAA 07
Pros: Fewer bubble screens. Continuation of lack of coherent offensive scheme, which we apparently like.

Cons: It's Corso (sort of).

2. Magic Eight Ball.
Pros: Its magic!

Cons: Burn through timeouts when answer is: "Check back later."

3. Any waitress from Keglers.
Pros: Kinda hot. Nice shorts. Great recruiter.

Cons: Crabs.

4. Charley Taafe
Pros: Available. He was our original first choice for OC.

Cons: Couldn't hack it in the CFL.

5. Lump of coal.
Pros: From West Virginia

Cons: Who cares? Its from West Virginia (see Bill Stewart).

6. 20 sided die:
Pros: Randomness. Unpredictable.

Cons: 18 too many sides.

7. Prayer
Pros: Its the Christian thing to do. God.

Cons: Similarity to current scheme.

Please share your ideas in the comments.

Perhaps intermittently back

2008-09-19T06:06:00.001-07:00

We all got new jobs and one of us got a new baby. I still live in BFE with no internet access. We had pretty much figured BSPF was going to wither on the vine.

But this god foresaken spectacle of a coaching staff has... well, at least pissed me off enough to get back on my soap box. Maybe check back about once a week to see if we get the ball rolling again.

Personal Log - 9/18

2008-09-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

Well, golly, what a great game that was last night. I know we lost, but shucks, our boys played hard. The other coaches played a great gag on me - they gave me a fake headset! It took me until the second quarter to figure that one out. They're such great guys.

Erin Andrews was there and even interviewed me - she seems like such a nice Christian girl. And did you see the mountains out there! Gee willikers they were big!!

Guess I'll just head back to Morgantown now and get the boys ready for those great guys from Huntington.

I think for practice this week, I'll make a few changes. The offensive line seemed a little soft passblocking. They must've been too tired from all that work those mean offensive coaches made them do last week, so I'm going to let them rest up with 4 hours of Andy Griffith each day. God, I love that show.

I've scheduled Quiton and Ellis a few sessions this week with a relaxation specialist. Those guys are just too fired up for my liking, with all their hard hits and aggressive playing. We've got to put an end to that. I just want everyone to be nice to everyone.

PW made me a little upset, but only for a second. He looked at me so judgingly during the beautifully executed final 60 seconds of regulation. I think he just failed to see the wonderful and complex scheme I came up with. You see, I figured if we just let the clock run down to 2 seconds and throw a hail mary, there was a chance we could just win with a lucky catch. That way, no one from Colorado could blame themselves for the loss - it would've just been luck. They played hard, too, you know. I don't want to make anyone feel bad.

Well, fellow Mountaineers, I look forward to our next game. I've been thinking about just foregoing the coin toss from now on and letting our opponents choose whether to take the ball or kick. I think that would be nice. It just puts too much pressure on those kids to go out there and try to win a coin toss and I don't want anyone to feel pressured.

Well, 'till next time,
Your Coach Stew

Acquisitions

2008-08-13T07:08:00.000-07:00

Pat Liebig has been granted a sixth season of eligibility after missing the last two years to help out with the family business after his father fell ill. Pat is down from near 300 pounds to around 250 pounds and will move from nose guard to end this season.

In addition the secondary received a potential boost this week when Chaz Russell was added as a late addition to the 2008 class. Russell's late commitment was due to qualifying after taking more classes this summer and not simply being a chronic procrastinator in all aspects of life. Hopefully. Otherwise Russell will never make the practice field due to spending 3 hours a day deciding what socks and wristbands to wear. Russell played for Los Angeles Pierce Community College last year and already understands the difference between WVU and Marshall. When visiting Memphis before signing with WVU Russell showed CUSA the respect they deserve.

I'm shutting down one side of the field pretty much. There are no points on that side of the field. I can promise that. Matter of fact, I can swear that.

He has shown the Big East a little more respect.

"But that's Conference USA; this is the Big East. You know the difference. I already know, once I get taught by the coaches there and get this team around me, all I have to do is my assignments. Once I can get it down pat, I can take care of my half of the field."

As for the freshmen that might see some playing time this year.

“Offensively I think Josh Jenkins might have a chance,” Stewart said. “At tight end/fullback I think Tyler Urban has a chance. I think (invited walk-on) Ricky Kovatch has a chance coming out of Ohio, and I think Ryan Clarke has a chance (at fullback)... I think Robert Sands has a chance to step up and play in the secondary,” Stewart said. "The jury is still out but Sands has done some nice things. Mark Rodgers might have a chance to play on all special teams – Ricky Kovatch – these types of players that can run fast,” Stewart said. “D. J. Thomas might be on special teams. We have a tremendous amount of speed at West Virginia and we’re very blessed, so that would be a place for those guys to play.”

Those are the freshmen you may get to know this season. As for the freshmen themselves, Sands and Kerns have already been introduced.

One loss is that of WR Devon Lyons who praised how hard WVU worked compared to Ohio State last week and then quit the team this week. Meanwhile Wes Lyons has once again missed a huge chunk of camp, this time with knee surgery.

Round of Reubens

2008-08-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

Camp has opened up. The chances of sustained success this year could come down to injuries. There is a troubling lack of depth on the d-line, cornerback, and running back. Graduation, loss of players to academics and disciplinary issues, and injuries from last year and spring are mounting.

Teviat Finau, penciled in by everyone during signing day as a starter at end, has not taken enough classes to qualify academically until February. So he'll be ready for March Madness. Another defensive end not making it academically was Corey Freeman. They join corner Jerome Swinton, d-lineman Bernard Smith, and guard Benji Kemoeatu as academic casualties. Kemoeatu and Finau, at the least, are expected to eventually make it to Morgantown when academics are straightened out. Another loss is J.J. Dorsey. The potential corner from Winchester failed to clear the NCAA Clearinghouse and has disappeared. He may be replaced on the roster, at least as far as slot/corner guy with initials, by D.J. Thomas.

Thomas, a defensive back and/or slot receiver who was originally signed by Virginia Tech in 2007, spent last season at Hargrave Military. He is expected in camp Monday after he finishes his last class at Hargrave and his eligibility doesn't seem to be in question.

The losses have led to some shuffling and hoping. First the hoping. After the loss of Keilen Dykes to graduation and Johnny Dingle attempting to use the Fiesta Bowl as a spring board to the NFL the defensive line is thin. Especially after James Ingram was dismissed from the team after police broke up his small business enterprise and he decided to take them to his house to show them all the rest of his weed in individual bags (worst decision ever). Scooter Berry probably has the most experience on the line, but has bad knees too. End Zac Cooper had heart problems during the spring. The other returning players are Doug Slavonic and Chris Neild. The only other player with any experience is Thor Merrow and he has been moved to fullback. This leaves WVU hoping that Pat Liebig is granted the extra year of eligibility he has requested from the NCAA. Liebig should find out this week if he is reinstated after missing two years of football to return to his home after his father fell ill.

On the shuffling side it appears as though Bradley Starks is going to stay at WR for the year. He'll be joined by Devon Lyons, brother of Wes, who transferred from Ohio State for his final year of eligibility. One receiver that is on the move elsewhere may be Brandon Hogan. Hogan, who looked impressive at the slot in the spring game, has been at least temporarily moved to corner to provide depth.

Cornerback is problematic for the Mountaineers because the top three from last season - Larry Williams, Antonio Lewis and Vaughn Rivers - are gone. Those three played nearly 90 percent of the snaps in 2007.

Ellis Lankster and Kent Richardson are at the top of the depth chart to start camp, backed up by Guesly Dervil and Eddie Davis, the latter playing his third position (running back and wide receiver were the others) in a year. Of the four, only Lankster has significant experience. A junior college transfer expected to help, Brantwon Bowser, is out for the season with a knee injury.

To finish up the defense it is still unknown whether or not Reed Williams will be ready to play after offseason shoulder surgery. He is four months into a normal 6 month rehab program. Luckily linebacker is one of the only positions of real depth for WVU should Williams have to take a medical redshirt.

On offense there are a group of players vying for a spot behind Noel Devine at backup tailback.

If the season began today, the job would fall to Sanders, the slot receiver. But Zach Hulse, Mark Rodgers and Terence Kerns provide three unique options. Hulse is a speedy junior college transfer with experience, Rodgers a fast freshman from California who didn't play football last year and Kerns a punishing 240-pound freshman

Rodgers is a 5'9" 180 pound running back that gained 2,319 yards as a senior in California. Zach Hulse is a 5'10" 200 pound running back that played for Glendale Community College and gained 1,101 yards and averaged 5.5 yards per carry last year. While Rogers and Hulse are in the Devine mold and can play slot as well, Kerns breaks the mold. Kerns is 6'1", weighs 240 pounds, and has around a 4.4 second 40.

Finally, some good news to finish. Kicker will also have some extra depth as Tyler Bitancurt was ruled eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse. So we've got that going for us.

That was dumb

2008-07-29T12:35:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons why Joe Mazzulla and Cam Thoroughman got drunk and arrested at PNC Park last night. For one you have to get drunk to watch the Pirates. But to get so worked up that Cam had to be subdued?

Police said Mr. Thoroughman, a 6-foot, 7-inch forward on the Mountaineers team, reached across a counter toward an officer.

This led to at least two officers grabbing him as they demanded that he place his hands behind his back.

He continued to struggle with the officers after police used a burst of pepper spray to control him.

First, and most obvious, Cam was a big Xavier Nady fan and to lose him and Damaso Marte to the Yankees for what seemed like less than market value can upset a fan. Another reason could be that Mazzulla and Thoroughman read about WVU falling to #4 as a party school and started doing something to remedy the situation. But most interesting is that Cam decided to tell the arresting officers that he was 17. He is 6'7" and weighs 215 pounds. Mazulla showed that he, as always, is a good teammate by jumping into the fray to pull Cam out and even throw a punch at the officers. And while no one doubts his effort sometimes you worry about Joe's ability to finish as he ended up spending the night in jail too. Huggy is going to let the judicial process play out and in the meantime work on endurance in some sessions at Kegler's.

Round of Reubens

2008-07-29T07:16:00.000-07:00

As Chutta brought up in the comments below it appears as though the Big East had some interest in bringing in Army and Navy as "not really" members. The plan would have had one service academy playing 4 of the conference teams each year on a rotating basis while the other would play the remaining four. Mitch Vingle has reported that there is nothing to the rumors because while Navy has had interest there is none from Army. But the main story came from the NY Post. This is a paper renown for truth in sports reporting and updates on canoodling stars. Would a paper that brought you this ever lie? I think not.

The Herald-Dispatch reveals the Rivals top 5 prospects in West Virginia. Of the five only one, number two ranked Cole Bowers (lineman), has pledged and that is with WVU. C.J. Crawford (athlete) is the top prospect and has offers from Wake Forest and Marshall. Number three prospect is linebacker Taige Redman from Keyser with offers from Marshall and Ohio U. The fourth and fifth rated prospects are Andrew Fields (linebacker) and Braiden Fahey (defensive lineman) and both have yet to receive a formal offer.

WVU has been after a few Maryland prospects including the top ranked linebacker Jelani Jenkins. The 19th ranked player is safety Terence Garvin and he has just committed to WVU. Garvin committed last week.

“Yeah that kind of hit me the other day,” Garvin said. “There was this show [on ESPN], College Football Live, [that was talking about West Virginia]. And I was like, ‘I’m actually going there.’ It kind of hit me like that. I’ve never really been on a losing team before, so hopefully I’ll still be on a winning team. It should make college even more fun."

That was quick

2008-07-21T07:18:00.001-07:00

Up until this weekend there hadn't been much to report on regarding the 2009 basketball recruiting class. Josh Sowards, Alex Ruoff, and (if he comes back this year) Jarrett Brown would open up roster spots upon the completion of their eligibility. If Roscoe Davis does not qualify academically he could count against the 2009 class after spending a year in prep school. That would leave two spots. Not anymore. It appears as though the 2009 recruiting class opened and closed in a hurry as Dalton Pepper and Dan Jennings both pledged to the 2009 class. Pepper is a 6'5" shooting guard that will be the replacement for Ruoff.

Many publications list the 6-5 shooting guard among the nation’s top 100 players in the class of 2009 after averaging 22.8 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.8 steals and shooting better than 50 percent from the field in helping Pennsbury advance to the state Quad-A semifinals last year.

Pepper was recruited initially for WVU by John Beilein, but Huggins came in and finished the deal for the Mountaineers. Dan Jennings is a 6'8" forward that played for Oak Hill this year.

This is what ESPN.com had to say about Jennings:

“This lefty is an undersized center who has a great basketball body — long and strong. Jennings runs well in transition and is an above-the-rim finisher who benefits from drop off passes from guard penetration. In the post he is physical around the basket where he executes powerful post moves that include the drop step, and he can score with the jump hook with either hand. He does an excellent job sealing his man for position and takes advantage of any angles to the rim. His shooting range extends to about 15 feet. Although he is only 6-8, he knows he is a center and seems to have accepted it. He's a good rebounder on both ends and has good foot quickness that allows him to be an excellent post defender, but he could struggle against a much taller center. Jennings plays hard and is an active and live body — a high-major player.”

Bad Idea Jeans

2008-07-18T07:27:00.000-07:00

Not sure what Interim President Magrath is hoping to gleam from outgoing President Garrison, but it should include when to not answer the phone (like when Heather Bresch calls). It's not that hard to believe that Garrison is sticking around for a month in order to help with the transition to the new staff, but what is hard to believe is that the BOG offered to keep hip on staff until June 30th of 2010 in an undetermined role still making over $250K/year. The Board has made it clear that it was Garrison's decision to leave on September 1st and not the wishes of the BOG.

"On behalf of the board, we want to say how much we appreciate President Garrison's service, his administration's many successes this past year and his love for West Virginia University," Long said.

Meanwhile there are loose ends to tie up in the Garrison administration which are probably not labelled as "successes." One of those is a FOIA suit with the West Virginia Radio Corporation over the release of the R and V Associates Report on the HSC.

On June 3, 2008, Sandra Wilson, legal counsel for WV Radio Corporation called Bev Kerr, WVU legal counsel, asking why WVU had not responded to the FOIA request.

Wilson was told Kerr was not available and would return her call. According to the suit, Kerr had yet to return Wilson's call by the time the suit was filed.

R and V was a group brought in under Garrison's watch. And there is the whole hiding of Garrison's phone records during the Bresch scandal so he could say he had no idea what was going on. Only the PPG hasn't given up yet and is attempting to depose the Garrison Administration. WVU has managed to muddy all records of phone calls from two cell phones and a land line for Garrison during the Bresch scandal.

the university provided "reconstructed" billing records for one of Mr. Garrison's two cell phone numbers. Records for the other cell phone number, which WVU said was Mr. Garrison's personal line, and for his landline have not been provided.

Then this:

Mr. Browning said WVU would not turn over billing records for the second cell phone number assigned to Mr. Garrison because it became Mr. Garrison's private line as of July 12, 2007.

On May 21, Mr. Browning said Mr. Garrison had agreed to search his personal records for proof that he paid for the cell phone service, which he expected to give to the newspaper "in the next several days." Those payment records have not been provided.

I would suggest that Magrath not take any of Garrison's advice on crisis management. One thing the administration did get right was not taking Dow Chemical's land in Charleston even though all signs pointed to them wanting it to create a WVU base in southern West Virginia. Dow didn't want to insure the land it had chemical dumps on after WVU took over and I guess in the end the thought of the 6-eyed Simpson's fish led WVU to say no. Actually it was the thought that they'd get their asses sued off if anything happened to someone on the land. That and it was a bunch of dilapidated offices that Dow has been trying to get rid of for years and not much for actual laboratories.

All that and no sports? Well there is this. Finau is probably not going to qualify meaning Larry Ford better keep on some weight and Zac Cooper's heart better hold up because the line just got a lot less talented.

Time Wasters

2008-07-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

One of the great benefits of having DirectTV is that there are channels I never even see. 10 years ago I couldn't go a day without MTV, now I don't know what channel it is on. However, last night I actually turned to VH1 for the first time as they honored The Who. Chutta could never listen to the whole thing. My musical tastes changed in junior high after seeing a band at our school perform "Baba O'Riley." This led to a nice Abbott and Costello routine of me asking my dad who sang "Teenage Wasteland" and him answering yes for a few minutes and me deciding that maybe Vanilla Ice wasn't so good after all and with Pearl Jam releasing Ten months later even MC Hammer faded away. I even got a chance to see The Who in 2002, unfortunately John Entwistle passed away days before we say them. I ended up getting arrested, paying a fine, and then talking the cop into giving me a ride to the entrance of the stadium so I wouldn't miss any of the show. Most expensive taxi ride ever. Anyway, the Foo Fighters, Incubus, the Flaming Lips, Tenacious D, Adam Sandler, and Pearl Jam all played before the remaining Who closed the show. Here are some of the best performances.

The wifey thinks Eddie screams too much in this song and yet I've somehow managed to stay with her.

Various Updates

2008-07-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

The NBA Summer League is in full-swing and WVU is ~~well~~ represented. There are three total leagues the first of which was the Pepsi Pro League July 7-11 (starring Beasley and Rose) and featured one former Mountaineer. D'or Fischer played for Orlando and averaged almost 11 minutes per game and during those 11 minutes scored 2 points, blocked 1.5 shots, and pulled down 5.5 boards in 2 games played of the 5 total. His 40 minute average would have been a ridculous 24 rebounds, 6.5 blocks and almost 9 points. Fischer was able to parlay the experience into a two-year contract with Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv of the Euroleague. Last season Fischer was the MVP of the Belgian League averaging 14.4 ponts, 10.8 boards, and 2.8 blocks. Another former Mountaineer in the Euroleague is Johannes Herber who playes for Alba Berlin. The NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is underway and Joe Alexander is participating for the Milwaukee Bucks. He is currently averaging 9 points and 3 boards in 30.5 minutes of play in the first two games. Joe has three games remaining. The first is today (the 17th, followed by games on July 19th and 20th). You can watch the games online here. The final NBA Summer League is the Rocky Mountain Revue which starts on Friday and lasts for a week. Currently there are no former WVU players on any roster for this league which is less than IUPUI.

For football the recruiting of linemen is wrapping up if reports of a Ryan Spiker commitment are true.

He is ranked 20th among Ohio's 2009 prospects by Ohio High Magazine and 26th according Scout.com, while Rivals.com tabs him 31st among guards nationally.

Scout has updated their list to include Spiker giving WVU 12 commits, but Rivals hasn't added Spiker yet.

Round of Reubens

2008-07-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

Playing catch-up with some older news on recruiting for both football and basketball. First the 2008 basketball class has been finalized with the addition of 6'9" JC transfer Dee Proby. Proby initially signed with Oklahoma State, but was released from his commitment after Sean Sutton resigned. Proby becomes the tallest player on the 2009 team. In other 2008 basketball news it appears as though the only member of the recruiting class trouble of qualifying is Roscoe Davis, but he still has a chance to be eligible. No one has pledged for the 2009 class as of yet, but in 2010 recruiting news the second member of that class has pledged as Noah Cottrill's AAU teammate Storm Stanley has pledged to WVU. Stanley is 6'11" 230 pounds, but has also pledged to hit the weight room before coming to Morgantown in 2 years. The 2009 class will probably have room for at least two roster spots (Alex Ruoff and Josh Sowards) and 2010 at least an additional 3 (Butler, Mazzulla, Smith) not including transfers/people leaving early.

In football recruiting the biggest news is that Terence Kerns made his qualifying scores and will be on the field this season for WVU. Kerns provides some much needed depth at the running back position and also some size at 6'1" and 238 pounds. The only concern now is the knee as Kerns tore his ACL last year, however he recently ran a 4.3 second 40. Others have had some trouble with qualifying. Benji Kemoeatu, the Hawaiian center/guard did not make it academically, cornerback Jerome Swinton also did not make it academically, and defensive end Tevita Finau is taking summer classes in an attempt to graduate on time to report to camp.

I'm Talkin' Swamp Sweaty

2008-07-09T10:38:00.000-07:00

It's over

2008-07-09T06:14:00.001-07:00

According to the Tribune-Review Rich Rodriguez agreed to settle late last night. Rodriguez has agreed to pay a reduced sum of $4 million. Wait. Rodriguez is paying the whole sum. After months of blaming everyone under the sun and dragging himself, his agent, and WVU through the mud. Either someone just agreed to pay for him (unlikely as he probably has had at least partial backing all along), Michigan finally told him to pay (more likely since the upcoming depositions of Michigan President and A.D. were finally going to drag them into this), or Rodriguez wanted to settle for personnel reasons such as the upcoming season/wanting it to end/wanting to make West Viginians happy (no). However, it is strange that months later Rodriguez would "settle" for the full amount (minus lawyer fees) when it is highly unlikely he was going to lose more on verdict such as adding in lawyer fees or WVU showing it actually lost $10 million.

From the Charleston Gazette, which I didn't read before I wrote the above:

The agreement spells out how much Rodriguez will pay and how much will be paid on his behalf. The former WVU coach apparently had a deal with Michigan right from the start of his employment there to pay all or part of the tab.

MetroNews reported on its Web site today that one of the keys to the settlement was pressure brought to bear on Michigan athletic director Bill Martin and school president Mary Sue Coleman to give depositions in the case. There was a hearing scheduled on the matter in Michigan today.

Round of Reubens

2008-06-30T08:02:00.001-07:00

First some sad news in professional football. After two years on the practice squad this is the year that patron saint Mike Lorello had to make the active squad for the Steelers or be cut. The cut came this weekend for Lorello as the Steelers have to get to 80 players before July 27th. Hopefully the early cut gives Mike time to catch on elsewhere. Should Lorello not latch on anywhere here's to hoping for a long and lucrative career in going to places OS hangs out and making all the girls leave with him. God bless.

WVU received another pledge to the 2009 recruiting class bringing the total to 11. Pat Eger, an offensive lineman from Thomas Jefferson in Pennsylvania picked WVU Friday.

"They're a top-10 school every year," Eger said of West Virginia. "The coaches, players, the school, the facilities, I just fell in love with everything about it."

Egers, a three star lineman for Rivals and not yet evaluated for Scout, is the third offensive line pledge of the year and is projected at tackle.

The subject of recruiting is brought up by Dave Hickman at the Gazette as he addresses changes in philosophies from the Rodriguez regime to the new staff. Every coach on staff watches clips of all players being evaluated and then the players are placed into categories of 1,2, or 3 with constant updates. All the coaches also write all prospects. This is a change from before when Tony Gibson would try to "have a chew" with each prospect. Also a change:

Here's perhaps the most promising aspect of all, however: Stewart and Holliday say that all 10 current commitments already have qualifying test scores or grade point averages that suggest academics will be no problem at all.

Finally, when the ability to recruit is mentioned there are two names mentioned from the new staff. The first is Doc Holliday, the recruiting coordinator, and the second is Chris Beatty. Beatty is working on Virginia for WVU and has already had great success. And although he may be known currently as the the WVU recruiting force in Hampton Roads he may also be known soon as a force in offensive schemes.

Beatty’s teams at North Stafford and Salem went a combined 38-16 in five seasons. Each program went 2-8 the year before he arrived.

Then Beatty took over a two -year-old Landstown program, where his status skyrocketed. He guided the Eagles to a 40-2 record in three seasons, their only losses coming in state title games.

Beatty’s innovative spread offense produced four of the top five single-season passers in state history.

The only question surrounding Beatty currently is stability. WVU is his sixth stop in 10 years. ACC and Big 10 schools have already come calling for his services and good coaches that can also recruit can name their price. Hopefully, Beatty will get a chance to show he can coach too during a long stay in Morgantown.

So confident is Stewart in Beatty’s aptitude that he says, matter-of-factly, if something happened to Mullen tomorrow, he would name Beatty his offensive coordinator.

“Without hesitating, no question,” Stewart says. “He’ll be a head coach before long. In the meantime, we’re just blessed to have Chris here right now.”

Round of Reubens

2008-06-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

Joe Alexander was looking forward to going to Milwaukee at the 8th pick. Mainly because he speaks fluent Mandarin (not just a citrus fruit) and playing with Yi Jianlian would open up the Asian market for Joe for endorsements as not many US players speak the language. Half of that came to fruition at the draft last night as Joe was picked 8th overall by the Milwaukee Bucks. However, during the draft Yi Jianlian, along with Bobby Simmons, was traded to New Jersey for Richard Jefferson.

Joe Alexander isn't the only part of the basketball team making money. The basketball team brought in close to $3 million after their run in the tournament.

This year the Big East received a $16 million check from the NCAA, which led to a base distribution of $820,000 to each of the 16 teams.

However, teams also get a $125,000 appearance fee for each game in the NCAA Tournament, and the NCAA pays the school’s travel expenses, picking up travel and giving a per diem for the traveling party.

The success of the basketball teams combined with the rest of the athletic department led WVU to the highest finish in the Directors' Cup at 30th despite not having any points in the spring. 30th places WVU at the head of the Big East with Louisville next at 32nd. Not all schools did so well, but surely every school scored.

Marshall, the state's other Division I program, did not score in the 2007-08 Directors' Cup. A total of 280 schools were in the standings. The Herd also was the only Conference USA athletic program that failed to score.

Powerhouse schools that did tally some points were Texas Pan American, Louisiana Monroe, Sam Houston State, Quinnipiac, and Kennesaw State. Keep up the good work Herd.

Finally, if you are still bored go to Pat White's site and watch some highlights. Apparently Pat is a Jay-Z fan.

Bored?

2008-06-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

Johnny mentioned this over on the Mountainlair and it's also been mentioned on EDSBS, but Hula.com has some of the recent BCS games so if you're bored just click here:

Round of Reubens

2008-06-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

First up is some more recruiting news on both the basketball and football fronts. This week the number one rated offensive lineman in the country, according to Rivals, visited WVU and met with the coaching staff. Morgan Moses is 6'7" and weighs almost 350 pounds. He has offers from Alabama, VT, Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida among others. What are the chances he signs with WVU? Who knows now, but he is from Richmond, VA and the Boyd/Heastie combination is putting the full court press on him. It will be interesting because of the four VA recruits thus far only Boyd was offered by traditional VA recruiting power VT (although Heastie would have been offered too). So this will be one of the first times Chris Beatty goes head to head with VT for a big recruit. VT has the tradition in the area, but WVU has the Boyd/Heastie/Davenport/Alston (and they all presumably have phones). Also from the Hickman article it appears as though Pat Liebig is coming back after taking care of his family for a few years after his father fell ill. He will join former Wake Forest recruit Uriah Grant as reinforcements for the defensive line.

In basketball there is an open scholarship now that Joe has flown off to the NBA. According to Mike Casazza that might be used on Dee Proby a JC forward that had previously signed to Oklahoma State.

Proby played the past two years at Angelina Community College, in Lufkin, Texas. He averaged 11.4 points and 4.3 rebounds this past season. Despite his size, Proby is known for his shooting range out to the 3-point line. He made 27 of 96 attempts as a sophomore.

Speaking of basketball the Mountaineers are close to finishing their scheduling for next year with the addition of Ohio State and a trip to Vegas. Bob Huggins is trying to upgrade the schedule, but it will still have Elon, Cleveland State, and Radford to squeeze in between games at Mississippi and Duquesne. WVU has agreed in principal to a home and home with the Buckeyes over the next two years. Meanwhile WVU will head for the Las Vegas Invitational at the end of November. The LVI will consist of 4 games, two in West Virginia and two in the desert.

The Mountaineers will play Longwood Nov. 20 in Morgantown and Delaware State Nov. 25 in Charleston as part of the event.

West Virginia then meets Iowa, Kansas State or Kentucky Nov. 28-29 in Las Vegas.

WVU was picked for the LVI for two reasons. The first is the returning talent from a team that made the Sweet 16. The second is a chance to get some of that sweet West Virginia gambling money into Nevada. See right now we are keeping it all here apparently as the state ranks second only to Nevada in the share of the state budget that comes from gambling revenues.

That's the finding of a new report that also ranks the Mountain State ahead of Nevada and all other states in terms of how much that share of the budget grew between 1998 and 2006.

The state now brings in almost 9% of the state budget revenue from gambling. West Virginia: Open for ~~business~~ craps.

More on recruiting

2008-06-19T07:34:00.000-07:00

Another pledged recruit with Miami Northwestern High running back Daquan Hargrett committing. His team won the 6A Florida State championship last year as Hargrett rushed for 882 yards and 12 touchdowns while splitting time with another WVU offeree Tyresse Jones and also missing two games with injury.

The 5-foot-8, 175-pound back said he turned down offers from Iowa, Clemson, Minnesota, South Florida, Buffalo and Florida International.

Hargrett is a three star for Rivals and rated as the the 18th all-purpose back in the nation. He runs a 4.35 40-yard dash and has a personal best in the 100 of 10.5 seconds so speed is not an issue. Scout has him rated as a one-star which means he has not been evaluated by the service yet. Speaking of Scout, they have released the top 1000 and WVU has quite a few in the top of their respective positions. Heastie is rated as the number 1 receiver in the nation and number 12 overall. Tajh Boyd is the number 9 quarterback and number 69 overall. Shawne Alston is the 58th ranked running back in the nation and Dominick Davenport is the 18th ranked defensive tackle. Of the non-VA crew is Deon Long the 41st ranked WR in the nation, Chris Snook the number 2 fullback in the nation, Branko Busick the 24th ranked strongside linebacker, Cole Bowers the 44th ranked tackle, and Jordan Weingart the 42nd ranked guard.

Finally Mike Casazza's blog at the Daily Mail had a link to the following Joe Alexander highlight reel with clips from games and practice. It's a good way to see Joe in Gold and Blue one last time. Joe obviously always had the physical capabilities to play at any level, however, Joe became a different player a few weeks before the BET tournament when he got confidence in his outside game. His shot became unstoppable at that time and opened up the entire court. It's hard to believe he is the same player that Huggy called out in an interview midway through the season by saying maybe the team didn't need to run plays for him anymore.

Some Good News

2008-06-17T11:59:00.000-07:00

The gift of Tajh Boyd and Logan Heastie keeps on giving to the 2009 WVU recruiting class. In previous years early pledges for Ohio State and USC have worked on friends and fellow recruits throughout the process. Unfortunately for WVU the big names that have landed have usually been late in the process (Gwaltney, Devine) and therefore were unavailable for such help. The early pledges of Boyd and Heastie meant that they have been recruiting for WVU since March. They brought up a bunch of friends for the Spring Game and that led to Dominik Davenport pledging in April. Now Davenport has joined Boyd and Heastie to work for WVU's next class. This work has led to WVU landing Shawne Alston,a three star running back from the same school as Dominick and Boyd.

"I've been with 'Baby D' every day and he's been talking about West Virginia and saying, 'You need to come up there,' " Alston said, referring to Davenport.

Alston ran for over 1,500 yards as a Junior with 26 touchdowns with a torn meniscus in his knee. Shawne is considered a power back despite running a 4.5 40 due to his size of 5'11" and 220 pounds.

In other news Owen Schmitt is getting ready for his first NFL season with the Seahawks and is fighting for the second fullback spot behind Leonard Weaver. He sat down for an interview with The News Tribune and had some interesting comments about the change in offense in the NFL compared to college and the response from the interviewer was classic.

Q: How different is the offense here from the one you ran at West Virginia?

A: Oh God. We had 12 plays there. Literally. And we ran six of them.

Q: Give it to Slaton?

A: Yeah. Literally, we had 12 plays and ran six. Maybe. At the most.

Q: And Rodriguez got a job at Michigan for it?

Round of Reubens

2008-06-16T08:15:00.001-07:00

We'll start off with some more people that are leaving. Joe Alexander has played his last game for the Mountaineers as he has hired an agent and decided to stay in the NBA draft.

"I've used the last few months to explore my NBA options, and I've received a lot of positive feedback from NBA teams," says Alexander. "After evaluating the positive feedback and speaking with Coach Huggins and my father, I believe the best thing for me to do is stay in the NBA Draft. I'll cherish the memories I had at West Virginia University. Even though I'm leaving, I'll always be a part of the WVU family."

Another person playing his last game for WVU is back-up quarterback Charlie Russell. Russell hopes to attend medical school and after seeing Bradley Starks shoot past him in the depth chart decided to give up football and concentrate on ~~getting laid~~ school.

A couple of more people will be entering WVU in the next year or so. Like a president, provost, deans galore, as the Post-Gazette details. At this point WVU is running at about 90% interim or about to retire, including AD Pastilong. Think about it from Rodriguez's shoes for a minute. According to the depositions, the guy pulled a power play and lost, probably because Garrison backed Pastilong due to the bidding of Manchin. Now Pastilong and Garrision will be gone within two years and Manchin will be forced to back out of WVU politics somewhat due to the Bresch scandal. Rodriguez could have run the athletic department like Paterno in the early 80's at Penn State. Instead Rodriguez let Mike Brown keep pressuring him into pulling the power play early. Now Michigan isn't a bad fall back, but Rodriguez could have had all the power he wanted if he just exercised a little patience.

Another person back at WVU is Max Anderson. Anderson was the first "next" Owen Schmitt. He actually was fullback for Owen in some goal line plays. Last year he tore his ACL and had to watch spring practice with Will Johnson moving to the new hybrid position. Anderson hopes to give Johnson some competition and should be the better blocker of the two.

Finally, more people back to what they do best. Chris Henry has been suspended indefinitely by the NFL. Henry has been arrested 5 times since 2005. Not to be outdone Marcus Vick did what any man would do when drunk and approached by a cop on a bike while in your car. Gun it.

Police said a uniformed bicycle patrol officer observed Vick and a female involved in an altercation in the car early Friday. When the officer asked for a driver's license, police say Vick sped away but was stopped minutes later.

Round of Reubens

2008-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

The faculty is calling for more input in the search for a new president for WVU. This comes after a no-confidence vote in the last candidate was effectively ignored before his inauguration.

“The faculty was greatly disturbed that the interim provost and interim dean of medicine were selected with essentially no faculty input. This is not consistent with Mike Garrison’s earlier statements of support for shared governance and openness,” said Jim Harner, the chair of the statistics department, in an e-mail.

Now faculty say they want input in selecting the interim president, other future presidents and the chance to change the composition of the BOG, which some said last year had too few academics and too many businesspeople and lawyers.

For the faculty to keep the high moral ground it may be time for them to make some noise about Sears and Lang getting fired since they are the ones that actually changed and approved grade changes. At least one change will come to the BOG as Robert Wells has decided not to return for a second term.

Wells, who is a long-time friend of the embattled president, says there is no evidence that Garrison did anything wrong, and does not want to serve on the WVU Board of Governors beyond the end of his current term.

If Wells, or any other BOG member, still doesn't understand the reasons for Garrison to go, and were unwilling to fire him if need be, then they will not be missed.

Speaking of the BOG, members are now being deposed in the ongoing RRod lawsuit. Steve Farmer and Parry Petroplus are being questioned about their knowledge of the presidential search outcome (Garrison) and the pressure they put on Rodriguez to sign his contract. Speaking of the Rodriguez case and Garrison resignation some have wondered how the two would overlap. I, for one, have believed since the beginning of the case that the idea of fraudulent inducement was a non-started for Rodriguez because of he has the burden to prove fraud on him. He must show by a preponderance of the evidence that despite having read the contract, having legal counsel, having an agent tell him not to sign, and having signed many contracts that he was "tricked" into signing the contract. Tough to believe. And now the West Virginia Supreme Court has re-affirmed the "four-corners" doctrine saying in a reality case that a Plaintiff that asked for a clause in the contract to be there was at fault for not reading before signing to see if it was there even though the Defendant promised to put the clause in the contract. The author of this article believes that the crux of the case is the buyout clause which is echoed by myself. The case should come down to WVU having to prove damages, since the burden for damage is on the Plaintiff (WVU). There is a $4 million buyout clause, but it cannot be a penalty so WVU must show that the damages were close to that amount in order to enforce the liquidated damages clause. That is why Ken Kendrick needs to be put on the stand or his quotes saying he and others were going to withhold millions because of Rodriguez leaving must be read into the record.

Finally, on a happy note it appears as though Kevin Pittsnogle has another child whith another great name.

But he's back in the Martinsburg area this summer with wife Heather, son Quincy and infant daughter Amyyah.

Actually, his son was named Kwynsie. Oh, and this pig is dumb.

1 more gone

2008-06-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

According to WAJR President Garrison has resigned this morning at the BOG meeting. This comes after getting a letter asking for his resignation from the Law School yesterday. At this time a replacement has not been named, although Mrs. Chokesondick is considered a front-runner.

2 more gone

2008-06-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

To no one's surprise, except maybe his mom, the hammer finally came down on Charles Pugh. The potential starting safety is now gone from the team. Pugh has only started a handful of games, but made an impact on special teams. Additionally he was always be in an incident on the field and even if two guys threw punches he would get the flag. The rehash of what he is accused of:

The facts, according to the criminal complaint, are that Pugh and an unidentified woman allegedly found a set of car keys at the university's student union center last Tuesday and used the remote control "panic button'' on the keychain to locate the car in a parking lot. There, they allegedly took several credit cards, personal identification and $200 in cash from the vehicle.

Police said that the card was later used to purchase at least $1,600 in merchandise at several stores, including the Finish Line at Morgantown Mall. Pugh was charged with a felony because the amount was more than $1,000.

Pugh has seen his last game as a Mountaineer. Another player that may be gone is Evan Rodriguez. Rodriguez has been dismissed from the team and suspended from school since April according to the Daily Mail following an arrest on March 20th. Rodriguez redshirted last year and was a seen as a possible heir to Quinten Andrews, who if he can't stay away from trouble could join the others, at safety before being moved to the tight-end hybrid during spring. According to the criminal complaint Rodriguez grabbed a WVU night staff employee at Dadisman Hall and pushed her into a wall while twisting her arm. His main problem, however, was that he left witnesses. Alive.

Latest on Joe and some other news

2008-06-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Andy Katz has the latest on Joe Alexander and speculates that #8 to Milwaukee is the highest Joe is likely to go if he stays in the draft although he will work out for the Knicks who draft at 6. Mike D'Antoni is the current Knicks coach and prefers athletic guys that can play a couple of positions, run, and shoot so there is a possibility. Another possibility for the Knicks could be Italian forward Danilo Gallinari as D'Antoni played for nine seasons with Gallinari's father in Italy. Gallinari is still ranked as the top small forward in the draft by most as the 19 year old averaged 17.5 points per game in the Italian league this year to go with 40.5% three point shooting and over 4 rebounds per game. To further the ascent of Alexander is the release of the pre-draft measurements which show that Joe Alexander is as physically gifted as any player in the draft. Joe had a 38.5 inch vertical with 32.5 inches on a no step jump, the second highest bench press of anyone participating, and a body fat percentage of 5.8%. USF forward Kentrell Gansberry, on the otherhand, posted the third highest body fat percentage in pre-draft camp history with an artery clogging 17.4%. Oliver Miller had 22% in 1992 when he actually was caught eating tootsie rolls during the 3/4 court sprint. All that said, Katz leaves a glimmer of hope for the return of Alexander to WVU next season. That glimmer comes in the form of Alexander's desire to win a national title and his love of Huggy Bear.

"I think they have a legitimate shot at winning it all if I do go back," said Alexander last Friday prior to his first workout at the Milk House on Disney's Wide World of Sports campus in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. "There really is a great opportunity waiting for me if I go back. With me, they'll have a great team. They'll have a great team without me."

Followed with:

"What people don't realize is that when you jump to the NBA, it overshadows the downside of leaving your school, leaving your friends and a team you committed to," he said. "If I didn't like my coaching staff, it would be easy. But I honestly like my coaching staff."

And Joe thinks this is just the start for WVU basketball.

"I feel like this is the start of the glory time for us," Alexander said. "They're going into their best years of the basketball program, and that definitely helps me sleep about leaving. I think it's obvious with Huggins being there and the recruits they've got. But he didn't have to start from scratch. We already had a good team. There's no downtime for West Virginia. It's ready to blow up right away, starting next year."

Elsewhere Syracuse had very few highlights last year in football (Louisville implosion aside), but the wide receiving corps turned out decent. Now that looks to be falling apart. According to CBSSportsline Syracuse suspended the top returning player on the team Mike Williams and he has left the school. Much more available at Troy Nunes is an absolute magician including rumors of Williams being caught cheating multiple times in class and the original story detailing Williams and Taj Smith also leaving early (draft).

With both options off the table, our starting receiving core is now junior Lavar Lobdell who has never caught more than three passes in a game, junior Donte Davis who is coming off a hand injury and untested freshman such as Marcus Sales and Van Chew. One of the few areas on the team we didn't need to worry too much about this year has suddenly become a huge problem area.

Another WVU rival that is having difficulties in recent years has been Maryland in their normal stronghold of basketball. Now that could be even worse as troubled player Tyree Evans decided not to attend Maryland after all the hoopla over his troubled past for drug distribution, assault, statutory rape, trespassing, and another marijuana possession and handgun charge (not all at once though because that would be Pac-manian). In addition the top recruit for the Terps was Gus Gilchrist and he is going to transfer before ever stepping on the court. Gilchrist had originally signed with VT and backed out. After some problems with his release from Blacksburg Gilchrist sat out a year and then was only granted 2 and a half years of eligibility by the ACC schools in 11-0 and 10-1 votes. Elsewhere Gilchrist will be allowed his full eligibility and is likely to go Division II if he wants to play immediately. Also guard Bobby Maze backed out of a pledge and signed to play with Tennessee and Shane Walker transferred and incoming recruit Sean Mosley hasn't qualified yet. If Mosely and incoming international player Jin Soo Kim (may have to wait until 2009) don't make it to Maryland this year the Terps will have only 10 players. Somewhere Gary Williams is sweating, but don't worry he always does that.

Round of Reubens

2008-06-03T08:26:00.000-07:00

Made it back into the country, haven't heard from OS yet so there is hope he didn't. I've been wondering what I missed while gone and here it is, West Virginia is still making people laugh. But at least we have WVU, right?

First the WVU BOG decided not to fire Garrison after he gave a report which kind of didn't match up with the Bresch panel report. Garrison has labelled the entire affair as an administrative failure which doesn't really match up with the panel either. And to further distance himself from any controversy Garrison has stated that Bresch earned more credits than the panel suggested and that WVU awarded a bunch of fake degrees because of systemic problems although the panel disagreed. So that is helping things.

"Continued repetition of this untrue allegation about [business school] records inappropriately tars the degrees of many other E-M.B.A. program graduates," the report stated.

On top of that the WVU HSC consultant has a nine page report that claims "serious deficiencies" that have put patients' lives at risk and WVU has asked for revisions even though the author believes it is finished. Of particular note is that Julian Bailes, the infamous HSC petition for Garrison circulator, is working hand in hand with Deluzio including promising "I'm going to make you famous." This gives Bailes wide authority to be involved in hiring and firing during the HSC restructuring.

OK, so now some good news right? Well starting safety Charles Pugh may be involved in stealing and then using a credit card. Well, how about the Rodriguez suit? As BSR pointed out mediation is the next step. If nothing is resolved, then the case moves forward. In the meanwhile Mike Brown continued to make friends in West Virginia with his deposition. Brown called just about every school in the phone book over the last couple of years including Arkansas, Alabama, North Carolina, LSU, Michigan, and WV State. He also admits that he called before any breech by WVU and that he never gave WVU a chance to remedy any breech. Further he admitted he told Rodriguez not to sign the contract and that the four corners provision was binding.

Now to some better news. Tevita Finau is apparently still on his way to making the grades to play this year. In addition WVU got a commitment from an all-state selection in Florida at lineman for next year in Jordan Weingart. In addition Ohio lineman Chris Freeman is being heavily recruited as well.

DickRod Mediation

2008-05-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

Tummysticks and Option went on vacation for the week. If one of them weren't already married I would have wondered about them sharing a bed, a bar of hotel soap and multiple fruity rum drinks with two straws. I would have wondered or been really jealous. I am not sure. Anyway... just this one shitty post this week since I actually had to work. Sorry sports/rambling/crap fans. I stole the story below from Yahoo. It is an AP line anyway. As an attorney myself, I don't suggest holding your breath on this mediation. Especially with the Garrison situation, which would look like a tasty possibility for a scapegoat at trial if I were DickRod's counsel. WVU fumbles... at least enjoy the pictorial. Gracias Collegehumor.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP)—West Virginia University’s $4 million lawsuit against ex-football coach Rich Rodriguez is headed for mediation, with the goal of resolving the dispute by Aug. 1.

But WVU attorney Jeff Wakefield says Judge Robert Stone’s order is standard, and he thinks it’s unlikely mediation will help.

Wakefield says the university remains firm in its position that Rodriguez owes $4 million under the contract in place when he resigned in December to take Michigan’s head coaching job.

If mediation doesn’t end the dispute, Stone will hear motions on Nov. 10.

Round of Reubens

2008-05-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Joe may really go

2008-05-20T12:41:00.001-07:00

When Joe Alexander put his name into the mix for the NBA draft it appeared as a move that would be similar to Kevin Pittsnoggle a couple years earlier. Go to some workouts and find out you need another year of work (or more for KP). That may not be happening now as Alexander is one of the fastest risers on the draft board according to everyone that writes about these sort of things. Of course it helps when you can take a couple of steps and head-butt the rim in front of every scout in the NBA after a couple of hours of workouts. First up is ESPN's Chad Ford ($$ normally but free preview) talking all things Alexander in his preview of the best small forwards available and concluding:

Since the tournament ended, his legend has kept growing. For the past couple of weeks, reports out of Abunassar's gym have said that Alexander's athleticism was off the charts. He was an untapped treasure who was getting better and better by the day. By the time I hit Vegas, I had four different GMs call me to tell me he was going to be a lottery pick.

and he concludes with this:

An informal poll of a few GMs I spoke with had (Giorgi) Gallinari (of Italy) first and then a split between Alexander and (Donte') Greene (Syracuse) as the second small forward off the board. Look for teams like the Blazers at 13, the Suns at 15 and the Raptors at 17 to take a long look at Alexander.

Giorgi is described as the anti-Joe which means he is maxed on ability, but has played his whole life. See the big man get up below to further drive home the point. The Abrunassar that is mentioned in the first quote is Joe Abunassar a trainer that works with many of the NBA players in the offseason and before they begin their careers. Draft Express caught up with Abunassar at the NBA workouts in Las Vegas. Abunassar, along with all the rest of the trainers, were glowing about Alexander.

Alexander came into his morning workout with a great reputation, as everyone we spoke with that had been working with him over the past week could not stop raving about how well he had been responding to them thus far. “A fierce worker,” Joe Abunassar told us. “He’s an animal in the weight room,” strength trainer Tony Falce told us. “He’s worked non-stop for every minute since the second he got here.” One after one, each of the trainers filtered over to our direction to share a story about their favorite pupil.

The workouts have worked well for Joe:

“Right now he’s probably somewhere in the early 20’s on most teams boards, but he’s going to be one of the fastest risers in this draft,“ the executive predicted.

If Alexander is guaranteed to be around 20 or above that means guaranteed money (2nd round NBA contracts aren't guaranteed) and a year quicker to free agency and potential really big money down the road. All that may mean that Joe has suited up in the Gold and Blue for the last time (unless he is drafted by Golden State or the Pacers).

Ebanks picks WVU

2008-05-19T08:09:00.000-07:00

Devin Ebanks, the 11th ranked high school senior and 2nd ranked small forward according to rivals.com, has signed with West Virginia. Bob Huggins now has his first official recruiting class at WVU. Last year Huggins came on board late and cut all ties with previous recruits at Kansas State. His recruiting consisted of convincing John Flowers to stay on board. Ebanks will join Kevin Jones and Roscoe Davis as top 150 players joining WVU next year and guard Darryl Bryant will round out the recruiting class. Interestingly, three of the four recruits come from New York which is an area Pitt has dominated lately. The Big East is going to be loaded next year and it looks like it won't be letting up any time soon.

"He said he expects me to be the Big East rookie of the year,'' Ebanks said. "That's a lot on my shoulders, but I like the expectations.''

Even if Ebanks is good enough to be considered at that level, he will no doubt have some competition. Despite his lofty rankings, he is only the third-highest-rated recruit entering the Big East next season, behind 6-10 forward Greg Monroe of Georgetown (No. 8 on the rivals.com list) and 6-9 forward Samardo Samuels of Louisville (No. 9). Connecticut also has the No. 13 and 14 players on the rivals list (forward Ater Majok and guard Kemba Walker) and Louisville has the No. 18 player (Forward Terrence Jennings).

Players lost for next year are Darris Nichols, Ted Talkington, and Jamie Smalligan. The fourth scholarship opened up when Jacob Green transferred during the season. Returning contributors for next year are Mazulla and Ruoff at the guards, Butler, Cam Thoroughman, Smith, and Flowers at the Forward spots. In addition Joe Alexander could return and Jonnie West will probably get more time if he can get on the Ruoff lifting program.

Round of Reubens

2008-05-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all, been very busy this week with work and life. Mike Casazza has been picking up the slack for eveyone with WVU athletics. First he reports on the injury front that Isdaner and Dent are ahead of schedule, Reed Williams is coming along, but Frank Carduff is done and will retire while Brantwon Browser will miss the upcoming year and redshirt due to an ACL tear. Also Damon McDaniel, he of interest but no offers, may end up at WVU afterall, but without a scholarship for at least a year if he can't get a hardship waiver. Also Gwaltney will officially be allowed to walk on, but he is ineligible for the upcoming year so he would be practice squad while he works on his grades. Nothing can go wrong there. Casazza also reports that Huggins has a clause that keeps him on "mean" money for the Big East for his career which means he should be able to afford a helmet. The mean is the average salary and is subject to outliers such as Rick Patino making a huge bonus. In order to eliminate those outliers one typically uses the median salary instead, which WVU failed to do here and may cost them lots of money if Patino sticks around long enough.

Meanwhile, how is the state doing if you're on the outside looking in? Well, Garrison received a second no-confidence vote and this time from over 600 faculty for the Bresch degree (third no-confidence overall), the Rodriguez suit stumbles on with both sides continuing to saying the other is a liar, this time Rodriguez claimed that Joe Manchin and BOG members pressured him into signing a claim that BOG member Steve Farmer called a lie, Spike Maynard lost in his re-election bid for the Supreme Court which recycles the Massey story, and speaking of Massey the case which started the Massey news stories continues on as Harman Mining is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court over judge recusal, or lack thereof. Speaking of elections, the primaries gave the nation a chance to look at the state of West Virginia:

At least Pacman and Henry haven't been arrest this week. Yet.

Early Awards

2008-05-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Pat White has made the pre-season Playboy All-America team as teh one and only quarterback.

It is the third straight year West Virginia has had a Playboy All-America selection. Running back Steve Slaton was selected last year and center Dan Mozes in 2006. That same year, linebacker Jay Henry was named a Playboy's Academic All-American.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound White is WVU's seventh Playboy All-America team selection (eight including Henry's academic recognition).

Mike Dent has been named to the Rimington watch list which one would assume was based on non-USF play last year.

In all, 42 players are on the Rimington Award watch list. The list includes two of last year's finalists as well as 2007 winner Jonathan Luigs of Arkansas.

Steve Slaton is making his way through his first mini-camp in the NFL. So far he has impressed with his speed and quickness, but has had problems holding on to the football.

Round of Reubens

2008-05-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

Both the Charleston Gazette and the Daily Mail have details of Ed Pastilong being deposed by RRod's lawyers. Apparently Rodriguez has a non-sports fan lawyer. He thought Bobby Knight was the Texas A&M football coach and that Bob Huggins had also recently left WVU. All 205 pages can be found here. Speaking of public documents available for viewing, the Bob Huggins contract can be found here.

The 2008 Fred Scahaus Captain's Award was given to Owen Schmitt, Darris Nichols, and Women's soccer captain Ashley Banks. Usually there is one female and one male winner, but Schmitt and Nichols split the male voting this year.

Three teams at WVU are losing scholarships due to APR scores which is the eligibility and retention of student-athletes over a four-year period. The three teams are wrestling, men's soccer, and women's rowing. Women's rowing lost the most, a full scholarship, so if you see someone spinning in circles on the Mon. you know which girl lost her teammate.

Finally, to make you feel old, it is the 15th anniversary of the release of True Romance. Maxim spent 5 minutes away from recycling jokes and being a poor man's playboy to get all of the main characters from the movie together to review the making, writing, directing, and producing of a movie that grossed all of $11 million in theatres with a cast of Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, Gary Oldman, Tom Sizemore, and cameos by Val Kilmer and Sam Jackson. Not to mention it was written by Tarantino.

Top 5 College Football Coaches-Kige Ramsey Style

2008-05-05T16:04:00.000-07:00

God help us all! We are powerless in the presence of Kige Ramsey! He, the master of the dramatic pause. The master pronunciator! The fashion plate! And don't forget the keen intellect. By the way, who's Bo Schembekelker?

God I hate the off season!

It's a Podcast

2008-05-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

The new College Football Weekly podcast is up for your listening pleasure. Please feel free to hear me mumble things I think I think, how DickRod & Co. are changing things in Michigan, and the state of elite programs around the country that we don't really care about until we upset them in a bowl game. Seriously, as always this is another fine podcast worth your listening.

In other news covered in the Round of Reubens below: Joe Manchin, Mike Garrison, I want you two to quit fucking around with my school! M'kay?

Round of Reubens

2008-05-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Lots on the plate today...

First Seattle is embracing the Bill Brasky-like mythology surrounding Owen Schmitt. Included in the stories related is one "well-known" story about Owen making the Wall at Mario's Fishbowl.

Perhaps the most well-known was when Schmitt ate a beer coaster in 10 seconds to earn a spot on the Hall of Fame wall at Mario's Fishbowl in Morgantown. There were also the 11 facemasks he broke during his college playing days.

OS has seen the Wall and has fostered some thoughts about knocking it down.

WVU-Marshall is currently not scheduled for national television. The date of the game was moved to accomodate the WVU-Auburn game which led some to believe that the Marshall game would also be televised.

That includes Gov. Joe Manchin, who was visibly surprised when informed the game hasn't been scheduled for national television.

"Really?" said a puzzled Manchin. "I thought for sure it was."

But there is a chance if the game were to be moved to FRIDAY night. But not to worry as WVU has previously stated they would never play a home game on a Friday since it is the night for high school football around the state, right?

Don't be surprised if Manchin lobbies for that to happen.

"I will get involved," vowed Manchin.

I think you and your daughter have done more than enough for WVU forever Joe.

The last time WVU was on television for football (with Joe mugging for the camera behind the bench the whole game) was the Fiesta Bowl. I'm sure most people remember that game and how great it was for the program. Except financially.

The Big East awarded WVU $2,425,600 for its Fiesta Bowl expense allowance to Glendale, Ariz., and for being the conference's BCS bowl representative.
In total, the university spent $3,495,872.59, resulting in a loss of $1,070,272.59.

Of course the main reason was unsold seats. WVU failed to sell 8174 of the allotment at $135 a seat for a loss of over a million dollars. Ken Kendrick was supposed to pick up the difference to make up for his pro-RR comments, but I'm not sure if the check has cleared yet. Well there were some other factors as well, namely the band and food:

At this year's Fiesta Bowl, WVU had to purchase adequate space for its band members and equipment. The travel expenses to send the band and cheerleaders on two planes was $565,152.29, more than $200,000 above what it cost to send the team and coaches to the bowl.

The football team took one larger and one smaller plane, while some players flew to and from their homes. The band flew on two larger planes.

"We have to pay for every seat the band uses," Parsons said. "Not just for the tuba player, but we have to have one for tuba as well."

And for the food:

Bowls assign teams to specific locations, and WVU was put up in the Scottsdale Plaza Resort. The meals ($773,723.08 total for everyone representing WVU on the trip) often times took place in the team hotel. The most expensive meal was New Year's Day team dinner of $15,848.05 for 132 people, or a little more than $120 per plate.

"There's no doubt it was costly," Parsons said.

The dinner, which included just players and coaches, was the traditional spread the WVU football team ate before every game last season. It took place at the team hotel, as New Year's Day also fell the night before WVU's 48-28 win over Oklahoma.

"It worked," Parsons said.

The magical meal included lasagna, carved roast beef, chicken cordon bleu and mashed potatoes, among other things. "I am sure there's more to it," Parsons said. "It's a heavy meal, and the trainers made sure to have it."

Finally, the faculty is meeting today to discuss Heathergate and whether to vote no-confidence for the administration. A great review on the story can be found here. But, it appears as though the scandal can be linked to anything in the university. For instance, WVU signs Bob Huggins to a lifetime contract. The contract is announced by Ed Pastilong. Unfortunately, it may be the first Pastilong has heard of it as well.

The WVU athletic staff had no knowledge of the "lifetime" contract talks until WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong finally was informed about it 24 hours before the dog-and-pony show to announce it.

That's wrong and sad -- but it seems kind of typical of the way things are done these days on the WVU campus. As for the political spinning, when did the capital move from Charleston to Morgantown?

If anyone were paying close attention to the Friday news conference, you couldn't have found two people describing the supposedly same process differently than Pastilong and Huggins.

That's because only one of them really was part of the process. It's not like the athletic department would have balked at sweetening Huggins' deal, either.

WVU President Mike Garrison and his Board of Governors and Stewart Hall cronies were desperate for some good news. That's fine, but was it necessary to do an end around on the people to whom Huggins is supposed to answer?

Hmm. Coach now with the ability to go around Pastilong and straight to Garrison. Nothing could go wrong here could it? Maybe Joe Manchin can step in.

Round of Reubens

2008-05-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Let's start with some good news. WVU has landed a commitment from a 6'10" power forward for 2009. Keith Dewitt has committed and can sign in November with WVU. He'll be a freshman in 2009. According to Dewitt he signed with WVU over offers from Nebraska, Missouri, Cincinnati, and LaSalle. Dewitt is the first pledge for the '09 class with Noah Cottrill leading the '10 class. The '08 class has three commits currently with forwards Roscoe Davis and Kevin Jones joining guard Darryl Bryant. There is still one remaining scholarship for the current class that is being held for top 10 player Devin Ebanks. Ebanks was released from his Indiana pledge after the Hoosiers fired Calvin Sampson and is between WVU, Texas, Rutgers, and Memphis.

In football news the BCS isn't going anywhere anytime soon as a proposed playoff by SEC commissioner Mike Slive didn't even get to a vote. The only support came from the ACC with Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese sounding like a true man of genius saying:

if the proposed plus-one model for determining college football's national champion "looked like a playoff, smelled like a playoff and felt like a playoff," it probably was a playoff.

He followed that up by comparing the plus-one method to the NCAA tournament that started with 24 teams and has grown to 65 and then cemented his opinion with this:

"There's a particular coach in my league who wants to invite every team in the country," Tranghese said, referring to Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim, who is advocating a 128-team NCAA tournament field after his Orange were snubbed in each of the past two seasons.

The next shot at even broaching the subject will be in 2014 if Fox picks up the BCS contract.

At WVU the Heather Bresch controversy is in full swing. First Lang and Sears stepped down. Then it inevitably was released that since they were tenured they would keep teaching. So Lang will make $199,627 as a professor which is 82 percent of his before salary for teaching 9 months which is 75% of the time. So he got a raise. Plus both Sears and Lang get 6 months to "readjust" to teaching. So they got a 6 month paid vacation. Sears will earn $159,862 for 9 months which is 80% for 75% of the work. Meanwhile the scandal has alumni working to make a change in the presidency and the only way they can directly cause change is to withhold donations. They are doing this now. Of course to this outcry the Board, which Garrison put in place to put him in place, still backs Garrison. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette sued WVU for lack of FOIA compliance and can't be happy about the results.

The university can provide no records of phone calls Mr. Garrison made during the critical five-day period when WVU decided to award the governor's daughter a degree she did not earn.

The university does not have landline records for Mr. Garrison, assistant general counsel Shea Browning said. According to Mr. Browning, records of local landline calls are maintained for only 30 days and no long-distance calls were made using the identification number assigned to Mr. Garrison by the university.

The university's cell phone provider has been unable to produce a copy of Mr. Garrison's cellular records, Mr. Browning said.

So WVU is saying that there are no phone records available for the 5 days in question including cell phone because cell phone companies lose records all the time.

Finally, in an election year someone is courting an under represented group for votes: Nazis. Tony Zirkle is running for Congress and is getting the message of the effect of porn and prostitution on young, white women and girls out anywhere possible including a birthday party for Hitler which included a cake with a photo of Hitler and the words "Seig Heil." Probably not even an ice cream cake. Zirkle is all about his message though:

"If the Black Panthers or the Jewish Zionists want me to speak about these issues, I'll do it."

Yes, two groups that really want to talk about how porn is hurting young white women. BTW, more about the Zirkle message is available here including "The Great Porn Jihand War Tax: Prolific Porn Mule Serial Woman-Womb Slaughterers."

You Just Knew This Was Coming

2008-05-01T03:24:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Senor Viego

Skateboarding And Blogging Are Not Crimes

2008-04-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

The hot topic of the day would have to be what transpired on Costas Now last night. If you are not familiar, I'll have links and goodies and all that stuff later on in the post. Back to the title for a minute. My mom said something to me this weekend that kind of caught me off guard. She said something to the effect that skateboarders always end up in trouble. Insinuating that skateboarding is evil or a gateway to worse things. I had a thought just for a second to remind her that I was a skateboarder up through the end of my college life and I kind of turned out ok. And that traditional sports don't appeal to everyone. I also played every sport I had access to growing up as well, but that's neither here nor there.

The point I think I was on the verge of making was that everyone can't achieve greatness in the same area. You have to love what you are doing before you're ever going to be great at it, or even enjoy it. Not everyone has the physical build to play football/basketball/baseball. So skateboarding by itself isn't bad. (Remember, I'm probably older than you and skateboarding wasn't very main stream when I was growing up) So these kids that never got picked to play sports decided to go off on a tangent and do something that didn't require a team or an adversary. Instead of being accepted, skateboarders were looked at and treated as outsiders. And after a while you start to wear that as a badge of honor. You do things to let people know you don't care what they think of you. Listen to thrash metal or whatever is going to repulse parents. Because kids do that. But skateboarding by itself isn't bad. It's just misunderstood.

And I kind of feel the same way about blogging. Blogging in and of itself isn't bad. Just misunderstood by the MSM. But if you watch this video and listen to what Buzz Bissinger has to say, you would think that sports blogging is the gateway to the end of the universe.

It's not, it's just the end of sports reporting as we know it. I'm not attacking journalist by saying that. Because bloggers need sports reporters in most cases. Because if you're like me, you have a real fucking job and you need someone else to put the story out there and then you put the pieces together. And yeah, it's not like the worst bloggers that make shit up all the time are the ones getting all the attention. It's people like Will Leitch and Orson Swindell (along with many many others) that are making blogging a viable option. So much so, that AOL hired a bunch of underwear clad amateurs, including me, to write for them and get paid. And it's happening everywhere you look. Newspapers, magazines, etc. are all hiring bloggers because they see that it's the trend. It might not be the same as an independent site, because those entities still have to have a level or journalistic integrity. But it is short and to the point reporting with a twist. If the goal of blogging was to emulate sports reporting, what would be the point? The point is to entertain and inform. With the emphasis on entertain.

That doesn't make me the pinnacle of honesty and fair play. I've certainly said some petty and vindictive things about sports figures and sports reporters. But at the same time I do make a very conscious effort to have my facts straight. I mean, I don't say someone sucks because they are from Pittsburgh. No, I find out if they went to Pitt and then I say they suck.

But I didn't start this to get rich or famous, and I'm not. I started doing this because I have a love for WVU sports. And I wanted to express that. Somewhere along the way it turned into something more, and I'm lucky to be in the position I'm in. And I think the same is true for most bloggers. They do it because they love it. And it's that passion that shines through and makes blogs good and fun and popular. And I'll be honest with you, that's something that is sadly lacking from the main stream media. They've lost their passion, or at least their ability to impress it upon readers and viewers.

More on the subject:

Nunes the Magician
EDSBS
Dan Shanoff
Mr. Irrelevant
Deadspin
KSK
and of course, Awful Announcing for getting the video out there.

I'm sure more will follow tomorrow.

Leaving WVU

2008-04-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

Some by choice and others probably kicking and screaming. First the draft and following free agent signing period had 8 former Mountaineers join NFL teams. Of the drafted Steve Slaton went in the 3rd round (89th) to Houston, Owen Schmitt went in the 5th round (163rd) to Seattle, and Ryan Munday was chosen in the 6th round (194) by Pittsburgh. Joining those three were Johnny Dingle (KC Chiefs), Darius Reynaud (Minnesota Vikings), Marc Magro (St. Louis Rams), Eric Wicks (Seattle Seahawks) and Keilen Dykes (Arizona Cardinals) by signing free agent contracts (all from Wikipedia). Not a good weekend for the WVU Juniors that left early. Slaton went middle of the third and Dingle and Reynaud were not chosen at all. Slaton will have Ahman Green, Ron Dayne, and Chris Brown in front of him at Houston to start, but on the plus side the Texans run a zone blocking scheme. Schmidt may walk into the best position as Seattle lost Mack Strong last year as their fullback and with Mike Holmgren utilizing the fullback position were in need of a fullback/H-back. For Mundy Pittsburgh may also have been a good place to land since starting FS Aaron Smith still has problems seeing through the smoke of being constantly burned by New England last year after he talked trash before the Steeler/Pat matchup. Dingle will look to make a name on a team that selected Glenn Dorsey and Brian Johnston in the draft and also have Tank and Turk from last year for anyone that watched the HBO training camp series. Minnesota picked Jaymar Johnson in the 6th round and WR is considered a need for the Vikings. Dykes and Magro have the longest odds to make rosters and the Cardinals drafted three defensive linemen while the Rams did not draft any linebackers.

Some other people are leaving WVU before they'd probably like. After the WVU faculty Senate contemplated a no-confidence vote for Garrison and Lang resignations followed. So far Lang and Dean Sears have resigned. No resignations yet from the President's Office or the BOG (Steve Goodwin). According to the panel report the Chief of Staff Craig Walker, head legal counsel Alex Macia, and the Communications Director Bill Case were all in the meeting that lasted less than an hour and granted Bresch a degree which she was 22 credits short. According to the DA Macia was the individual that brought up the idea that Bresch should be awarded the degree and Lang and Sears signed off on the idea that it was either a "tie" in the evidence or close enough. The evidence was this: all records pointed to Bresch not having the last 22 credits, having attended class, paid for class, etc. while Bresch had a conversation with Speaker that she said took place and Speaker gave her learning credit for her job. Speaker denies this took place and there are no records for either side. So apparently a "tie" consisted of someone just walking in and claiming they should have a degree even if they had no evidence. Did I mention I am now Dr. Tummysticks MS, JD, MD, DDS, PhD, CA (Certified Aromatherist).

These are all true

2008-04-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

All of these are a little crazy.

First a man dressed as Darth Vader attacked a couple of guys that started a Jedi Church in England. Actually he just wore a black garbage bag, got drunk (drank most of a 10 liter box of wine), and hit them with a metal crutch while shouting "Darth Vader". The Jedi's did not respond well:

The cousins had been filming themselves playing with light sabres in the garden before the attack... She added that Hughes hit Barney Jones over the head with the crutch, leaving him with a headache. The court heard Hughes could not remember the incident. He then laughed and hit Michael Jones in the thigh, causing bruising...Hughes could not remember the incident and only realised what had happened when he read about it in local newspapers, the court told.

Meanwhile in the Congo 13 people were arrested as suspected sorcerers and accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises.

Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

I may not have helped things by skinny dipping recently in the Congo:

It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

Finally, WVU has already released the Heather Bresch panel report and the blame stops short of the top.

The damning 95-page report released Wednesday by the WVU Board of Governors is harshest on Provost Gerald Lang and business school dean Steve Sears, who the panel said had no academic foundation for retroactively granting Bresch the 1998 degree.

Although it does include this:

Lang, as chief academic officer, bears the brunt of the criticism for running the one-hour, Oct. 15 meeting where the decision to grant the degree was made. Also attending were Sears, WVU chief of staff Craig Walker, general counsel Alex Macia, communications director Bill Case and three educators from the business school.

"The panel believes the prevailing sentiment at the meeting, evinced by the actions and comments of the provost and the representatives of the president's office, was that a way should be found to justify the granting of the degree, if at all possible,'' the report says.

Believe it or not

2008-04-23T07:52:00.000-07:00

One of the following three stories is true although far-fetched.

1. The Rich Rodriguez deposition was leaked. During the deposition a tearful Rodriguez admits that he has made some mistakes especially with his relations with fellow employees. He admitted that he only interviewed with Michigan because he was upset with Pastilong after the two spoke shortly after the Pitt game and only left because Rita called him a sissy for crying after that meeting and he wanted to show her that he "was a real man" and thought Michigan would impress her. He also admitted to starting the "racism" rumors with Magee as a joke just to "see the look only Larry Aschebrook's face." However, RRod remained defiant about his playcalling ability and the deposition was ended after he smacked someone for asking about his lack of passing then put the stenographer in a figure-four after she agreed that bubble screens suck.

2. Jason Gwaltney is in the best shape of his life and is thinking about attempting to come back to WVU as a walk-on. He has finished up all his legal issues and has been in contact with Coach Stewart. Stewart informed Gwaltney that he would be allowed back on the team as a walk-on if paid his own way and stayed out of trouble because "everybody deserves a second chance."

3. Coach Bill Stewart announced yesterday that the gold uniforms are to be retired. The uniforms met with mixed reviews initially by both players and fans. Despite being a top seller, Coach Stewart has eliminated the gold look after admitting that self-consciousness played a big part in the loss to Pitt. "Players were so out of sorts because of Pitt players making fun of us looking like bananas that the men had trouble concentrating on execution." Stewart also announced that the golds would be replaced by grey uniforms. "The basketball team has some sharp greys that I think would look real nice-like on the football field. I've always wanted some grey uni's and I'm running the show now so it's going to happen" said Stewart to conclude his presser.

The answer? Here. A hint? I wouldn't believe any of these until a saw them, but maybe he'll bring Brandon Barrett back too.

Semi-Pro Slaying

2008-04-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, the bear that appeared with Will Ferrell in Semi-Pro really is dangerous. It killed a trainer. No shit.

Of course, now people want to kill the bear. A few hippies don't like animals on television. I say it is simple assumption of risk. What kind of idiot doesn't know a 7 1/2 ft. 700 lb. bear can kill you if it wants to?

"I was just grabbin' balls out there." - Jackie Moon

Heather Bresch has one less degree

2008-04-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Just think of the degree as "borrowed" rather than purchased as it is unanamious that all five of the panel felt WVU erred in granting Heather Bresch a degree retroactively. Next up is whether the report is released publically and what are the names involved in giving Bresch a "temporary" eMBA.

Round of Reubens

2008-04-22T06:30:00.001-07:00

Heathergate is slowly winding down now that the panel of investigators have submitted their findings to WVU Provost Gerald Lang. Interesting is the difference in the articles from the Gazette and Daily Mail (same AP article) and the Post Gazette. The WV newspapers focus on the panel and a very loose wrap-up of the questions surrounding this case with a conclusion that Bresch was 10-credits short of her degree and insists she was told by Paul Speaker that work experience would count for the final semester. On the other hand the PPG goes into much more depth in review and also briefs the reader on the next issue which is FERPA.

The newspaper's review of university records found that after the decision was made, WVU officials added 22 credits to Ms. Bresch's transcript, nearly half of the 48 credits the degree required. The changes included adding six courses, with grades, that previously were not on her record and changing two course "incompletes" to letter grades. The newspaper found the changes were made without documents showing she had registered, paid or done the work for the classes.

Since the Dec. 21 story, WVU officials have offered various, often contradictory, explanations of how they made the decision -- including acknowledgements by Mr. Lang and business school Dean R. Stephen Sears that they lacked the records to show Ms. Bresch completed the degree

The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is used to prohibit student records from being publicly released without student and family permission. However, the PPG fires the first salvo here:

"The main issue here is for the faculty to be satisfied that nothing inappropriate occurred," said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Nassirian said WVU would not violate Ms. Bresch's FERPA rights by turning the entire report over to the faculty senate.

"They certainly have a direct educational interest and every right to review the case without consent," he said.

OS took a bunch of pictures at the Spring Game and if he ever gets off the farm again for a few minutes may even get them up somewhere. It appeared to be a big day for WVU recruiting on Saturday as four more recruits made pledges with WVU.

No less than four committed over the weekend - fullback-linebacker, Chris Snook, linebacker Branko Busick, wide receiver Deon Long and defensive end Dominik Davenport.

Snook, a 6-foot-3, 223-pounder from Highland High School in Medina, Ohio, picked West Virginia over Wake Forest and a handful of other offers that included Cincinnati and a bunch of Mid-American Conference schools. A sprinter on his school's track team, Snook will probably get his first look at the fullback-tight end hybrid.

Long is a 5-11, 176-pounder from Dunbar High School in Washington who had offers from Michigan State and Duke. Davenport is a 6-1, 245-pounder from Phoebus High School in Virginia, which is where WVU quarterback commitment Tajh Boyd plays. Davenport had offers from Maryland and Virginia. And Busick is a 6-1, 220-pound linebacker from across the Ohio River at Steubenville, Ohio.

More on Branko Busick here who is a longtime friend of current Mountaineer Zac Cooper. More on Chris Snook here:

While most schools looked at the 6-foot-3, 228-pound 17-year-old with a 375-pound bench press and drooled at the thought of a speed rushing linebacker, Mountaineers offensive coordinator Jim Mullen saw the second coming of graduated fullback Owen Schmitt.

Deon Long excerpt is here:

Deon Long, WR, Dunbar High (Baltimore), 6-0/180/4.50: Long has the quintessential receiver's mentality. "(The camp) is going good for me because nobody can check me," he confidently uttered during one of the breaks. "People were saying I couldn't get off of the jam, and I'm proving that I can against the best." Long showed deceptive speed, good hands and a desire to be physical. Michigan State was the first to offer him and is firmly entrenched in his top five.

The biggest catch, both in repuation and size, of the weekend was "Baby D" Dominik Davenport.

Dominik Davenport, the Daily Press Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-State pick as a junior, committed to the Mountaineers during an unofficial visit last weekend.

Davenport is on the same team as WVU pledge Tajh Boyd and friends with Logan Heastie. Both attended the Spring Game and brought friends and family with them. The family was nice, but the friends that also play football are better. One has already committed and more came along for a look at WVU. Out of the 6 early pledges 3 are from the Chesapeake/Hampton area VT has owned (3 of the top 4 according to Rivals), 2 are from Ohio, and one from DC. So over half are from areas that are not traditionally WVU strongholds which bodes well for the new staff in recruiting.

Bill Stewart Gets It

2008-04-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

From Blue Gold News:

“You saw where we tried to put the ball: over the ‘backers and in front of the safeties,” Stewart said. “We have to keep people off us and out of the box, and not just by throwing in the flats. We have to do more than throw bubble screens.”

Emphasis added.

Updates galore

2008-04-18T07:26:00.000-07:00

Heather Bresch is still in attack mode as the AP ran a story written by West Virginia journalist Vicki Smith in which another Mylan employee just so happened to hear about the Bresch controversy and wanted to weigh in with the fact that she had 10 hours of independent study.

Speaker's comment to the AP "was in complete contrast with the arrangements he made for me," said Korczynski, a member of the first graduating class in the EMBA program. "He allowed me great flexibility and leniency in completing the requirements."

Korczynski, whose final semester also included four classes worth 10 credits, said she told her story to the investigating panel by telephone Wednesday.

Korczynski, 39, said she met Bresch, 38, for the first time last week. She went to the panel only to highlight an apparent contradiction, not to help a co-worker, she said.

Volley to Post Gazette. Response?

The situation involving Ms. Korczynski, who told the AP she was hired by Mylan in January as director of business development, appears to be different than the one that Ms. Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, says she arranged. The E.M.B.A. program was designed in part to allow students to do course work outside the classroom, but Ms. Bresch told the AP last week that Mr. Speaker allowed her to substitute work experience for 10 credits.

The newspaper found officials added six courses and grades, worth 16 credits, to her transcript without any record of her registering, paying or doing the work for the classes, and without consulting the professors who taught the courses. In addition, two courses that had been marked "incomplete" were changed to letter grades.

So Mylan brings out a worker, hired in January, who pretends to have heard nothing of the story while working at Mylan to validate the Mylan story that working should equal class credit. Did I mention Mylan? However, the real story is that she was allowed to finish her classes remotely due to moving. This does not equal getting credit for doing nothing (they all work in that program) and having grades rewritten to the tune of over 20 credits.

One of the other ongong messes involving WVU is the Rodriguez lawsuit. Interesting developments in that as well this week. First the WVU Foundation, which was removed from the case as a third party by Judge Stone after being added in a Rodriguez cross-claim, has sued Rodriguez to get their legal costs back. The claim is that Rodriguez filed the claim friviously and knowingly without merit. Hard to prove unless someone is an idiot and runs around bragging about bringing a non-meritous claim. Opps.

"Mr. Robon (Rodriguez's lawyer) clearly suggested in an article in the Detroit Free Press that their reasons for naming the Foundation as a third party defendant was a 'key tactic' done to 'gain leverage' and 'equal the playing field.'"

"Mr. Robon's statements in the Detroit Free Press demonstrate that the filing of the third party complaint was done without a good faith argument for the extension, modification or reversal of existing law, but instead to annoy and inconvenience the Foundation and West Virginia University,"

Whether or not this wins it is funny that every "tactic" used by RRod is blowing up in his face. Such as this. Calvin Magee released the name of the person accused of making the racial statements to him. Remember the "bombshell" headline by Chuck Finder. MAGEE SAYS HE WANTED TO STAY AT WEST VIRGINIA BUT WASN'T TAKEN SERIOUSLY BECAUSE HE IS BLACK. Here is what Magee said yesterday:

"This is being made out to be a racial claim by the early reports. I've never made a racial 'claim,'" Magee said. "I listed some facts that occurred. How it is interpreted is up to the interpreter. Some facts that I stated in preparing for the bowl game. Some treatments by the president, some treatments by the athletic director. That's what I did. How it was printed and how it was relayed, it's just the facts.

But it gets even better as the accused racial pointer, Larry Aschebrook has not only denied the claims due to not being in the building on those days in question, but has stated he was offered a job at Michigan by Rodriguez. Why? Well the affidavit is a thing of beauty. First Aschebrook denies ever being in the building on the two days in question. Second is an alleged phone converstation between Aschebrook, Rodriguez, and Magee which is comedy on the highest level. Here are the good parts. Aschebrook calls up RRod and asks what's going on, that these statements are untrue and going to get him fired, and that the statements make him look racist and are fucked up. Rodriguez responds with this beauty. "No, WVU is fucked up they are suing me for $4million." Nice. Magee gets on the phone and Aschebrook asks why he is making up claims to which Magee responds that WVU treated him poorly (assumedly during the bowl prep) and "it's fucked up, you know it is." When asked why Magee had Greg Frey back up his story Magee states that Frey did not want Magee to look like a liar and that Frey knows the way WVU is. I guess WVU being "fucked up" makes it ok to label an innocent person a racist. Then the coup de grace comes fast and furious. Aschebrook states his worry about getting fired and not having the money they have to fall back on to which Rodriguez responds. "This isn't about you Larry, it's about me. You can't afford it, I can't afford it...I'm sorry about this, but it's business not friendship." Finally, when pressed Rodriguez said he would "tell the press that it had nothing to do with me (Aschebrook)...so will Calvin." When asked what to do after he was fired and labelled a racist Aschebrook was told Magee would tell the press that he was supportive and WVU used him as a scapegoat. How asks Aschebrook?

Aschebrook asked "You will tell who? Chuck Finder?" Rodriguez said, "Yes." Mr. Magee said, "Yeah, Chuck will help us." Hahahahaha. PPG story on this. Not written by Chuck Finder.

The take away is this. Rodriguez was at best a little manipulative and uncaring with Aschebrook. At worst he had Magee float a fake story potentially ruining a former friend's career. Either way Rodriguez apparently responds to any potential problem with an explitive ridden statement about WVU and asking "What about me? I'm being sued." And finally Chuck Finder will write what Rich Rodriguez tells him to write because he is a tool.

Kirk Herbstreit is on Crack

2008-04-17T05:33:00.001-07:00

And probably a few other juicy narcotics. And I think I smell a hint of too much sun + White Russians.

Yup, Kirk is picking UConn to win the Big East in football this year. That UConn team that WV beat like a million to nothing when the Big East title was on the line last year. That UConn team that played the softest schedule in the known universe. That UConn team that needed a fake fair catch to beat Louisville.

Yeah, I got an eight ball this morning. When I get off work I'm going to do it all up and make a prediction that Syracuse is going undefeated and will beat USC in the title game. And people will still love me.....

Round of Reubens

2008-04-16T06:52:00.000-07:00

First a name I've never heard before. Damon McDaniel. McDaniel is from the Virginia Beach area and was one of the top recruited wide receivers in 2006. He completed his second year at Florida State last year with 4 catches and 7 for his career. In high school he was coached by Chris Beatty. None of this is really important until you read that McDaniel left FSU and is currently in community college while deciding where to go next.

“I’m still sorting through the recruiting process and have narrowed it down to Virginia Tech and West Virginia. I haven’t heard much at all from Virginia Tech.”

He just visited Morgantown unofficially last week. Unfortunately for him as of now WVU hasn't offered either. Might be time to expand the list.

In all-around sports news WVU is currently sitting 6th in the Director's Cup standings. The Director's Cup shows overall excellence within the athletic department. WVU has never finished higher than 41st in the overall standings.

Maybe Chuck Finder should file a story. Pitt suspended safety Sherod Murdock and possibly may have files charged against tackle Jason Pinkston for an alleged off-campus fight. After the fight Murdock may have been a little fired up. And since this is from a site citing an anonymous source we'll take the next step in "telephone" and say that Murdock was found completely naked and covered in blood riding an old atomic bomb through the dorm halls like Slim Pickens while shooting lazers out of his eys. Purple monkey cow poop.

Finally, one of the former WVU players that we never thought would be in trouble was Boo McLee. We take that one back now as McLee is headed to court on drug possession with intent to deliver.

State police filed the charge against Cleo Kevin "Boo" McLee, 24, of Uniontown, after a traffic stop. Police allege McLee, a minor league arena football player, had $506, marijuana and cocaine when he was pulled over in Uniontown for three alleged motor vehicle violations in October.

Not sure what the amount is that makes it intent to deliver in Pennsylvania or if the drugs were in Ingram-like individual baggies, but I'd use the "going to see the Crue" defense in this case.

Represent Our Great State

2008-04-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

Not bad.

Good News/Bad News

2008-04-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

All of these stories have a little of both today.

First the good news is that Joe Alexander did not hire an agent, but the bad news is that he has declared himself eligible for the draft.

As of now, I cannot see myself leaving because it would be very tough for me to miss a year playing with my teammates,"

The good news is that under Huggins it is likely for the higher caliber player to be more common at WVU. The bad news is that those guys don't normally stick around for 4 or 5 years.

More good news is that Heathergate is finally appearing to wind down. The bad news is that no matter what common sense tells you she and everyone else is going to get away with it by playing the "work experience" card. Heather spoke for the first time this week attempting to clear the path for that argument after the lost records and failing to pay the graduation fee didn't fly.

She said she cleared the work-experience-for-credit arrangement with Paul Speaker, the former head of WVU's EMBA program.

Speaker did not exactly give her a ringing endorsement however.

However, he said he cannot recall any instance in the history of the EMBA program when work experience substituted for course work.

"If you look through the annals of anything at the university, you will not find a single course for which experience would replace the course,'' he said. "If you were a CPA, you had to take our accounting. If you were an attorney, you had to take our business law. And it was very strict.''

Students worked in teams, he said, "and we felt the obligation of the individual to the team and to the whole class was very important.''

When coupled with the discrepancy in records it would appear to be enough to show that Heather hasn't proved she earned her degree. First she needed 22, not 10, credits as she has claimed. Secondly there is this:.

Her statement was the first time the explanation of work-related credits has been offered by Ms. Bresch or WVU, and does not coincide with changes WVU made to her record in October.

The Post-Gazette's review of university records found that after deciding to award the degree, WVU officials added six classes, worth 16 credits, to her transcript. Only one of the courses, worth four credits, was an independent study class that conceivably could have reflected work-related hours. The four independent study credits were recorded as having been earned in the summer of 1998, before Ms. Bresch says she spoke with Mr. Speaker.

The changes to the transcript also included awarding letter grades for two classes, worth six credits, that previously were recorded as incomplete.

But when something like this happens you just bring in the big guns to change the playing field and in this case his name is Mylan Puskar.

"I find it disheartening that a woman of Heather's integrity, character and extraordinary intellect has been attacked as she has been over the past four months,'' Puskar said in a statement to The Associated Press late Wednesday.

"It's particularly troublesome because, if not for Heather, it's likely we would not have an Executive MBA program at WVU,'' said Puskar, who seldom issues personal statements. "... She certainly helped pioneer the program 12 years ago, and it has since benefited the university, virtually hundreds of students and many businesses.''

Meanwhile, WVU's chief academic officer said Wednesday that many departments allow students to use work experience to meet graduation credit requirements, either as electives or for the core curriculum.

So now an unnamed source is already on record saying that it is common for the credits to stand after Speaker has said it never happens and Puskar has stated she started the program by herself, built the Heath Sciences Center by hand, and saved 6 kittens from a house fire while teaching crippled children to read.

More bad news. John Prescott "resigned" this week as the Dean of the School of Medicine yet he is staying on staff. Why?

At the end of the day, this is just someone who has done some soul searching and made a personal decision about what he wants to do,” said Fred Butcher, the president of the Health Sciences Center.

Prescott would have given a statement, but dead men tell no tales. The over/under on his "new" position as a professor of emergency medicine is 3 months. And the new dean. Probably going to need West Virginia ties would be the guess here. No good news with this one.

Back to sports. Good news is that Huggins and Stewart both have West Virginia ties. The bad news is that neither has a contract.

"At some point we'll have a detailed contract completed," Pastilong said, adding that the term sheets are legal and binding. Term sheets are often used as templates for contracts.

Yes, they are used as templates, but not as the contracts themselves for years on end. Good lord.

Mens Top 25

2008-04-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

Rivals releases projected top 25 for next year, with eight Big East schools in the mix. The Mounties are in at 17.

http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=795213

Round of Reubens

2008-04-08T07:20:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to attend the first scrimmage on Saturday during the coaching clinic and here are the random thoughts from the experience. First of the coaches were extremely approachable. Stewart stopped to make sure we had enjoyed the experience and learned something while apologizing for going too long on his discussion of special teams that morning. I watched as a coach came up to Jeff Mullens and started big timing him with stories of his coaching glory. Mullens listened patiently the entire time and then at the end gave the man his name which must have not been recognized. He got a little embarrassed when Mullens blew the whistle and took the offensive reigns as he was standing there. Made that big onsides kick call in '03 he was talking about sound a little less important. The offensive coaches were more soft spoken while the defensive coaches were definitely more in your face. However, all were placing a heavy emphasis on fundamentals. Especially Galloway with the wide receivers, Lockwood with the defensive backs, and Mullen with the quarterbacks. Probably all areas of need:

"Coach [Bill Stewart is] a good man. It's like coach Stew lets the position coach teach you up like you're supposed to. Coach Rod used to come teach us and wouldn't let coach [Tony] Gibson do his job. Coach Stew sits back and lets coach [David] Lockwood do his job."

The young players that stood out were Brandon Hogan, Will Johnson and Bradley Starks. Hogan was playing on all three different offensive squads in the slot and made some plays both in space and down the field. After moving Thor Merrow from defensive line to the fullback/tightend earlier this spring it appears that Will Johnson may end up beating him out for the spot. Johnson and Evan Rodriguez have both been moved recently and Johnson was the more physical during the scrimmage and apparently has been making plays in all the practices. Word is that Charlie Russell has been injured. He better get well soon if he wants a shot at the third qb slot as Starks looks like PW running around out there and made some plays with his arm. Starks is also getting some reps at the receiver position.

With three linemen out for the spring and Devine playing only the first series the defense was slightly ahead of the offense in the scrimmage. The offense looked very similar to previous seasons. The passing game is flooding the zone quite often and while the checkdown was used primarily during the scrimmage there is a deep option and a middle option as well. The running backs are in need of reinforcements. Jock Sanders worked with the first group in the beginning. After him it was a committee in which no one stood out or made anyone miss. Hopefully part of that is good defense.

In basketball news recruit Kevin Jones was named a parade All-American. He is believed to be the fifth Parade All-American to sign with WVU since 1985 or the same total as the starting five for Duke.

And since the castle didn't work out for you BSR maybe you can get Rich's old house. A steal at $10,763/month.

Supreme Court Circus

2008-04-07T07:52:00.000-07:00

When John Grisham writes a novel about your state Supreme Court there may be something wrong. There are four parties in play in this clusterfuck. Don Blankenship, "Spike" Maynard, Brent Benjamin, and Larry Starcher. At stake is hundreds of millions of dollars juries have given companies in verdicts against Massey Energy that are being appealed to the high court of the state.

Last week the Court sided with Massey Energy 3-2 to overturn a $77 million decision. The deciding vote was cast by Benjamin after both Maynard and Startcher recused themselves from the case. Benjamin appointed the replacements and, as acting chief justice, was able to decide who wrote the majority opinion which is huge when deciding how broad to go in cases of law. Benjamin defeated Warren McGraw in 2004 largely on the back of the And for the Sake of the Kids advertising which stated that McGraw had the deciding vote to let a child molester go free. The case actually swung on whether to revoke probation for Tony Arbaugh after he tested for marijuana and alcohol. Arbaugh had been convicted of abuse of his brother at age 14, but the Court ruled 3-2 for probation and then did not revoke due to Arbaugh being only 18 and having been a victim of abuse starting from the age of 7. Blankenship, CEO of Massey, contributed almost 70% of the amount raised for And for the Sake of the Kids.

Meanwhile Maynard was famously photographed in Monoco with Blankenship as the appeal was about to be heard. ABC news has investigated and of course Blankenship used this opportunity to remind everyone of southern hospitality and gentlemanly manners.

"If you're going to start taking pictures of me, you're liable to get shot,"

After roughing up the reporter Blankenship stated:

"The notion that I have taken any action to improperly influence the Supreme Court of West Virginia is baseless and absurd."

Maynard is up for re-election this year and is attempting to distance himself from Blankenship. And he is offering proof:

Maynard also contends that he has voted against the Richmond, Va.-based Massey more often than voting in its favor, offering a list of 16 cases.

That is solid right?

The Associated Press earlier identified eight published opinions by the Supreme Court in which Maynard sided with Massey, dissenting from the majority's ruling in half of them. Maynard's list is shy four of those cases, including the November decision vacating a $76 million judgment won against the coal producer by Harman Mining.

Opps.

Meanwhile the main anti-Blankenship force on the Court is Larry Starcher. Starcher recused himself from the last Massey case because he had made some inflammatory remarks about Blankenship including calling Blankenship a cancer on the courts, stupid, and a clown.

If all this isn't enough get ready for more as more cases hit the Supreme Court.

Massey Energy Co. believes a recent interview of West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher by ABC News strengthens its argument that he should recuse himself from its appeal of a $240 million judgment won against it by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp.

And people in the country believe that the court system is the non-political branch of government.

Dean McConnell

2008-04-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Joyce McConnell was named the new Dean of the WVU School of Law today, from the State Bar release:

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. - A legal scholar and nationally-recognized leader in legal education has been named the new dean of the West Virginia University College of Law.

Joyce E. McConnell, associate dean for academic affairs and endowed professor of law at the College, has accepted the position after an extensive, nationwide search to replace outgoing dean, John W. Fisher II. She is only the second woman to serve as dean of the College of Law in its 130 year history.

McConnell will assume the role effective July 1 and brings a background of academic excellence, teaching experience and policy development to the position.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to tap into the legal knowledge and teaching expertise we have right here in the current program," said WVU President Mike Garrison, a 1996 graduate from WVU's College of Law. "Joyce brings a great deal of passion for education, having instructed legal scholars for over two decades, and knowledge of policy development and administration. She has assured me that she will lead our law school into the 21st century and upward in the rankings. This is an exciting time for us because it is a time of change. Much effort will be put into substantially upgrading our facilities as well as raising the national stature of the College."

WVU Provost Gerald Lang said that McConnell's familiarity with the WVU program will provide her an advantage in leading the program.

"She is familiar with the faculty, the alumni and the legacy of the WVU College of Law. This will give her a substantial advantage as she pursues new successes and manages the challenges," he said. "As a highly respected member of the legal and teaching community, she has amassed an impressive record in teaching, research and service, in publication, and in policy development."

The WVU College of Law has an unbroken tradition of academic excellence and a commitment to mission through 130 years of service to the legal education needs of its students and the residents of the State of West Virginia.

"West Virginia University College of Law is an outstanding law school thanks to its talented students, gifted faculty of teacher-scholars, dedicated staff, committed alumni, and a decade of superb leadership by Dean John Fisher," said McConnell. "I consider it a privilege and honor to lead this special community as its new dean and look forward to building on the law school's tradition of excellence."

McConnell joined the WVU College of Law in 1995, where she has served as a professor of law teaching courses in land-use planning, natural resources and negotiations. She served as associate dean of academic affairs from 1998-2001 and again from 2006 to today.

She has been the recipient of the West Virginia Law Review Outstanding Faculty Contribution Award and the WVU Mary Catherine Buswell and Women's Law Caucus awards.

Andrea Marano, a 2006 graduate of the WVU College of Law, said in an email supporting McConnell's candidacy: "Joyce McConnell is the most qualified candidate for the position not only because of her academic background and dedication to the law school, but also because she is highly respected by ... individuals who are important to the general and financial growth of the law school. Dean McConnell's leadership and charisma are apparent in all that she does. (Her) intelligence and scholarship are only two of her great assets. Her approach to issues and her interactions with the community, however, are most remarkable and should be given great weight as you consider her qualifications."

McConnell received her master of law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1990, a juris doctor degree from the Antioch School of Law in 1982 and bachelor's degree from Evergreen State College in 1979.

The finalists for Dean can be found here. It is interesting that as with all things in this state it became apparent during the interview process that the "West Virginia" ties and knowledge of West Viginia became all important. At first that seemed to be a possible hinderence for McConnell, but one she must have overcome. While not the candidate I would have picked given no boundaries, we'll give her some time to prove the committee right or wrong. I mean that seems to have worked out well with Garrison. /hits self in head with log.

Pa Pa Pants Man

2008-04-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

Which is better the real one, or the new one?

The Morgantown Address

2008-04-04T07:41:00.000-07:00

Tummysticks last post inspired me to pen the following. Partial credit must be given to Abe Lincoln.

Four score and eight months ago, our AD brought forth for this program a new nation, conceived in bubble-screens, and dedicated to the proposition that all Mountaineers should have red and green wristbands.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great legal battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, to Mylan Puskar, and to the love of Mountaineer athletics and Mylan’s money. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, both free and those occassionally imprisoned or suspended , who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what Coach Dick Rod said or claims, but it can never forget what glory the West Virginia Mountaineers attained here. It is for us the proud West Virginia fans, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who played here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored athletes, we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these players shall not have played in vain—that this nation, under Bill Stewart, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that football of the Mountaineers, by the Mountaineers, for the Mountaineers, shall not perish from Morgantown, but win Championships for us all.

Former Mountaineers in Court

2008-04-04T06:40:00.000-07:00

And it isn't a post about PacMan or Henry.

Despite the amount of coverage it has received there is nothing exciting or significant going on in the RR trial yet (and probably not this year if they don't hurry). The Foundation was removed since they were never a party despite RR's camp trying to write them in with a third party claim, the fraudulent inducement claim will be allowed to continue for now with the burden of proof still on RR to show "the use of deceit or trick to cause someone to act to his/her disadvantage, such as signing an agreement or deeding away real property. The heart of this type of fraud is misleading the other party as to the facts upon which he/she will base his/her decision to act," RR must still overcome a merger clause which will state that only warranties within the contract were relied upon and the fact he employed counsel to oversee these things, and the last decision was that WVU attorneys can get a look at the Michigan correspondence to see just when the meetings took place.

Here are the only fireworks from yesterday:

"It's like back before the Civil War when slaves had the right to buy their freedom," said Marv Robon, one of Rodriguez's lawyers. "A penalty of $4 million is almost like a slave from Africa trying to buy his freedom in America. I think it's an outrageous amount. It's just not fair and it's not related to any damages the university is suffering."

Not bad coming from the camp that has played the race card (with Magee) already. Of course RR signed a similar contract with a similar provision at Michigan so it just proves that the self-hatred that slavery produces is so ingrained that one never truly can love themselves. I only hope that RR can overcome this institutionalized degradation of being held against his will from his time of capture (remember RR running free in the fields of Africa before his confinement), with his son separated at birth and sold to Washington State University, his forced work, and lack of compensation (if you look past the millions of dollars which doesn't count) and can someday live in a world where he isn't property but able to move from school to school while interviewing on the school owned airplane during the season (twice), make horrible entrance videos featuring Metallica, throwing the bubble screen 75% of the time, and most important being able to blame execution of his players following every poor performance without taking any blame whatsoever. If he can do all that (and still be paid $2 million or more per year) then, and only then, will RR truly be free.

Chris Henry and other criminals

2008-04-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since Henry made any news. Good thing he likes to drink and smash.

Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry has been accused of punching an 18-year-old man in the face and breaking his car window with a beer bottle, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Henry likes them young and that goes in the bedroom too ladies. He served two days in jail for letting minors drink in his hotel room. My guess here is that the young man just didn't want to stay the night and that made Mr. Henry sad. When asked for comment on the punch/window smashing Henry's agent had this to say:

"I was told it didn't happen that way," Frazier said.

Well that clears everything up.

Maybe Henry needs a coach that understands him. Like this dude:

A Hofstra assistant football coach was suspended with pay by the university after being charged with misdemeanor assault. Assistant defensive backs coach Kahmal Roy was charged Monday for his part in a fight that broke out after a recreation league touch-football game. The 28-year-old Roy punched 57-year-old Stephen Malone as they were shaking hands after a game Sunday, Nassau County police said. Roy said through a spokesman that Malone started the fight by spitting on him. Malone denies spitting and tells Newsday that he suffered a broken face bone and a knee injury.

A sad day for Southern WV nudie bars as the owner of several Southern XPosure clubs was sentenced to more than three years for income tax evasion and fraud. One of those is near a Biscuit World, but BSR would never let me eat there (or the Biscuit World). The ladies will be dancing with heavy hearts this week and a black patch over their left nipple to remember Mr. Cline. Note: patch will probably come off in the jacuzzi room.

Finally, speaking of cocks the WV Humane Society thinks we'll see more of them in the state as Virginia has made cockfighting a felony while it is only a misdemeanor in WV. WV has considered toughening the laws, but has put it off as part of the state being "Open for Business."

WVU 2008 recruiting finalized

2008-04-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday WVU officials announced the final additions to the 2008 class when center/guard Benji Kemoeatu and tailback Mark Rodgers signed with the Mountaineers. On Benji:

Kemoeatu, 6-foot-4, 325 pounds, hails from Kahuku, Hawaii, where he was an all-state pick. He played both guard and center and was a two-time first-team all-state selection. Kemoeatu was rated the No. 2 football prospect in Hawaii and was ranked among the top 12 offensive guards in the nation after helping Kahuku win two state championships. His two brothers played in the NFL: Maake with the Carolina Panthers and Chris with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And on Rodgers:

As a senior at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, Calif., in 2006, Rodgers ran for 2,319 yards and 19 touchdowns in 11 games. That season he began with just 107 combined yards in the first two games and then averaged 245.7 yards over the final nine games. Rodgers was named All-Los Angeles County League Player of the Year, region co-player of the year and was an all-state selection. As a junior in 2005, Rodgers ran for 2,400 yards and scored 31 touchdowns. He reportedly ran a 10.57 100-meter dash as a senior in high school, placing fourth in the California state meet.

He also once reportedly jumped over the Golden Gate Bridge and knocked down a building by punching it. All reports are believed to have come from the Rodgers household.

In addition to the recruits, which brings the current number to 28 so either some aren't going to make it in academically or be grey shirted as 25 is the max, Devon Lyons (brother of Wes) is transferring to WVU from Ohio State for his senior year. Because he won a "hardship" case, moving closer to home due to family circumstances (his father is sick), Devon will be eligible this coming year.

The current, and probably final, rankings for WVU recruiting for the year are 42 for Rivals and 36 for Scout. WVU went very hard for defense this year especially the defensive line. Yet late the Mountaineers still secured two big-time linemen in Jenkins and Kemoeatu (along with two other linemen signings of Josh Bassler from Maryland and Joey Madsen from Ohio) and three running backs (Kerns, JUCO Zach Hulce, and Rodgers) including two late to give depth. The signings do not doom the chances of Ed Collington ever seeing the field again, but make it less likely he will be reinstated.

Finally, last year there was talk of having both PW and Jarrett Brown on the field at the same time. It was another possibility lost in the bubble-screen/run Pat White up the middle-apolloza of the offense late in the year. The two-QB package talk has been rekindled this year. Of course that all goes away if the experimentation with bubble screens turns into an addiction. Damn you bubble screens.

Round of Reubens

2008-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Joe Alexander for making AP honorable mention All-America. Don't think too many people would have believed you if you had told them Joe would do that in mid-January. Even if they knew that 47 people made the honorable mention team. Damn that is almost is many as the All-Big East squad.

The football team is back to practice this week and Jarrett Brown has re-joined the team in time to start throwing bombs. Everything sounds like you'd want to hear coming from Stewart so far regarding the passing game:

“We haven’t been getting the ball on the deep-zone throws,” Stewart said. “We’re trying to get the ball down the field in the middle of the field as everyone has been harping on us to throw it down the middle like we did in the bowl game a little bit.

“When they go cover three there are deep seams in the back and we have not been attacking that area and I was really, really pleased to see Jarrett get in there and throw those,” Stewart said. “Pat (White) went in and had a couple of nice throws, too.”

Except maybe this:

“It’s really the same stuff but there is a lot of window dressing with our motion and movement that is new,” Stewart said. “The flood routes we’re doing; getting the ball out on the flanks with the blockers. We’re doing bubble screens with (Jock) Sanders and it’s like we’ve got trucks out there blocking for him. It’s a new screen offense and schematically a flooding zone new offense.”

Watch yourself Bill. It's a slippery slope. One day your throwing the ball all around and stretching the defense all over the field and then you mix in a bubble screen just to try it because all the cool kids are doing it. Next thing you know you're at a truck stop fighting trannies for the right to give truckers a handjob to make some scratch for the next bubble screen. Just be careful.

One team that may fall victim to many bubble screens is Liberty University. The Flames have been signed as the opening game for WVU football in 2009.

Liberty hasn’t won a game against an FBS opponent since beating Eastern Michigan in 1989. The Flames led Toledo 34-22 heading into the fourth quarter last season before losing 35-34.

Liberty is a fundamentalist Baptist university located in Lynchburg, Virginia. The Flames (great name for a religous school) went 8-3 last year and won the Big South Conference. Reasons for this game? Stewart might want attend a church service there in return? Home game? Oh yes, easy win in VA area. Of course recruits probably won't care too much about that, but maybe WVU coaches get down there to "scout" and do some recruiting on the way.

Finally, it appears that Joe Paterno has decided to keep coaching Penn State football. Even if it means he actually isn't employed by PSU. Paterno, on the last year of his current contract and being pressured for a succession plan, had this to say recently:

“If I’ve got to have a contract to keep my job here, I’m working in the wrong place”

Should Penn State bring in a new head coach next year you can bet he'll wake up from a nap on his office couch to see Joe rifling through the desk or calling up recruits on a rotary phone. And it will be awkward 10 years from now when the coach has to explain who the crazy old guy in knee pants (it might rain later) and glasses is giving a pep talk in the corner to stuffed animals before the game.

I'd rather have a homerun

2008-04-01T06:20:00.000-07:00

This one probably belongs on either Fire Joe Morgan or Awful Announcing more than here, but here goes. Last night during the travesty that was a AAA Pirates-Braves game the Bucs took a 5-run lead late into the ninth. Pirate color analyst Steve Blass made the following observation which is inexplicable.

When having a big lead late in the game, giving up a homerun is better for the pitcher than walking the batter. Now I could have let it go, but he did it again in the 12th when the Buccos had a three run lead going into the inning.

Here is what he may have meant. Throwing strikes it better in that situation than walking the batter because even the best home-run hitter only averages a big fly once every 8 at bats or so (50 HRs in 400 ABs = good season) or 12% of the time. He also makes outs at least 65% of the time. Since a run can't tie the game it is better to try to get the out than give in and walk the batter. That makes sense. The other is preposterous.

The reasoning by Blass follows. 1. Lead-off walks lead to big innings; 2. A walk forces the infield to play differently than normal; 3. The outfielders will be thinking about their throws and not the game; and 4. The pitcher must go from the stretch and maybe their confidence is shaken. Let's take these one at a time.

1. This doesn't make sense. I'll show you. Ask any person you see today that watches baseball if they would rather have their team hit a lead off home-run in every inning the next game or have the lead off guy walk (which could lead to 9 "big-innings"). I bet they take option 1 since you get 9 guaranteed runs. The reasoning is simple. Once the guy hits the homerun you have a run. A walked batter can still make an out a variety of ways. Caught stealing, picked off, caught trying to take an extra base, forced out, double play, interference, etc. The guy who hit the homerun can only sit and drink Gatorade. Another scenario; your team trails by 4 going into the ninth. Would you rather have your team hit three straight solo homers or three straight walks to start the inning? Both situations bring the tying run to the plate, but only in one situation can a pitcher get out of the inning with a single pitch.

2. The infield doesn't have to play differently. If the run is meaningless (the point of the "give up the home run" strategy) just play the infield at normal depth. Or have your pitcher balk three times to get the run in and the runner off the field. Better yet have your catcher throw the ball into right field on ball four while the entire outfield runs to sign autographs. Why don't people do this? Because it would be stupid to give up the run even if it is meaningless when you could get an extra out on a linedrive or hard hit ground ball.

3. That doesn't deserve a response other than if your outfielders are so dumb they can't catch the ball while thinking about a potential cut-off throw they probably endorse this strategy of walks being deadlier than a home run.

4. Once again have the pitcher wind up. Who cares if the guy steals 2nd, 3rd, and home? If the run is meaningless just forget about him (note this does happen sometimes in games). And while you are doing that the runner could still fall down and be tagged out or get doubled up on a pop-out. Neither of which could happen if he hit a home run to start the inning. The confidence thing may be true. If a guy can't throw strikes his confidence will be shaken. Especially three walks in a row. But, you know what else could cause a confidence slippage? Giving up three straight homeruns to start an inning. At least the first guy can still get a double play with one pitch and hasn't given up a run yet. The second guy is probably scared to throw strikes now and could walk the next batter which will probably cause a "big inning."

Note: After searching around on FJM I found out they had a similar discussion last year (with of all people Tim McCarver surprised that a study showed more big innings start with homeruns over walks) and guess what? Statistics show that you are more likely to score 2+ runs in an inning starting out with a homerun over a walk.

Round of Reubens

2008-03-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

First BSR is still house hunting and they always say that a man's home is his castle. So do it up right for $2.8 million.

A stone castle with turrets and parapets, a wrought iron staircase, marble fireplace and more than 25,000 square feet of space overlooking Cheat Lake is for sale for $2.8 million.

Remember if you are going to buy a castle you will need lots of scratch. Anyone can steal to get the money. Only smart people get away with it. Sherrin Daniel was not one of the smarter ones. She was a found guilty of embezzling nearly $16,000 from WVU while working as an accounting assistant at WVU's International Center for Performance Excellence.

A criminal complaint alleges that Daniel opened a PayPal account and then used university-issued purchasing cards to transfer money into that account. From there, it was then transferred to Daniel's personal bank account. The complaint also alleges Daniel used a university purchasing card to pay a utility bill and used a supervisor's name and Social Security number to obtain satellite television service.

She was sentenced to 1-10 years suspended and ordered to pay back the money. She will be on probation, have community service (150 hours) and be forced to accept an MBA from the Mylan Puskar Business School.

Stories like that take away from the genius that goes on everyday at WVU. Such as this:

The beer pong table cost over $1000. If they added the term "baby" to it the table costs would have doubled. I spent the weekend working on securing baby items for the upcoming baby tummysticks. The wife even got a baby bargain book. Every item in the "bargain" book was the same. You can get the cheaper one but it will more than likely kill you and/or the baby so you should get the most expensive one. Thanks bargain book. Also you will need at least two of everything because infant stuff doesn't work for newborns. So newborns get roughly $5,000 worth of stuff that is no good anymore in 6 months as they become "infants" and you have to replace it all. And people wonder why parents go insane.

Random hate

2008-03-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

This has absolutely nothing to do with WVU, but it is too funny not to link. I saw this first on AOL, but when I went to see the actual article and comments I damn near fell out of my chair. It appears. Furman Bisher doesn't like the Japs (as I'm sure he'd call them). On opening day in Japan:

Eight springs ago the Mets and Cubs opened the season, not in Cincinnati. Guess where? Tokyo. That Tokyo, the guys who gave us Pearl Harbor. Some people don’t like you to bring that up, trade with Japan is so hot. But I’ve got a long memory. I saw what a few bombs can do to our property.

But that isn't even the best part. If you get a chance read through some of the comments. Of course there are those that point out that Bisher may in fact need to retire or move on.

By Jason

March 26, 2008 9:38 AM | Link to this

You know it’s time to hang ‘em up when your articles read like very well done satire.

or this

By beedlebaum

March 26, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this

It’s amazing that, while there are real complaints about having an opening day in Japan, you come up with this half-baked garbage.

Ignoring that the Japanese know (probably much better than you) what a few bombs can do, and have managed to invite the national pasttime of the country that dropped those bombs into their country and have celebrated that pasttime is borderline is about as stupid as it gets. Maybe you should really considering retiring. Seriously, even Andy Rooney laughs at your column.

But the best are the guys that defend the comments and talk about the "nuclear" bombs dropped by the U.S.

By Bob in Buford

March 26, 2008 12:42 PM | Link to this

It was the nuclear bombs or American lives lost invading, that was the issue and it was reolved correctly. Regarless of the liberal wimpering, Nagasaki came days later, they had their chance. And Marc, Blacks do hold slavery against whites whose families were in Europe at the time. Just see Bigot Wright’s comments.

Or this beaut:

By hop

March 26, 2008 1:06 PM | Link to this

since some of you want to attack america once again, let me state it was the japanese who started the war with the bombs landing on pearl harbor. we just finish it and I am damn glad we did.

But my favorite comment is by far this one:

By Mr. Davis

March 26, 2008 8:58 PM | Link to this

Mr. Bisher, I applaud you for your xenophobia, your mindless conservatism, and most of all your disguised racism. If only we could get rid of all of the greasebacks in this game. I’m fine with the darkies and all, but I do believe them latinos are ruining tradition.

Heather Bresch Update

2008-03-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

Chutta is away and may be checking in from time to time for non-WVU sports related news so here is the biggest story. Craig Walker was apparently in constant contact with Ms. Bresch the week leading up to WVU deciding that she had the degree according to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette FOIA records. The damning paragraph:

The decision to grant the degree retroactively -- done following Post-Gazette inquiries to Ms. Bresch and the university about the M.B.A. she claimed to have received -- apparently was made with little involvement from business school Dean R. Stephen Sears, who only attended one meeting on the subject, held just hours before a statement drafted by Mr. Walker and others was released to the newspaper explaining that officials determined Ms. Bresch earned the degree.

Mr. Sears was given a copy of that statement by WVU's communications office, but did not provide any input until after it was released to the Post-Gazette.

Of course this is also after the administration has claimed at various times that Bresch (1) merely forgot to pay her graduation fee and had completed all her courses; (2) had all her academic records lost during an electronic transfer that effected two other students (who it turns out it didn't actually); and (3) should receive her degree after a complete investigation by the Business school including a statement by Gerald Lang which amount to "move along, nothing to see here." The bad news. None of it matters as she will still get her degree retroactively due to "lifetime activities" which is bullshit because all MBA students are working. And no one in the administration will get in any trouble as Sears and Paul Speaker probably take the fall for this.

When the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette made a routine call in October to check her credentials, WVU’s Registrar told the paper she did not have an Executive MBA.

Eleven days later, R. Steven Sears, dean of the College of Business and Economics, decided after a “thorough review” of records that Bresch had met all of the requirements for the degree in December 1998. He now says he never saw the actual records and relied on the advice of associate dean Cy Logar and Paul Speaker, a professor in B&E who was director of graduate programs in 1998.

So to recap Dean Sears released a "statement" he had no input into and had barely seen saying that she should get the degree retroactively and will now be fired for it. But Bresch and the administration will be clean on this:

The phone calls between Mr. Walker and Ms. Bresch include a nine-minute conversation Thursday, Oct. 11, after WVU's registrar told the newspaper she did not complete her degree. Mr. Walker and Ms. Bresch also talked for seven minutes shortly after 8 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 15, when Mr. Walker summoned Mr. Sears, Provost Gerald Lang and other officials to his office to discuss the matter. About three hours later, a draft of a statement explaining a records discrepancy was circulating among the group. It was approved by Ms. Bresch.

Or this:

The newspaper found that WVU officials added six classes, including grades, to Ms. Bresch's transcript and changed two classes that had been marked "incomplete" to show letter grades. The newspaper's research indicated the classes were added without records showing that Ms. Bresch registered, paid or did the work for them.

Or this:

WVU redacted details of more than 20 calls made between Thursday, Oct. 11, and Monday, Oct. 15. The school also failed to produce itemized land-line or cell phone records for Mr. Garrison, a high school classmate and former business associate of Ms. Bresch, and longtime Manchin family friend.

This shit wouldn't fly at Hamline.

Same as it ever was

2008-03-28T06:21:00.000-07:00

A valiant comeback from 18 down and a chance to make it a laugher. And Ruoff dunked, I did not think he could do that. However, this team of a Huggins/Beilein blend lost the game in a way both systems failed. WVU shot 1 for 11 from three (.091), lost the battle on the boards, and had early turnovers. These would all have doomed WVU under Beilein. However, defense kept the Mountaineers in the game. Unfortunately the new menaces under Huggins, foul shots and foul trouble, reared their ugly heads. WVU actually shot better from the line than Xavier (66.7% to 57.1%) but key misses at the end of regulation by Alexander and in overtime by Mazulla doomed the Mountaineers. The other key to the game was the inability of WVU to get Duncan out of the game. He played the final 12+ minutes with 4 fouls and finished with 26 points and 5 rebounds.

Nichols finished his career with 6 points on 1 for 6 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists in 41 minutes of play while Jamie Smalligan scored 2 points on his only shot of the game in 9 minutes. Talkington played 6 minutes in his final game of his career. Way to prematurely looking forward to next year WVU needs Smith to continue to develop on offense, figure out where Flowers has been the last two weeks, and have Ruoff carry his confidence from the NCAAs into next season (including taking the ball to the basket more often). WVU will need someone that can create their own shot besides Alexander next year. When he fouled out last night the only options where the Butler spin-o-rama or Mazulla. Everyone else either stood waiting for a jumper or hot potatoed the ball back out as soon as they caught it.

In more cheerful news Michigan is still losing players. This time an All-Big 10 Guard (and one of only 3 returning offensive starters) has quit the team due to a loss of family values. Apparently Justin Boren does not like the PacMan Jones school of discipline preached by RR. Rodriguez declined to speak to the matter saying He was "forging ahead with guys that play for Michigan" and then saying "not that pussy who just quit" under his breath while coughing.

Oh and WVU is back to third tier in law school rankings. Others in Tier 3 include Wayne State, Hamline Univesity, Pace University, Chapman University, Suffolk University, and Willamette University so we are in good company.

This Makes Me Feel Good

2008-03-26T07:13:00.001-07:00

Hey all,

I've been off in Africa hunting wild game for the past few months, and sharpening my ninja skills in my spare time. So, sorry I haven't been posting too much lately. But that's how it goes. Anyway, because it's never a bad time to rejoice in beating Duke here's a vid of Cam Thoroughman giving Gerald Henderson a taste of his own medicine. Via FanHouse.

The Grey Lady Likes Joe Alexander

2008-03-25T06:59:00.000-07:00

Big write-up in the NY Times on Joe this morning. The article explains how one becomes a Division I player despite not playing organized basketball for most of your life; practice. And how a Division I player goes from an freak of nature athletically to a force of nature on the court; practice.

Last season, he started sleeping three nights a week on a blue leather couch in the Mountaineers’ locker room. No sheets or blankets, just team-issued sweats. He figured out a way to unscrew the safety lights that hang over the pool table in order to make it dark.

Round of Reubens

2008-03-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

I really thought this was the year for Bradley and Drake. But at least it wasn't the year for Duke. Lots of love for the Mountaineers (and Huggins) for being the team to send Dick Vitale running for Zoloft.

For a team built only a season ago around a motion offense and a gimmick zone defense, it seemed almost unfathomable for West Virginia to win an NCAA Tournament game with rebounding and suffocating man-to-man defense.

But that's the kind of impact first-year coach Bob Huggins has made on his Mountaineers.

As we've said here before, this team isn't an NCAA tourney team, much less a Sweet 16 team with Beilein as coach. They don't shoot well enough from three to make up for the pounding they'd take on the boards. This team doesn't outrebound Duke by 20 without Huggins' system and weight room discipline. Others give WVU some respect but are taking shots at the Dukies. The following is for BSR due to Yankee smack.

The better team won. Not the team with more McDonald’s All-Americans — Duke has eight to West Virginia’s none — but the one with better players. Duke is like the Yankees in that it polarizes the electorate into either hating or loving, but it’s also like the Bronx Bombers in its penchant for signing guys who aren’t half as good as advertised.

As of today here are the conference standings for the NCAA tourney.
Big Ten (2) 5-2 .714
Big East (3) 10-5 .667
Pac-10 (3) 6-3 .667
Big 12 (2) 7-4 .636
ACC (1) 4-3 .571
SEC (1) 4-5 .444
The Big East has been led by Louisville, WVU, and Villanova. Not many would have picked that threesome at the halfway point of this season. Parenthsis are number of teams remaining.

For WVU it is on to Arizona to face Xavier in the Sweet 16 battle of the Eers. Huggins is very familiar with Xavier, a cross-town rival to Cinci, and is 8-9 overall against the Musketteers.

Xavier has more size than probably any team it has faced this season, with five players taller than 6-6, including two at 6-9. It has five scorers averaging double-digits and is outscoring its opponents 75.5-62.7.

The Musketeers are shooting 47.8 from the field to 40.6 and managing a 35.8-30.2 margin in rebounding.

WVU is averaging 74.8 points to 63.1, goaling on 45.5 percent of its shots, and outrebounding opponents 35.9-33.6.

The main story for the broadcast may not be the Xavier size, but the lack thereof. At least for Drew Lavender. Lavender is listed at 7 inches shorter than Joe Mazzulla which will ruin every "smallest man on the court" argument for CBS and Mazzulla for at least one game.

In the Women's Tournament WVU has won their opening game over New Mexico State. They face Vanderbilt in a second-round game tonight.

Finally, to top off the good weekend for WVU the baseball team completed a three game sweep of Pitt on Saturday. The bats have come to life as 20 games in the Mountianeers have hit 18 homeruns and are batting .241 as a team. Jedd Gyorko is batting .488 to start the season. The pitching staff has an ERA of 3.21 thus far and has 147 strikeouts in 168 innings. Teddy Brabender has yet to see any action.

2008 Recruiting?

2008-03-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Signing day may have been on February 6th, but recruiting can still go on afterwards. Last year Noel Devine and Pat Lazaar both signed with WVU after national signing day. Of course Terrell Pryor still hasn't signed so he is the big name out in the national news. But WVU continues to add pieces to the latest recruiting class. Since signing day WVU received the paperwork to make Maryland running back Terence Kerns official, received a commitment from JC running back Zach Hulce, and last month received a verbal commitment from Madison, WV running back Jordan Roberts an invited walk-on that set the single-season rushing record formerly held by Josh Culbertson (who plans to transfer to WVU from the University of Charleston this season). An unexpected surprise came yesterday as Hargrave DB/RB D.J. Thomas pledged a commitment to WVU as well. Thomas is a three star DB who may end up on offense at WVU while Roberts was a two star running back. Additionally four star offensive guard/center Benji Kemoeatu is still a possibility. Benji signed his letter of intent on signing day, but his parents were on a church mission. They had to sign as well for the letter to be binding. Since they returned Benji slowed down a bit and has re-opened his commitment between WVU, Utah (where his brothers attended school), and Oregon State. The late signings must be in by next Tuesday.

Until all the recruits get here WVU is a little thin a running back. After Devine there is Jock Sanders who is splitting time at slot and Mike Poitier. Don't know Mike? Here you go:

Poitier is 5 feet 8 and weighs 165 pounds. He figures he runs the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds. His dad's name is -- seriously -- Sidney. He's a converted receiver who played running back at Class 5A St. Thomas Aquinas in high school. And he knows he's on the spot this spring.

Poitier earned the scout team player of the year three times (two on offense/one on special teams). Another player that earned scout team player of the year and later became a difference maker was Owen Schmitt.

Finally, good one Patrick. McAfee decided that his future as an NFL kicker would not be enhanced by playing soccer this season. Also blowing out a knee in said soccer could be viewed as detrimental to the same career. So Pat has given up soccer again.

Pro day was a real slap in the face,'' McAfee said. "If I get hurt right now, if a kid takes a whack at me in a game, my senior year of football is not the year to be missing because some idiot who plays for a soccer team wants to take me out.

Plus all the Aussies would then yell at you while you laid on the ground. Drinkin' cans.

Round of Reubens

2008-03-17T07:04:00.000-07:00

First, WVU faces Arizona at around 9:45 on Thursday which means that most won't have to skip worky to watch the game and with Good Friday following the late start shouldn't cause too much havoc with work schedules should you wish to indulge in a few beverages during the game. We'll try to get a review of Arizona up tomorrow or Wednesday. Off the top of my head I can say that the Wildcats were under .500 in conference, were swept by Arizona State, and lost a "must-win" to start the Pac-10 conference tourney versus Stanford. In fact:

The Wildcats' only wins in the last six games were a pair of victories over woeful Oregon State, which was 0-18 in the Pac-10.

Oh and Lute Olsen has been in and out as coach this season, but is looking to get back in for the tournament so he can make his patented early exit for the summer.

Spring practice started with the new coaching staff. First the bad news which everyone already knew; the defense lost a lot of players from last year.

Here are the cold, hard facts: Of the 11 players who started on defense during the Mountaineers' 48-28 Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma, seven are gone. That includes four of the five secondary positions (safeties Wicks and Ryan Mundy and cornerbacks Larry Williams and Antonio Lewis) and two of the three linemen (nose tackle Dykes and end Dingle). Also gone is one of the three linebackers, Magro.

While West Virginia's top two tacklers - seniors Reed Williams and Mortty Ivy - are back, seven of the top 10 on that list are gone. That includes safety/linebacker John Holmes, who was one of three players dismissed from the team last month after being arrested on drug charges.

That is why WVU signed 150 defensive linemen a month ago. Speaking of signing here is some good news. Chris Beatty may have already opened up Virginia more than any other coach in recent WVU history as WVU received committments from a top quarterback and possibly the top receiver in the nation (both from VA) this weekend as WR Logan Heastie and QB Tajh Boyd both verballed this weekend after unofficial visits to Morgantown.

Chris Beatty, a former high school coach in the Virginia Beach area was a big factor for Heastie in the end.

“That was probably the biggest thing for me since he’s from my area, he’s like family,” he said. “I trust him with everything and don’t think he’ll lie to me. You know when you go to college it comes down to trust because everything else is basically the same. I trust him with everything. I know some people say bad things about him since he put up 80-points on teams in high school, but he doesn’t down anybody and stays positive.”

One last conversation with Beatty sealed the deal for Heastie.

“I talked to him and said I know you’ve been at Hampton and Northern Illinois the past few years,” he said. “I asked, ‘Coach, you’re not going to leave anytime soon.’ He told me he’s going to stick around and he just bought a house here.”

Heastie is currently the number 1 receiver and 22nd rated recruit according to rivals. More on Boyd here:

Boyd said he had scholarship offers from 10 other schools: Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee, Boston College, Michigan, Wake Forest, Kentucky, Maryland, East Carolina and Minnesota. Though he cannot sign his letter-of-intent for another 11 months, Boyd said he will not change his mind.

"I'm solid," he said Saturday night while returning from an unofficial visit to Morgantown. "I'll take my official (visit) to West Virginia, but I won't take any other officials.

Mountaineers Big Dance

2008-03-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

The Mounties received a No. 7 seed in the West, matched up against No. 10 seed Arizona. This doesn't worry me as much as the expected second round game against the No. 2 seed Dukies. Everyone knows of the favoritism the Blue Devils receive in Tourney games.

Without looking ahead too much, I don't want to overlook the Wildcats, but BSR says, "The Mountaineers can beat Duke." Clemson did. The Dukies lack a truly a dominant big man, that helps. Georgetown is a much tougher opponent, especially when Roy "Haircut" Hibbert opens the first half as strong as he did on Friday night. I named him that myself.

This post obviously lacks statistical analysis- I am at work and sounding off quickly. I welcome tummystix to contribute come content to our site pertaining to the dance. I invite both of our loyal readers, and any new ones to voice their take on the '08 Mountaineer Road to the Final Four by leaving a comment.

WVU rolls their way into the semis

2008-03-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

Much to the dismay of Doug Gottleib the West Virginia Mountaineers have soundly played their way into the tournament. Gottleib had consistently ranted about teams such as Arizona and Arizona State being more deserving of a bid than WVU over the previous week. He now gets to eat a big slice of shut the hell up. Of course many WVU fans took Gottleib's comments as more proof that ESPN hates WVU. More proof in previous comments by Digger the last few years stating that WVU was "on the bubble" when clearly in the tournament and feelings of ESPN siding with RR over WVU the last few months. I am no fan of ESPN, but as a station they don't hate WVU. The don't hate anything. They just love money. And having jerk-offs yell at the tv such as Sean Salisbury (thank god gone), Steven A. Smith, Doug Gottleib, etc. must bring in viewers becuase they do it for every sport. And these guys are all the same in that they form a half baked opinion and then straw man support it to the end. ESPN is only a camera removed from talk radio. So don't get worked up over it. But don't think the team didn't hear it.

"Mr. Doug Gottlieb, you said we don't have a signature win? There it is for you," Ruoff said. "But we're going to keep it going. We're happy winning this one and we're happy we're in the NCAA Tournament, but we're trying to win the Big East Tournament."

That slurping sound you heard last night? That was the sound of Bobby Knight verbally fellating Joe Alexander. Alexander has become one of the most entertaining players in the country in the span of two weeks and the General has taken notice. I've never seen anyone go from good player to dominant in the middle of a season like this before. It's like Huggins turned the switch on by getting him lifting and developing an inside game and once a few shots started falling watch out. Alexander has lead WVU into the semi-finals for a rematch with Georgetown. In the previous two games the Mountaineers have had some help from both Providence and UConn not being able to dunk in uncontested situations. Joe, on the otherhand, will stop and wait for a defender to catch up so that he can dunk on heads. At the 40 second mark below you will see the rare Jamie Smalligan dunk and Joe goes off at the 55 second mark.

In football news Noel Devine finally was caught from behind for the first time in his life, but not on the field. Devine, Jock Sanders, Brantwon Bowser, and Eain Smith were arrested yesterday for the fight a month back. The players plead no contest which should end the matter unless they get in trouble again, but it does get WVU back in the Fulmer Cup race.

Spring practice opens today and will go about every other day up until the Spring game which is slated for April 19th. Also the Mountaineers had their Pro-day this week. Slaton ran a 4.47 40 which is fast, but still slower than the 4.3s he wanted to run. Slaton was actually beat by Reynaud who ran a 4.46 40. Owen Schmitt ran a 4.74 and also had the quote of the day.

He said yesterday he didn't miss the five consecutive hours of psychological testing in a camera-watched Combine room. The one question asking players if they were a dog or a cat? He wrote in lion.

Round of Reubens

2008-03-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

More Awards.

The Big East Conference announced the rest of the men's basketball awards on the eve of the BET. Luke Harangody was named Player of the Year; Mike Brey Coach of the Year (second year in a row); Pitt's DeJuan Blair and Syracuse guard Jonny Flynn were named Rookies of the Year; Patrick Ewing Jr. of Georgetown was named Sixth Man of the Year; Hasheem Thabeet of UConn was named Defensive Player of the Year; and Pitt's Ronald Ramon and Darris Nichols will split the Sportsmanship Award. Actually the committee was going to split the award, but Darris felt the Award shouldn't be ruined so he started pleading that they give it to Ramon which proved that Darris was the rightful owner and he was given the award. Additionally, Ted Talkington was named the Scholar Athlete of the Year for Men's Basketball. And Jamie Smalligan received a beautiful "Participation" ribbon for this year.

The baseball team swept Valparaiso to run their record to 8-3 on the year, then lost to St. Bonaventure at home yesterday. So far the Mountaineers have only managed 4 homeruns on the season and over half of the team is batting under .300. However, half the pitchers have ERAs under 4.00 so maybe no one is using aluminum bats this year.

In football news Judge Robert Stone has set a trial date of April 3rd with depositions of Roriguez on March 26th and Ed Pastilong on March 19th. Also new Strength and Conditioning Coach Mike Joseph has had some write-ups about his style going up this week. Of course Barwis was a genius here until he left then everyone blamed Slaton's speed this year on Barwis. As if he knew that was coming Joseph has already started to attempt to alleviate the fears of those that believe weightlifting is bad (and some do still exist).

“All of these guys coming in are fast but we want to increase that and make them even more efficient and not decrease their speed over time as we add more weight and more strength,” Joseph said.

He did not address the need to Pensify your shirts when lifting. Finally, for those that hate basketball and baseball and need something to get you through the spring until Spring Practice for football we suggest this. Your welcome.

Big East Tournament

2008-03-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

With 5 seconds separating WVU from the wrong side of the bubble and Darris Nichols injured the Mountaineers put their season in the hands of Joe Mazzulla. Mazzulla was able to beat the entire Johnnie defense up the court including splitting the last two defenders to send the game to overtime. In overtime the Mountaineers cruised and coupled with a Syracuse win over Marquette secured the 5th seed in the Big East Tournament. A remarkable ending to the regular season which would only have been more surprising had Jamie Smalligan ended the game by dunking on someone then stealing an inbounds and hitting a winning three.

As the fifth seed WVU draws Providence in the first round of the BET at 2:30 on Wednesday so get your excuses in early. I'm going with rickets. The women advanced to the semi-finals after taking South Florida apart yesterday. The women will face Louisville tonight at 8:00.

The Big East has announced the regular season awards winners (sans POY, COY, and ROY). The only Mountaineer to make any of the three All-Big East Teams was Joe Alexander on the First Team. None of the other Mountaineers were mentioned among the 27 on the first, second, or honorable mention. Congratulations to Joe who went from athlete to basketball player with a trip to the dog house in between this year. In fact this team will go as far as Joe can take them in the BET and NCAA tournament since the offense has started running clearouts for him in all crucial possessions. For the women three players made All-Big East honors. Olayinka Sanni was named to the First team while Meg Bulger and LaQuita Owens were named to the Second team. Meg also received the Sportsmanship Award. She plans to use to award for spare parts for her knee.

Pirate Giveaways

2008-03-06T08:14:00.000-08:00

Since spring training is upon us it is time to check out the upcoming season for the Pirates. OK the big signings were...Byung-Hyun Kim and non-roster invitee Doug Mientkiewicz. For a team that lost an NL high 94 games last year and is off to a 1 and 6 start this spring. Hooray for the Bucs.

This means that there are only a couple of things worth watching for this year. One is the potential fire sale that would ship out Jason Bay and possibly Laroche. Hopefully the Pirates could unload Jack Wilson at some point, but it is unlikely since no one took the bait last year. The pitching staff is still young enough with the top four under 30, but also has veteran Matt Morris who showed he still has something left in the tank by compiling a 6.10 ERA since joining the Pirates. And he hasn't been good since 2002 so he fits right in.

That really only leaves one thing for Bucco fans that want to attend a game. Giveaways. After some research on the Pirates homepage we've compiled the best of the sad lot of giveaways this year. Bobbleheads are always popular for some reason. The best of them this year are Manny Sanguillen (April 11th), Pops Stargell (May 9th), and Dave Parker (June 27th). The Chris Duffy bobblehead will be lifesize this year. So it still fits in your pocket. Most Mondays feature McDonald's "Scratch and Win." All fans will be asked to start scratching. First to draw blood gets a Big Mac. Bring the whole family. Tuesdays will feature T-shirts. To keep with the Pirate tradition the shirts will be cheap, functional 4 years ago, but now falling apart at the seams. Wednesdays are for the ladies. Apparently women can pay an extra $20 and join the "Lady Bucs." Last year 6 signed up. All were given hepatitis from a lap dance with Shaun Chacon. This year if the ladies can hit Zach Duke's fastball they get their money back. The Pirates are betting at least half will be able. Thursdays are for Alumni Autographs. Meet all your favorite middle relievers from the late 80's and early 90's. Fridays are the big day at PNC. Once a month there are fireworks. The others involve kicking your least favorite Pirate in the nuts. Watch out John Van Benschoten.

Special nights are few and far between. The "best" might be the Collector's Plate nights. As a member of the Bradford Exchange you can bet that the June 21st Roberto Clemente plate and August 39th Willie Stargell plates will increase in value (value starts at $0). Finally the biggest nights of the year. The three day fireworks/concert promotion in August. On the 14th stay for fireworks after the game and a concert from REO Speedwagon. On the 15th it's Collective Soul. On the 16th everybody's favorite band TBD will take the stage. Early money is on Great White. Pittsburgh Pirate baseball. Making every fan die a little inside every night for 15 straight years.

Big Ass Kroger

2008-03-05T08:22:00.001-08:00

A new Kroger has opened in Morgantown and if the DA is correct, it might be the biggest grocery store known to man.

Covering 86,000 square miles, the largest Kroger in the state promises more specialties and “greener” business.

For those that don't measure in square mileage often the stated size of the Kroger would be roughly 3.6 times the size of the state of West Virginia or a little smaller than Minnesota. The Kroger would be 2.4% of the entire United States. How would the bastards let Kendal Montgomery know that a mistake had probably (I don't know for sure it could really be that big) been made? As follows:

First from chutta:

Dear Kendal,

Wow! I had no idea such a place existed! How on
earth did you manage to even cover the store for your
review? The shear physics of cramming a store the
size of the state of Montana into the Suncrest Towne
Center must have been a secret long-term DARPA
project. I must confess, I definitely don't have the
wherewithall to understand how such things can be
done, but thanks for your article. I just hope I can
find the cracker section. I love crackers. There
must be millions of them there! 86,000 square miles
of Kroger! Wow!

And then from myself:

I was surprised to learn just how big the new Kroger was. I visited it last week, but must have missed the portal to the area that is 3x as large as the entire state of West Virginia (24,000 square miles vs. 86,000 for the Kroger). It doesn't look that big from the road, is the rest underground or maybe above the clouds like in futuristic movies? I don't know how they can keep enough produce on hand to justify that kind of area. And don't get me started on the amount of poultry they must need. I do find it hard to believe that it only takes 150 people to work in that large of an area. Hopefully it doesn't become a "Mad-Max" type store with warlords and gangs controlling most of the main areas such as the Condiment aisle or the Organic foods sections. Children will wander aimlessly for decades should they get away from their parents. One day a chosen one will bring peace to the Kroger and become it's first elected official. There will be a parade. Inside the Kroger. Clean up in aisle 45,689,654.

This is what happens when there aren't sports to distract us. And chutta really does love crackers.

Spring notes

2008-03-05T06:48:00.000-08:00

First, WVU plays at St. John's on Saturday and a loss there could drop the Mountaineers to 8th in the conference and on the wrong side of the bubble. A victory could vault WVU up to 5th depending on the outcome of Marquette and Syracuse.

Spring practice is only a week away and the Pittsburgh Tribune's Joe Starkey interviewed Bill Stewart this week. One unsurprising answer:

Q: Have you spoken to Coach Rodriguez since he left?

A: No.

These types of questions will continue to follow the team and Stewart around for the next year. So far Stewart has taken the high road in always complimenting Rodriguez and trying to move the conversation on. Unfortunately for Stewart the conversation usually turns to how Stewart's name has popped up in many spring reviews as a coach either under pressure or a coach that needs to win right away. So far Stewart has been able to, at least publicly, brush off the any concerns relayed to him regarding the subject. So while this may be a "dream job" for Stewart it hasn't come without some P.R. nightmares.

Speaking of spring notes now is the time of year when the columnists break out the lists. Best games for next year, best positions battles, or best white shoes (OS). Foxsports' Pete Fiutak has been working overtime this week. First he lists the best non-conference games in the upcoming year. WVU checks in at numbers 21 (Colorado) and 3 (Auburn).

3. Auburn at West Virginia, Oct. 13
One team has mastered the spread attack, and the other is just starting to figure it out. If Auburn had Pat White, where would it be ranked? As is, West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart gets a shot to come up with a big, big win that would prove his program is among the elite of the elite. This is Auburn's toughest road test by far until ending the year at Alabama.

Just missing the cut; Villanova.

FoxSports also has a list of 25 potential impact players that didn't see the field last year. Julian Miller makes the grade at number 24 for WVU.

24. DE Julian Miller, West Virginia: Johnny Dingle's early departure to the NFL creates some room on the depth chart for young players like Miller, a rangy pass rusher with a great burst off the edge. He stood out throughout practices last fall, now needing to add a little more bulk and improve at disengaging from blockers.

And finally a list of the top quarterback battles entering spring practice. This is not on the list because of a battle between Pat White and Jarrett Brown, but of the battle at the University of Miami.

Redshirt freshman Robert Marve and first-year freshmen Jacory Harris and Cannon Smith are already locking horns, although it's unlikely a starter will be named anytime soon.

Since Cannon isn't in quotations I think it's fair to assume that is the given first name. If Miami could start him, a running back named Colt or jet, a receiver named Catch, and a kicker named Kicky then they could get back to a bowl game.

Mountaineer avenge Pitt loss

2008-03-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

I just have a second to throw this out there- work and all- but the Coliseum was hot, crowded, raucous and horny. Well, maybe not all that horny.

Alexander was so money baby, and he knew it. Look at the box score if you haven't. Nichols was dialed in too.

"You eat a bag of shit." - W. Ferrell.

Another Round of Reubens

2008-03-03T07:49:00.000-08:00

The men's basketball team has a must win for the NCAA tournament tonight at 7:00 on ESPN. After the loss to UConn there are two ways to keep from defending the NIT title. The first is to beat Pitt and St. John's and probably win at least one game in the Big East Tourney. The second is a loss to Pitt and then beating St. John's and running to at least the finals in the Big East Tournament. After watching the UConn game and then Kansas State later that day you realize how much Huggins gave up to come back to WVU. UConn could bomb away from the outside because WVU was forced to triple team in the post in order to even slow down the inside game or "attempt" to rebound. Meanwhile Michael Beasley is the best player in the country. And Huggins never recruited him to WVU after he left K-State.

In football news Sports Illustrated has an article about Pat White being the "last man standing" from the Sugar Bowl team. On the new coaching staff:

"There's a wonderful connection from coach to players and it's happening in a very short time frame," he said. "The new coaches that have come in have definitely gelled with the players and vice versa."

In semi-good news the football ticket prices are staying the same. There was some (faint) hope that the prices may go down, but not with demand still being so high and Auburn coming to Morgantown. 7 home games means the price overall is higher, but the price per game has stayed the same. Of course the bad news is that the warning from Matt Wells:

"We did have a per-game increase last year, but when we announced that we said that provision would be in place the next two seasons," said Matt Wells, WVU's director of sports marketing. "We don't like to come back and raise it every year. We'd like the increase to take hold for a couple of years before we make another change."

Which means the prices go up again in 2009.

The baseball team took in Myrtle Beach this weekend and went 3-1 in the Baseball at the Beach Tournament. The weekend started with wins over Western Carolina (my favorite state in the Carolina's) and Marshall before losing to a ranked Coastal Carolina team. WVU quickly rebounded to beat George Mason to finish the round robin.

Round of Reubens

2008-02-28T06:27:00.000-08:00

Last night the WVU men defeated DePaul to keep their NCAA hopes alive. During the game the referees called roughly 3,000 fouls and DePaul hit something like 3 of 158 free throws to seal the win for the Mountaineers. The win did not really help (other than getting to 20 on the season), but a loss would have been devastating. The real tests come between now and next Tuesday as WVU will play at UConn and then host Pitt. Two wins and the tournament is assured. One win should be enough if WVU beats St. John's in the regular season finale. Two losses means a run in the Big East Tournament is probably needed.

The baseball team has started the season and it is pretty clear why Pat White stayed away after a four game spit with Akron. The Zips aren't usually known for deep runs in the baseball tournament. This weekend WVU will take on Marshall for the first time in over a decade in Myrtle Beach, WV. Once on a trip to the Myrtle area BSR, OS, and myself were asked by someone in SC why we didn't go to one of the ocean-front beaches in West Virginia on vacation and instead came South Carolina. After hearing we were landlocked as a state she replied "That doesn't mean you can't go to your own beaches to see the ocean." I think she is now a top cancer research scientist working for the CDC.

Previous coaches at the schools had struck up a Charleston-Morgantown rotation. As Van Zant explains, that broke down when David Piepenbrink was coaching the Herd and demanded the series rotate through Huntington.

"I told him, with all due respect, we didn't want to play at the Heights," Van Zant said.

"The Heights" was Marshall's home field at University Heights, just east of Huntington. Poor draining, small in dimensions and lacking in every conceivable amenity, even MU has abandoned it, renovating a field upriver from Huntington for nonconference home games.

I never saw the old field at Marshall so I'll let someone in the comments illuminate us all.

Finally, the Daily Mail has reported that another JC player was signed to compete for a spot at the safety position. Only the Gazette, which I believe is owned by the same person, refutes the story of "another newspaper". So far no retraction from the Daily Mail, but no corroboration from any of the recruiting sites either. Both sides are blaming bloggers.

New committment for WVU

2008-02-27T07:05:00.000-08:00

According to Scout the Mountaineers have increased some depth at running back with the commitment of Glendale Community College running back Zach Hulce. According to the link, Hulce was recruited by San Jose State and TCU, but only WVU made an offer for a schollie. Running back depth is a concern for the upcoming year as Steve Slaton has moved on to the NFL and Ed Collington has moved on to probation (if he's lucky). Noel Devine is slated to be the starter next year, but behind him the depth chart only contains Eddie Davis and Jet Best at running back (combined for 65 career yards). Look for Collington to get a possible reinstatement if he can plead down the charges and stay out of trouble (NOTE--this would be a definite under Rodriguez, not so sure under Stewart). Devine's wingman Jock Sanders may get some more time at running back as well if he can help keep the duo's fist out of other people's faces. Incoming freshman Terrence Kerns will get a look if all the academics work out. Hulce will at the very least provide some depth at the position with some scout team and maybe special teams work in the upcoming year. So there is the wrap up of running backs for next year. One, maybe two injuries away from terrifying.

WVU Football Schedule Released

2008-02-25T10:04:00.000-08:00

The good news is that there is only one non-Saturday Big East game for WVU this year. WVU will play PItt on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The bad news is that the two most anticipated non-conference games, at Colorado and vs. Auburn, will be on Thursday this upcoming year. MSNsporstnet has the entire schedule up and four of the games are already reserved for television (Colorado, Auburn, Pitt, USF) with more potentially getting either ESPN, ESPN2, or regional coverage (Marshall, ECU, UConn, Cinci, and Louisville) depending on the success of WVU and their opponents. The home schedule breaks down with 1 game in August, 1 in September, 3 in October, 1 in November, and 1 in December. Ready to start fishing Ed Pastilong on the schedule:

“I am excited about this year’s schedule,” Pastilong says. “We have seven home games, which always is good for our fan base. It is a very challenging non-conference schedule but unique in that we have games against various conferences, Auburn from the SEC, Colorado from the Big 12 and East Carolina from Conference USA.”

He failed to mention Villanova from the "I didn't know they had a team" Conference and Marshall because honestly no one cares about them at all.

Combine Recap

2008-02-25T06:53:00.000-08:00

Darius Reynaud has been called the best athlete on the WVU football team for the last few years and he showed why at the 2008 NFL Draft Combine. Reynaud finished in the top 10 for Receivers in the Bench Press, Vertical jump, Broad jump, 3-cone drill, and 60-yard shuttle. He failed to crack the top ten in 40-yard dash, but managed to run a 4.47 (unofficial) which is respectable. The top receiver was DeSean Jackson who ran a 4.35 40 yard dash. In the bench press Reynaud got 20 repetitions at 225.

Not having a good weekend was Steve Slaton. Slaton had stated the goals of a low 4.3 forty and around 49 inches in the vertical jump. Slaton failed to achieve his goal in the 40 with a 4.45 average and 4.4 low. His vertical jump was 33.5 inches. Slaton's vertical jump, while lower than he had hoped, did place him in the top ten running backs. Unfortunately it was the only category he placed. Possibly hurting Slaton was the fact that McFadden ran a 4.33 average, ECU's Chris Johnson running a 4.24, and Ray Rice (whose negatives include top end speed) running a 4.4 as well and Rahard Mendenhall running an identical 4.45 split.

Owen Schmitt ran an unofficial 4.70 40 which put him about average for the fullbacks. He also repped 225 26 times which was a tie for third in fullbacks with only Jerome Felton and Carl Stewart getting more (30).

WVU AD to retire

2008-02-21T13:04:00.000-08:00

Ed Pastilong has announced to WVmetronews that he will give up the daily job responsibilities of athletic director of WVU in 2010 and will officially retire in 2012.

The revised deal is an amendment to Pastilong’s current contract that expires June 30, 2010. The amendment, signed by both Pastilong and WVU President Mike Garrison, raises Pastilong’s annual base salary from $196,000 to $225,000. He’s also eligible for incentive pay depending on the success of the various sports teams.

He also will receive a $100,000 incentive bonus if he remains on the job through June 30, 2010 as expected.

Between 2010 and 2012 Pastilong will serve as Athletic Director Emeritus. He’ll receive his base pay of $225,000 with no incentives. In that role, according to the agreement, Pastilong will assist with the transition of the new AD and other duties.

Pastilong has been the WVU AD since 1989. No word on if the basketball game last night was the final straw, but it surely couldn't have helped.

WVU at the NFL combine

2008-02-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

The NFL combine starts today. Four former Mountaineers are a part of the 330 players expected to participate in Indianapolis. Johnny Dingle, Steve Slaton, Owen Schmitt, and Darius Reynaud are all scheduled to work out this week. Mark Magro and Keilen Dykes both failed to get the invite to the combine, but have been working out in Florida and Huntington respectively to get ready for WVU Pro-Day which is scheduled for March 13th. For those interested in watching the combine workouts the NFL Network has the combine and Slaton, Schmitt, and Reynaud should be on display on Sunday while Monday will be the workout day for Dingle. It appears that the four invited to the combine are likely to all be drafted. Keilein stands the best chance of the other two, but all should at least be offered a free agent invite at the least. At that point it is up to the player to cause some camp fireworks, some of which he may be able to buy soon in West Virginia again as the legislature is debating bringing back real fireworks. It's only a matter of time before BSR burns down Morgantown.

More trouble?

2008-02-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

The Dominion Post (no linky because it is a pay site online) has reported in today's addition that Morgantown Police are investigating an incident involving a student getting beat up by what he claims were up to 6 football players including Noel Devine and Jock Sanders at a Morgantown club. No arrests have been made at this time. According to the report the student had a busted lip and claimed to have no idea what prompted the attack. The only good news at this time is that the incident did not appear to take place at Club Envy.

Happy Belated Valentines Day

2008-02-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is a great picture. Enjoy it Chutta.

I hope everyone was able to witness the Mounatineer mens basketball program get back on track yesterday. Smalligan dominant- Alexander and Ruoff finding the touch- and need I say more than Ted Fucking Talkington. Yeah bitches.

We need a strong run going into the tourney. Blasting off on Pitt in a couple weeks would be great, but there are other games to win first, like Nova in a couple days.

The baseball season gets underway on the 22nd, against Akron, in Winston-Salem. See you there? No? I won't be there either. Look at the picture again.

Round of Reubens

2008-02-18T06:54:00.000-08:00

Quickly today:

The Gazette has the list of the new football staff's salaries here. The new staff will make 90% of what the old staff made last year despite Stewart making less than 45% of what Rich Rodriguez made. Rodriguez made $1,783,333 of a total of $3,145,833 for the staff last year. That would be 56.7% of the total staff salary went to Rich. Stewart will make $800,000 of a total of $2,850,000. Stewart makes 28% of the total staff salary. The highest paid assistant last year was Calvin Magee at $190,000. This year six assistants will make over $200,000 including Doc Holliday at $400,000.

Rodriguez constantly brought up the fact that he wanted more money for assistants. It appears that the best way to have done that would have been to quit asking for raises every year. With a finite pool of resources Rodriguez often went first and then back for seconds and thirds. The lessened salary of Stewart has opened up more money for the rest of the staff. When hearing about this Rodriguez stated that he didn't want to talk about West Virginia and just wanted the truth out there and then called a press conference. At the press conference Rodriguez spent the entire time bemoaning that WVU was still and issue, wished it would go away, and then vaguely mentioned some threats against his kids and pets. As the press started to lose interest he stated that there would be a press conference tomorrow to discuss why this was still a story and that the best friend of his cousins' niece had been threatened by someone at school and it may have been WVU related. Then everyone cried.

Finally the basketball team has made a night and day transformation for the second time this year. WVU averaged 79.3 points per game and had a record of 15-4 following the Marshall game. Over the 4 games WVU went 1-3 and averaged 56.8 points per game. Versus Rutgers and Seton Hall the Mountaineers bounced back and averaged 85 points per game in two wins. So one of two things are happening. Either WVU hit a shooting slump and combined it with a slower offensive attack during that time or WVU just isn't an offense that is able to run efficiently versus really good defensive teams. Either way it appears that the offense runs much smoother in the run and gun style of Sunday against Seton Hall than the ground and pound of Georgetown. The remaining schedule has Villanova (Wed.), Providence (Sat.), and DePaul before UConn and Pitt then a finisher with St. John's. If everything holds to pattern thus far look for three more high scoring games followed by two in the fifties and then another shootout.

How good is your conference? Wrap up.

2008-02-14T11:24:00.001-08:00

So after compiling all of the information on BCS conference teams versus non conference bowl teams what have we learned? The ACC was not so good. The Big 10 doesn't play many non conference bowl teams especially those not from the MAC. The Big 12 was solid. The Big East was a strong half of a conference with 4 teams performing well and four getting their face kicked in. The Pac-10 played a strong schedule well despite only 3 non-conference games per team. The SEC was pretty damn good.

More observations. Those that say the SEC doesn't play anyone outside of conference are dead wrong; that shame goes to the Big 10. Iowa, Iowa State, and Northwestern were the only teams that did not schedule any non-conference bowl teams and failed to make a bowl themselves. Seven teams played their only non-conference bowl team in their bowl. Of those seven teams four lost their bowl game. Lower end BCS teams played a surprisingly low number of bowl teams in their non-conference schedule. Duke, Baylor, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Stanford averaged 1 non-conference bowl team apiece. This means the bottom of the BCS conference teams are losing to their cupcakes and/or getting eaten alive in conference because they aren't losing to quality non-conference opponents. The nine BCS conference teams that made a BCS bowl (excluding Hawaii) averaged playing 2.33 non-conference bowl teams. When the bowl game is removed the average BCS team played less than 1.5 games against bowl competetion in the non-conference schedule (3-5 games). Cupcakes are alive and well in the NCAA.

Some of the biggest winners this year were Georgia (3-0), LSU (2-0 but both BCS bowl teams), WVU (4-0), and Texas (3-0), however, Oregon was the only team to play every non-conference game against a bowl team and also won all of those games. So congratulations to the Oregon Ducks for being either brave, stupid, or unlucky to have so many teams having a good year the year you play them (4 non-conference and 5 more in conference). And you did it all in goofy uniforms.

How good is your conference? SEC

2008-02-14T09:47:00.000-08:00

The SEC's record against non-conference bowl teams
16-9 (.640)

Alabama (2-1) Wins versus Colorado and Houston; Loss versus FSU

Arkansas (0-1) Loss versus Missouri

Auburn (1-1) Win versus clemson; Loss versus USF

Florida (2-1) Wins versus Florida Atlantic and FSU; Loss versus Michigan

Georgia (3-0) Wins versus oklahoma State, Georgia Tech, and Hawaii

UK (2-0) Wins versus Florida Atlantic and FSU

LSU (2-0) Wins versus VT and Ohio State

Ole Miss (1-1) Win versus Memphis; Loss versus Missouri

Mississippi State (1-1) Win versus UCF; Loss versus WVU

South Carolina (0-1) Win versus Clemson

Tennessee (2-1) Wins versus Southern Miss and Wisconisin; Loss versus Cal

Vandy (0-1) Loss versus Wake Forest

SEC won the most games versus non-conference bowl teams last year and won at the highest percentage. Every team played at least one bowl team non-conference last year and all but Vandy, USC, and Arkansas won at least one game versus a non-conference bowl team. Three SEC teams went undefeated versus non-conference bowl teams with Georgia getting three wins and Kentucky and LSu both notching two victories.

How good is your conference? Pac-10

2008-02-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

The Pac-10 conference record versus non-conference bowl teams
13-8 (.619)

Arizona (1-1) Beat New Mexico; Lost to BYU

ASU (1-1) Beat Colorado; Lost to Texas

Cal (2-0) Beat Tennessee; Air Force

Oregon (4-0) Beat USF, Fresno State, Michigan, and Houston

Oregon State (2-1) Beat Utah and Maryland; Lost to Cincy

Stanford (0-1) Lost to TCU

UCLA (1-2) Beat BYU; Lost to BYU and Utah

USC (1-0) Beat Illinois

Washington (1-1) Beat Boise State; Lost to Ohio State

Washington State (0-1) Lost to Wisconsin

There are reasons the Pac-10 is loved by the computers every year. First the Pac-10 plays at least one more conference game than every other BCS conference. Secondly, despite having only three non-conference games per year the Pac-10 schools seem to each schedule one heavy two decent games to strengthen the overall conference schedule. Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Boise State were all regular season games. Finally, the Pac-10 seems to win a fair number of these games judging by the win percentage. Also with only four non-conference games and each being against a bowl team and a win in each Oregon is the new leader at (4-0) with no out of conference cupcakes.

How good is your conference? Big East

2008-02-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Big East Conference record versus non-conference bowl teams
11-10 (.523)

Cincinnati (2-0) Wins versus Oregon State and Sourthern Miss

UConn (0-1) Losses versus Virginia and Wake Forest

Louisville (0-2) Losses versus Kentucky and Utah

Pitt (0-3) Losses versus Michigan State, Virginia, and Navy

Rutgers (2-1) Wins versus Navy and Ball State; Loss versus Maryland

USF (3-1) Wins veruses Aubrurn, Florida Atlantic, and UCF; Loss versus Oregon

Syracuse (0-1) Loss versus Illinois

WVU (4-0) Wins versus Maryland, ECU, Miss State, and Oklahoma

Big East record is under the caveat that the Big East teams play one extra non-conference game than everyone else (other than the Pac-10 which the Big East plays two more games than) so that makes up for the smaller conference size. The Big East is the most top heavy of the conferences with all wins coming from four teams. WVU, with one extra game, has one more win than Texas for best record versus non-conference bowl teams.

How good is your conference? Big 12

2008-02-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

Big 12 record versus non-conference bowl teams
14-10 (.583)

Baylor (0-1) Loss versus TCU

Colorado (0-3) Losses versus Alabama, FSU, and Arizona State

Iowa State (0-0)

Kansas (2-0) Wins versus Central Michigan and VT

Kansas State (0-2) Losses versus Auburn and Fresno State

Missouri (2-0) Wins versus Illinois and Arkansas

Nebraska (2-1) Wins versus Wake Forest and Ball State; Loss versus USC

Oklahoma (1-1) Win versus Tulsa; loss versus WVU

Okalhoma State (2-1) Wins versus Florida Atlantic and Indiana; Loss versus Georgia

Texas (3-0) Wins versus TCU, UCF, and Arizona State

Texas A&M (1-1) Win versus Fresno State; Loss versus Penn State

Texas Tech (1-0) Win versus UVA

Couple Iowa State and Iowa and you have an entire state devoid of a non-conference bowl team. Texas is the leader in the clubhouse with a 3-0 record versus non-conference bowl teams. Only three teams in the Big 12 were under .500 against non-conference bowl teams (Baylor, K-State, and Colorado). On whole the Big 12 is about what you'd expect. Pretty strong with the cream of the crop running up the score for the rest of the conference. The middle and bottom held their own (excepting Colorado) and everyone other than Iowa State took one shot (although Tech's was in a bowl game so they had no other choice).

How good is your conference? Big 10

2008-02-14T07:34:00.001-08:00

Big 10 record versus non-conference bowl teams
7-9 (.438).

Illinois (1-2) Win versus Ball State; Losses versus Missouri and USC

Indiana (1-1) Win versus Ball State; Loss versus Oklahoma State

Iowa (0-0)

Michigan (1-1) Win versus Florida; Loss versus Oregon

Michigan State (1-1) Win versus Bowling Green; Loss versus Boston College

Minnesota (0-2) Losses versus Bowling Green and Florida Atlantic

Northwestern (0-0)

Ohio State (0-1) Loss versus LSU

Penn State (1-0) Win versus Texas A&M

Purdue (2-0) Wins versus Central Michigan (twice)

Wisconsin (0-1) Loss versus Tennessee

The Big10 had a slightly better overall winning percentage versus non-conference bowl teams than the ACC, but at a much lower scale. The ACC played 28 non-conference bowl teams while the Big10 managed only 16. During the regualar season the Big10 played only 9 bowl teams. If you eliminate MAC teams the Big10 managed to play 10 bowl teams. Both Iowa and Northwestern managed to avoid all non-conference bowl teams. Penn State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin only played them in bowl games.

How good is your conference? Introduction and ACC

2008-02-14T07:06:00.001-08:00

We tried this last year and thought we'd bring it back. The goal is to add some more data to the offseason conference bashfest. People like to use bowl record, strength of schedule (or lack thereof), etc. when saying why Conference X is better than Conference Y. Yet everyone knows that Conference Y is better and it is because they have looser academic standards and let convicted felons roam the defensive backfield.

So what follows is the Bastard analysis and it's pretty simple. There are 6 BCS Conferences and each team within those conferences plays 4 non-conference games with a fifth coming if you have a bowl birth (3 and 4 for the wacky Pac-10). When you play a team in conference one wins and one loses (I shouldn't have to explain that) so the conference record against bowl teams would be weighted heavily below .500 due to teams in the bottom not making a bowl game. Therefore, we throw out conference games and judge you by your non-conference schedule and the success versus that schedule. Since roughly 80% of teams make bowl games we only look at teams that made bowl games last year and the bowl game counts if you made it. This method eliminates the wins over those delicious 1-AA cupcakes, but also erases that embarassing loss versus Double-Directional State because that was one of their three wins all year so they didn't make a bowl.

First up is the Atlantic Coast Conference.
ACC versus non-conference bowl teams 12-16 (.429)

Boston College (2-0) Wins versus Bowling Green and Michigan State

Clemson (1-1) Win versus Central Michigan; Loss versus Auburn

Duke (0-2) Losses versus Uconn and Navy

Florida State (2-2) Wins versus Colorado and Alabama; Losses versus Florida and Kentucky

Georgia Tech (0-2) Losses versus Fresno State and Georgia

Maryland (1-2) Win versus Rutgers; Losses versus Oregon State and WVU

Miami (1-1) Win versus Texas A&M; Loss versus Oklahoma

UNC (0-2) Losses versus ECU and South Florida

NC State (1-1) Win versus ECU; Loss versus UCF

Virginia (1-1) Win versus UConn; Loss versus Texas Tech

VT (1-2) Win versus ECU; Losses versus Kansas and LSU

Wake Forest (2-0) Wins versus UConn and Navy

BC and Wake were the bell-cows for the conference going undefeated in non-conference play. FSU played the most bowl teams non-conference with 4 including their bowl game and actually beat both participants of the Independence Bowl during the season. Duke, GT, and UNC all failed to beat a bowl opponent in non-conference play. One interesting note is that the bottom feeders such as Duke would figure to have played the better teams from other conferences yet Duke lost to Navy and UConn which isn't exactly murder's row. But hey ACC, there's always basketball.

Round of Reubens

2008-02-12T08:11:00.000-08:00

Check out some Will Ferrell Old Spice commericals here. I'm going with Herniated Colon as my favorite.

Pat McAffee. He's gonna be a little soccer player. Thanks to Wolf who was the first to send me this link. Of course I now believe that Wolf spends half his day tracking every move Pat makes. Not sure if it's love or hate, but there is a guy at the White Star that thinks you're a beautiful man Wolf. Bill Stewart is quoted as being very supportive.

I encourage all the kids to enjoy their college experience and if they want to play more than one sport than I’m all for it,” WVU Football Coach Bill Stewart added. “I’m their biggest fan. As long as Pat keeps his priorities straight, academics first and he continues to be a contributing member in the community, then I sincerely wish him the best.

He later added that if Pat so much as jaywalked he would beat him with in an inch of his life, or maybe just call in Wolf from the bushes.

Dave Hickman has the latest on the last two WVU recruits here.

West Virginia has reportedly received, albeit a few days late, the letter of intent it expected last Wednesday from Terence Kerns. The school is apparently waiting for one more straggler before wrapping up the football recruiting class.

Well, OK, straggler probably isn't the right word to describe 6-foot-4, 325-pound Benji Kemoeatu, but the Hawaiian offensive lineman's letter still isn't in hand. There's nothing to indicate Kemoeatu isn't coming, though. His parents just haven't been around to sign the letter, as required by NCAA rules.

Those will be two pretty big additions to the class. Kerns is a 225-pound tailback who played at Thomas Johnson High School in Maryland, committed to WVU last year and then went to Hargrave Military Academy when he didn't qualify academically. He still hasn't qualified, but can do so with a solid semester, a better test score or a combination of both.

Kemoeatu, who had committed to Utah and was being heavily recruited by Oregon State, has two brothers in the NFL. Chris is a backup offensive lineman with the Steelers and Ma'ake is a starting defensive tackle with the Panthers. Both played at Utah. Kemoeatu, by the way, hasn't qualified either, but no one seems to think he won't.

Scout has Kemoeatu as a three star center while Rivals has him as a four star guard. Kerns is a four star for Scout and Rivals. So both are worth the wait.

Finally, Mike Casazza broaches the giant elephant in the room of WVU basketball this year and it isn't foul shots. Everyone knows and has talked about those. The real question is what is going on with Joe Alexander Ruoff. These two jumped out quicker than anyone could have imagined this year and have regressed just as fast. Joe has become a one man wrecking crew, in the bad way, at the beginning of halves as he tries in desperation to get his offense going instead of playing patiently. Ruoff has flat out disappeared for entire stretches of the game. He isn't getting shots and further he isn't even touching the ball on offense. Casazza has his take:

He spoke of his tolerance and his team's attention to detail, of guys who'll listen and guys who'll make shots either from the floor or at the foul line -- and this was after he called a timeout to bench Joe Alexander and decided Alex Ruoff would play minimal minutes because he couldn't get open.

The team's top two scorers replaced by two reserves, though Mazzulla and Thoroughman are of increasing value because they have Huggins' trust, which might matter most now.

"We've got to suck it up and go play," Huggins said. "The reality is sometimes we depend on people we can't depend on. We have to figure that out."

Ouch. If it gets worse we may have to send in Wolf, but I'm not sure that either of them are his type.

Chuck Finder Will Change a Column

2008-02-11T06:04:00.000-08:00

It appears as we Bastards weren't the only ones that caught Chuckie changing a quote from Mitch Albom. If you go to the article here you will notice that the column has been changed and at the bottom Chuckie has added this addendum:

Correction/Clarification: (Published Feb. 9, 2008) A quote from Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom in this story as originally published Feb. 8, 2008 about former West Virginia football coach Rich Rodriguez omitted the full context of the quote. Mr. Albom wrote: "If Maize-and-Blue loyalists want to lust after a national championship and want the hot coach of the moment to lead them, that's fine. But don't be hypocritical. Don't dismiss West Virginia fans and media as sore-loser crazies."

Surprising that he had time to make the change, what with having to hold RRod ever so gently to stop the tears.

BSR's not so Gallant Return

2008-02-09T11:39:00.000-08:00

I apologize for my absence of late. Duty calls on the workfront, I am paying some dues so to speak. I began this season intent on keeping you connected to the sights and sounds in and around the Coliseum. I have been a regular attendee, but have been a poor corresponent. Shit happens.

That said, I remind you that no matter what happened in the closing seconds of the Pitt game on Thursday, fear not. Pitchers and catchers report to camp on Valentines Day, which some people know to be the 14th day of February. Tummysticks may not be one of those people.

I do enjoy the occasional lady on the blog. The WVU cheerleader was a solid post. I couldn't help myself- I had to dig up this one from my old friends- for my e-friends.

I thought this was an interesting profile. The ladies and the apartment both seam really nice. I look forward to having more opportunities to share with you all. In the mean time, I am relying on tummysticks to keep the dream alive.

Chuck Finder Will Change a Quote

2008-02-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

Chuck Finder is a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and has been better known of late as a mouthpiece for Rich Rodriguez through Mike Brown. Finder has previously written that Rodriguez was the target of a smear campaign by WVU, that Rodriguez left after WVU failed to fulfill promises, that Magee wasn't seriously considered for a head coaching position because he was black, and has been a primary source of the airing of grievances by Ken Kendrick since RR moved to Michigan. Since RR left Finder has written one positive article on WVU and it had to do with WVU receiving record high donations. On the other hand since WVU would have to prove damages in the breach of contract suit this probably helped RR image-wise more than WVU. On Friday Chuck decided to verbally felate Rodriguez and his new job in Michigan in his latest article. First Finder goes through the obligatory quotes of Michigan administrators stating that Rodriguez is a victim in all of this and wishing it would all go away.

"Most of us wish it would go away for Rich's sake," said Brandstetter, a member of that '69 team who the past three decades has worked as the Michigan coach's show host and radio color commentator. "This is an issue he has to deal with. The University of Michigan hired what they felt was the perfect candidate for this job. Rich decided to take the opportunity. The situation with West Virginia is one where we don't have anything to do with it."

"Certainly the sooner that is settled and goes away, we can continue to move forward without any more distractions," Bates said of Rodriguez's West Virginia case. "But the control is at the other end."

"The reaction here, from what I can gather is," began professor Rich Friedman of the esteemed Michigan law school, where his areas include civil actions and dispute resolutions, "people in West Virginia ought to get over it. I mean, Rodriguez took a job he felt was better for him. He's not the first coach to do it; he won't be the last. The idea of recriminations against him is a little bit ridiculous and unbecoming of people of a great state, such as West Virginia."

Then Finder decides to go to the well of West Virginia is the crazy ex in all of this and attempts to back it up with the use of Mitch Albom.

Colleague Mitch Albom, of "Tuesdays with Morrie" fame, wrote Jan. 20 "their Rich Rodriguez mess could one day be ours" and described West Virginia fans and media as "sore-loser crazies."

Unfortunately for Finder that is the exact opposite of Albom's article which is here.

If Maize-and-Blue loyalists want to lust after a national championship and want the hot coach of the moment to lead them, that's fine. But don't be hypocritical. Don't dismiss West Virginia fans and media as sore-loser crazies.

Oops. That would be the exact opposite Chuckie. That would be the same as taking the quote "Don't call Chuck Finder a douchebag" and changing it to "call Chuck Finder a douchebag." That might have been a bad example.