Mountaineers Big Dance

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.

Round of Reubens

The Maryland basketball championship drive stalled this weekend. The Terps fell to some white dudes from Butler that may have had a little help from the referees. At least on the charge call on D.J. Strawberry at the end. The result of the first week is that my brackets are in flames. There is no real underdog this year, UNLV is the lowest seeded team to advance with a 7-seed. I guess it was a bad year to take Long Beach State to the Elite 8 and Texas/Louisville aren't going to make the runs I thought they were.

One of the main questions this spring with the football team is whether Adam Bednarik can return and ifso can he get those guns on the field? The Charleston Gazette catches up with the former starting QB, now third string and speculates where he would go if he changed positions. The conclusion from the Gazette is wide receiver. That would not make a lot of sense considering the size and speed of Bednarik, but his shoulder problems could preclude the move to TE which would seem more appropriate. The Gazette believes that a move to defense is out due to the stress involved in trying to learn that you are trying to keep people from scoring instead of trying to score.

WVU women have a rematch tonight versus LSU in the NCAA tournament. The two teams played in the first game of the season with LSU sqeaking out a 64-25 win. The 11th seeded Mountaineers have already defeated Xavier in the tournament and another win would probably ruin the majority of the five women's brackets in existence (currently all being played by female gym teachers in the mid-west having fem-mullets and carrying a whistle at all times). The team has rebounded well this season after losing Meg Bulger for the second straight year with the same ACL injury. Meg is currently rehabbing both the knee and her wet hair at Kegler's.

WVU plays NC State in the NIT on Tuesday in a 9 pm game. This game is also a rematch from earlier in the season, WVU won in Charleston 71-60 earlier in the year. The winner goes to Madison Square Garden for the final four. The loser is somewhere around the 74th best team in the nation.

Round of Reubens

In late game NIT action, WVU continued to be impressive with Frank Young playing the best game of his career. Frank scored 31 points on 11-15 shooting including 6-8 from three. The six makes ties Franks for the school record of 101 made threes in a season. The team shot over 50% for the second straight NIT game with 54.4% shooting (12-28 from three, 43%). It looks like this team is hitting it's stride just in time for the Big Dance.

Speaking of the Big Dance, Stanford proved all the doubters wrong. We way underestimated how bad they sucked. Stanford rallied from a 26 point half time deficit to get nipped at the end by 20 against Louisville. The same team WVU almost beat in regulation and the 1st overtime less than a week ago. Stanford shot a blazing 41% from the floor and were very crafty with the ball. Only 21 turnovers for the Cardinal. The NCAA selection committee should be ashamed, especially given how WVU and Syracuse are still playing. Stanford would have had a better chance letting the drunken tree play. Today all eyes should be on the other controversial selection of Arkansas. Maybe they can crap the bed as well.

And finally in community college/crapping the bed frequently news Marshall is going back on probation soon. Marshall Reynolds was banned in 2001 from any contact with the athletic program as part of his paying athletes for not working for him job program. His probation is over and he was just named to the committee to find the new basketball coach. So congratulations Marshall for doing what you do best; cheating and getting caught.

It is nice to be a VIP...

Not gonna lie to you, I am a big fan of the Sportsline NCAA March Madness on demand. Those of us who can't be at our favorite sports bar because we are stuck in the office are grateful. Despite having to go to a meeting at 1pm, and thus missing most of the second half- I was pleased to watch the Terps put Davidson away- I was nervous when I left my desk. That is as close to a live blog as I will ever get- I promise.

The Boss Button feature is nice. Much of the crap on my computer actually looks pretty much like the pseudo spreadsheet. Excellent touch.

Enjoy the madness.

NIT - Why does it hurt so bad?

It officially took 3 days and a smashing of Delaware State to recover from my shame. Ever since WVU finished 4-4 down the stretch, I suspected we would be left out of the big dance, so none of this came as a big surprised. But why did it hurt so bad? A few short years ago, we were grateful for an NIT birth, simply because there would be more opportunities to see our Mountaineers. Then, of course, things changed: Back-to-back sweet 16 appearances in 2005 and 2006. So yeah, this is a bit of a let down. But was it always so?

The NIT began in 1938, one year prior to the NCAA Invitational Tournament. That year, the NIT field was filled with modern day powerhouses (record entering tournament): Bradley (18-1), Colorado (14-5), Long Island (23-3), NYU (15-6), Oklahoma A&M (24-2) and Temple (20-2). Temple went on to win in a knee-biter over future Supreme Court Justine Byron White and his Buffs 60-36. I think that was the first year the Owls were coached by John Chaney. But then again, coaches weren't allowed to talk to their players during games in 1938, so its pretty much irrelevant. The low score by the Buffs was attributed to two reasons: 1) the all night stripper rape the night before and 2) the fact the circumference of the ball was changed to 30 inches from the very specific "eh, anywhere between 29 1/2 and 30 1/4 inches is cool with us" rule.

Even though the NCAA began the "Big Dance" the following year, the NIT paralleled inner city elementary schools by continuing a separate but equal existence well into the 60s. Interestingly, a few of the exceptional teams actually played in both tournaments, i.e. CCNY and Kentucky. During that time period, WVU's first appearance came in 1942 where the Mountaineers went on to win the tournament upending Western Kentucky 47-45. During the next 3 years, '43-'46, the winners of the two tournaments met in a unofficial game in Madison Square Gardens to benefit the Red Cross, which by that time was busy patching holes in the Greatest Generation. The NCAA winner won all 3 games (Wyoming, Utah and Oklahoma A&M, respectively).

West Virginia also participated in the NIT, while it was still relevant, in 1945 (lost first round to DePaul), 1946 (lost semi-final to Kentucky) and 1947 (lost in a semi-final nail biter to Utah). No appearances in the NIT during its relevancy by Pitt, Virginia Tech or Maryland. Pitt first showed up in college basketball postseason play in 1941 when it lost in the NCAA East Finals to Wisconsin 36-30. During the same time period (between 1938 and 1960), WVU also appeared in the NCAA tournament 6 times (1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959 when we finished runner-up and 1960) while Pitt showed up thrice (1941, 1957 and 1958). [All facts from Wikipedia and Infoplease.]

Eventually, money, corruption and ESPN came along. Increased field size and expanded television coverage began pushing the NCAA tournament to the forefront. Rumors exist that the NCAA also bullied invited teams into foregoing the NIT in favor of the NCAA Tournament. In 1974, a third national tournament, the Collegiate Commissioner's Association Tournament came along further diluting the NIT field. The CCAT, though, was as well conceived as the XFL, and died in just 2 years. Unfortunately, the damage had been done and the NIT has now been relegated to the tournament for 66th place.

But hell, at least we get to see our Mountaineers play a few more games, Alexander might find some shooting rythm, Patrick Beilein and Mike Gansy can film some more Lotto commercials and we can go on reporting on the basketball team. Afterall, we're facing the Sahara with a single Blue and Gold oasis between here and September 1st.

A historical perspective

Every family has that one person that causes unneeded embarassment. Whether it be an incompetent criminal, a child molester, a Nazi sympythizer, or a Marshall graduate there is always someone that causes the family shame. Our family is no different. We have a Maryland apologist. While other family members try to ignore the problem or pretend they aren't related I feel that the best way to deal with something like this, which is so painful, is to attack it head on. While he may never overcome his dimentia, at least I can say I tried to show him the way with "facts." And in the every cloud has a silver lining category I discovered a couple of new and interesting links while looking for historical facts on WVU and other schools in basketball and football.

The above links will take you to all time records in basketball and football respectively. I was pleasently surprised to discover that WVU is currently 26th all-time in basketball and tied for 15th in football. The only team in the top ten in both is God's America's NBC's team Notre Dame.

Some schools relevant to WVU fans:
Pitt is unranked in basketball (top 50 all-time only) and 21st in football;
Louisville is 23rd in basketball and 96th in football;
Penn St. unranked in basketball and 6th in football;
Virginia Tech is unranked in basketball and 22nd in football;
Marshall is unranked in basketball and 62nd in football; and
Maryland is unranked in basketball and 36th in football.

Now the all-time wins doesn't neccessarily correlate with a better program as Vanderbilt has more all time wins (football) than both Miami and Florida State and Fordham is number 35 in all time basketball wins, but it is interesting to see where your school ranks historically when compared to recently.

Another aspect of the football database is that if you go to Div I teams individually you can look at historical records vs. oppenents. For instance WVU is 28-22-1 vs. Virginia Tech, but 0-1 vs. Mahoning Cycle Club (OH) and we got beat 26-0. Those biking bastards.

Who's the best?

WVU's elimination in the Big East Tournament gave me some extra time and Mom always told me that idle hands are the devils playground. So I kept myself busy with another research project. This project is to find the best programs in both Football and Men's Basketball for the new millennium. Using final poll numbers I looked at the last 6 years of both football and basketball and eliminated all schools that did not have at least TWO teams in each poll over the six year span thus forcing some consistency in both sports. So USC is gone due to lack of basketball (sure to change in upcoming years if Smokedog Mayo can be as good as advertised and stay away from Snoop) and UNC for lack of football (Butch Davis may change that as well). The numbers were compiled as follows: 25 points for 1st, 24 for 2nd, down to 1 for 25th.

The results:

1. Texas--183 points (11 total placings out of 12 polls).
2. Oklahoma--167 points (11 total placings out of 12 polls).
3. Florida--141 points (10 total placings out of 12 polls).
4. LSU--132 points (7 total placings out of 12 polls).
5. Ohio State--108 points (7 total placings out of 12 polls).
6. Maryland--104 points (8 total placings out of 12 polls).
7. Wisconsin--88 points (7 total placings out of 12 polls).
8. Louisville--85 points (7 total placings out of 12 polls).
9. Tennessee--66 points (7 total placings out of 12 polls).
10. West Virginia--63 points (5 total placings out of 12 polls).
11. Boston College--55 points (6 total placings out of 12 polls).
12. Pittsburgh--52 points (5 total placings out of 12 polls).
13. Notre Dame--49 points (5 total placings out of 12 polls).

Conferences:

SEC--3 teams
Big East--3 teams
ACC--2 teams
Big 10--2 teams
Big 12--2 teams

It is interesting to me that only 13 schools qualified, I would have guessed more schools made the final poll in both at least 33% of the time.