Mountainlair

Basketblog Poll

2009-03-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Connecticut	2
2	Pittsburgh	1
3	North Carolina	1
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Louisville
6	Memphis
7	Kansas	8
8	Michigan St.
9	Duke	5
10	Villanova
11	Wake Forest
12	Marquette	5
13	Louisiana St.	3
14	Gonzaga	3
15	Arizona St.	3
16	Clemson	3
17	Missouri	8
18	Purdue
19	Washington	1
20	Xavier	3
21	UCLA
22	Butler
23	Florida St.
24	Illinois	3
25	Utah
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Texas (#19), West Virginia (#22), California (#24), Arizona (#25).

Well That Sucked

2009-02-27T07:43:00.006-05:00

I don't know how you lose to a team that gets three technical fouls called on it. Is Truck Bryant the new Jamie Smalligan? Plays the first couple minutes of the game and doesn't get back in. Maybe Truck wasn't the answer, but we needed some penetration last night to open up the shots for us and we didn't get it.

Everything Bobby Knight said last night was true. Poor shot selection, not enough passes, "that's not the guy you want shooting the ball". Very true.

We still could have won the game, though. Maybe more on this later. Maybe not. Grrrr!

Around the Big East Blogs

2009-02-25T19:26:00.002-05:00

When we're too tired to do any real writing, we link up. And sadly, we haven't been linking to our friends and enemies too much lately. Shameful, but true.

As we get closer to the draft, you probably start wondering what happened to your favorite Mountaineer. Well, there's a blog for that, Eers in the Pros.

Luke Harangody gets the treatment over at the Wire on WMIT C.

Mike Casazza is all over the possibilities of what Huggins might wear to the Cincinnati game tomorrow.

Orange 44 is talking about this game called Lacrosse.

If you haven't been hip to the Homoerotic ways of Eric Devendorf, you've been missing out.

LeBron floats an air biscuit, and Three Idiots have the video.

Pitt Blather is taking it better than I would.

Bleed Scarlet reporting that Rutgers will have co-offensive and co-defensive coordinators next year, and slips in a 30 Rock quote.

Fat White Guy is heading across the pond. Hopefully he won't be putting down the blog.

Marquette vs. UConn live chat is happening right now.

With the white-out and that line above, I'm reminded the Marquette has a tough road the last week of the regular season.

Cracked Sidewalks has a preview of the UConn game.

Friar Blog is happy happy happy happy. I would be too.

I Bleed Blue and White is kind of happy, too.

Mick Cronin Motivational Speaker

2009-02-24T21:17:00.007-05:00

This was a bad idea to begin with and worse considering how nice the folks have been to Huggins. Apologies.

Basketblog Poll

2009-02-23T08:02:00.000-05:00

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Pittsburgh	3
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Connecticut	2
4	North Carolina	2
5	Louisville
6	Memphis
7	Marquette	2
8	Michigan St.
9	Missouri	4
10	Villanova	2
11	Wake Forest	4
12	Arizona St.	1
13	Clemson	3
14	Duke	3
15	Kansas	1
16	Louisiana St.	5
17	Gonzaga	2
18	Purdue	2
19	Texas	3
20	Washington	2
21	Illinois	5
22	West Virginia	2
23	Xavier	8
24	California
25	Arizona
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Syracuse (#23), Butler (#25).

Spreading the Wealth to Beat Rutgers

2009-02-22T21:11:00.004-05:00

Rather than Da'Sean Butler or Alex Ruoff doing all the scoring this time, West Virginia had to rely on some unfamiliar faces to get some points. The game started off with West Virginia scoring like they were playing the Washington Generals. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 21-4 early lead. But when Rutgers switched to an odd three man-two zone defense, WVU went cold.

Some point in the second half folks like Dee Proby, Wellington Smith, and Kevin Jones found a soft spot in the Knights defense and started knocking down jumpers.

Rutgers got close a couple times but never took the lead back. The final ended up being 74-56 after the last two minutes of fouling by Rutgers and free throws by West Virginia. You hear coaches talk all the time about every game being "big." Most of the time, I throw that out the window as coach speak. But today and the rest of the regular season every game is going to be big for this team as they position themselves for a high seed in the Big East tournament. As well as a high seed in the NCAA tournament.

Next up is a trip to Cincinnati and a big night for Huggins. I don't want to take anything away from that, but I'm still going to work on the "punch Mick Cronin in the face" t-shirt.

Photo from BGN

Bully Game Goes Well For West Virginia

2009-02-18T21:13:00.004-05:00

If you were tuning into the WVU-ND game to see offensive precision, you probably like the first five minutes of the game. After that, it got personal.

West Virginia came out flat and Notre Dame made nifty cuts to the basket and hit threes like they were layups. Honestly, they were hot the whole first half. But at least the Mountaineers made them work for baskets after the opening five minutes.

It got physical and the refs seemed to be good with the heavy contact. Fouls were called, but a lot more weren't. That's the hardest thing about the Big East. It's always physical, but the manic shifts in the way the games are called can leave you guessing about your plan of attack.

I hate that someone threw anything on to the court. It was just a candy bar, but still not what you want to be known for and an unacceptable act on top of that. Even when their goon slams our goon.

The win puts the Mountaineers in a tie with three other teams for the six spot in the conference. Three road games up for WVU before finishing out the season at home. This game was important because the Mountaineers need some momentum going into the tournament. There's been a lot of ups and downs through this tough stretch of the schedule. Getting a little consistency at the right time can go a long way. We know this.

Worst School Ever Coming To Morgantown

2009-02-17T19:00:00.004-05:00

It's not that I really really really hate Notre Dame. It's a little bit that I've been way to nice here lately, when I have been here. It's a little bit hate since I've really enjoyed Notre Dame falling out of the polls with a huge thud. And of course the whole thing about having a D1 football team but not being in the football side of the Big East. I just think of them as freeloaders. If you're going to be independent in football, you should have to be in all sports.

Having said that, everything the Villanova game did for validating the season, a loss to the Irish could take that away. It's going to be just as important for a big rowdy crowd to show up. It's going to be more important for Truck Bryant to stay out of foul trouble, Ruoff to hit some shots, and Ebanks to fly to the rim. Because if Notre Dame is worth a damn as a basketball team at all they are going to have a plan to slow down Butler. We beat Nova because everything went right and everyone was on the same page. The Irish got a shot of confidence when they beat Louisville and South Florida at home. Let's make them feel unwelcome when they come into Morgantown tomorrow.

Blogpoll Explained

2009-02-17T18:37:00.004-05:00

-UConn was a no brainer until last night, of course.

- UNC seems like a team with more intensity than Oklahoma, and the scoring comes from more than just three players. UNC has six players averaging in double figures where Oklahoma has three.

-Despite Louisville knocking off Pitt earlier in the year, I think Pitt's been hitting on all cylinders all year. Louisville has had some ups (Pitt) and downs (UNLV, Notre Dame).

-Memphis hasn't played the schedule that Wake or anyone else in the ACC. But they have gone outside of conference with some big games. Maybe I'm putting too much on that win at Gonzaga.

-Michigan St. is in the Big 10, but they've been on quite a tear since the loss to UNC. I don't know that they are better than Marquette, but you have to give some credit for winning.

-Moving Villanova below Clemson and Arizona St. was a mistake. I know better than anyone what can happen to a team in Morgantown. What they did before that game should have still been enough to keep them in the top 10.

-Outside of the top 10, I think it's all darts. Your bias comes into play a lot more. And with all the upsets last week, it's not a good time to be sure of anything. Leave your comments about anything you like or don't like as you'll have a chance to influence my poll next week and beyond.

Basketblog Poll

2009-02-15T19:41:00.002-05:00

Explanation coming tomorrow some time in the am.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Connecticut
2	North Carolina
3	Oklahoma
4	Pittsburgh
5	Louisville
6	Memphis	5
7	Wake Forest	2
8	Michigan St.	6
9	Marquette	1
10	Clemson	4
11	Arizona St.	11
12	Villanova	4
13	Missouri	10
14	Kansas	2
15	Xavier
16	Illinois	4
17	Duke	10
18	Washington	1
19	Gonzaga	2
20	Purdue	2
21	Louisiana St.
22	Texas
23	Syracuse
24	West Virginia
25	Butler	12
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: UCLA (#12), Utah St. (#17), Davidson (#24), Ohio St. (#25).

A Mountaineer Tips His Cap

2009-02-13T11:42:00.003-05:00

We did a Q&A with Villanova blog I Bleed Blue and White for the upcoming game between WVU and Villanova, however we feel uninspired to ask any questions because of a death in our family of friends. Thanks to Chris for reaching out to us and understanding our need to put the game on the back burner. Hopefully there will be need for future discussion of our two fine programs.

Big East Blogger Chat

2009-02-10T18:45:00.003-05:00

I think this is number three. Yeah, this is the third chat amongst the Big East blogosphere happening right over heya at 9pm. Sorry for the late notice. It's the economy, natch. We're sure to cover who's in and out of the big dance, and who is riding the bubble. As well as how we all did on signing day. Your panel is as follows:

Brian from Orange 44
Sean from Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician
Chas from Pitt Blather
John from Mountainlair
Dave from FriarBlog
and Kevin from TheUConnBlog

...and you of course.

Fouls

2009-02-09T20:51:00.004-05:00

Ugh, we couldn't take advantage of Fields and Blair getting two quick fouls in the first half because of our own. We never adjusted to the way the game was being called, and Pitt did. There were bullshit calls going both ways, so I won't accept that the refs had any hand in the outcome of the game. So West Virginia needs to regroup and finish out the season strong and get in the tournament. Nothing has changed with that goal. It's all still there for the taking.

Blogpoll Basketball Style

2009-02-08T20:56:00.003-05:00

Wow, this is a lot tougher than the football poll. Especially when you have so many ranked teams falling over the weekend or being on the longest losing streak of the season.

Some general thoughts about the poll: It doesn't surprise me at all to see Michigan go into UConn and give them a game. Despite being so good, Oklahoma has seemed to sail under the radar. Maybe because the Big 12 is down. I'd love to put Duke lower, but I don't see how I can. Villanova is the big jumper on this poll. They've been hot lately, and all their four losses have been against quality opponents. Memphis probably deserved to move up further after the win at Gonzaga. After that, though, I think you have a group of teams that are fairly interchangeable.

Your thoughts in the comments. I believe we still have a window to make changes before the final poll. So change my mind.

Rank	Team

1	Connecticut
2	North Carolina
3	Oklahoma
4	Pittsburgh
5	Louisville
6	Clemson
7	Duke
8	Villanova
9	Wake Forest
10	Marquette
11	Memphis
12	UCLA
13	Butler
14	Michigan St.
15	Xavier
16	Kansas
17	Utah St.
18	Purdue
19	Washington
20	Illinois
21	Gonzaga
22	Arizona St.
23	Missouri
24	Davidson
25	Ohio St.

Alex Ruoff Would Like To Remind You Why You Should Guard Him

2009-02-08T09:16:00.005-05:00

I think you can point to a lot of reasons why Alex Ruoff hasn't been as effective this year shooting three pointers. The Joe Mazzulla injury has forced him to take on more roles, being a senior and taking on more of a leadership role, people guarding him tighter, etc.

Even though Butler didn't have his best night shooting, I was happy to see that the offense was running through him early in the game. Because this left Ruoff open to do what he does best, and obviously Butler should be the focus of the offense. It's an offense that is still finding itself, though. With the development of Ebanks, Bryant, and Kevin Jones the offense is diversifying and the onus to score isn't solely on Ruoff and Butler. And hopefully that is going to benefit those two as the season plays out. As we saw yesterday, when you aren't guarding Ruoff he will kill you.

Van Pelt Suspension

2009-02-07T15:45:00.002-05:00

As I'm waiting for the WVU-Providence game to get started, I came across the news that Scott Van Pelt has been suspended via Deadspin. The reason is for an outburst directed at MLB commissioner Bud Selig last week and his rather large salary.

Of the personalities on ESPN radio, Van Pelt is by far my favorite. The same is true on the television side of things. Apparently he felt compelled to contact Selig on his own to make an apology. And if it was bad enough he thought he should apologize on his own, then he probably deserved some type of suspension. But what bothered me about this post is the close ties between ESPN execs and Selig.

Selig does have close relationships with many of ESPN's top execs ( they are currently locked in an 8-year, $2.4 billion broadcast deal from 2005 for Sunday Night Baseball and have other contracts with MLB) and the initial story was that Selig himself heard the remarks and was personally offended by them, but that hasn't been confirmed.

When you get too close with those you are charged with reporting on, the validity of what you report has to come into question. For that reason, I have to question where the line is drawn on critiques of Selig? Or execs of other professional sports. Or for that matter, anyone at the NCAA. I know sports are just a distraction from life, but I just don't like the idea of censorship. In any form, it ruins the quality of reporting and give those in power a sense of being above the law.

You Can Blame This One On Me

2009-02-04T20:53:00.002-05:00

Yup, that whole Karma thing. Tonight's loss is on me. Every time he says, "Bruce McCulloch", just insert Johnny. Sorry everyone.

Because I Seem to Have a Problem With Karma

2009-02-02T22:06:00.003-05:00

Yeah, what better time to post a video/song I did about former Syracuse Football coach than two days before the Mountaineer basketball team takes on the Orange. To be fair, I did this with the encouragement of awesome Syracuse blogger Sean at Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician. But still, maybe I could have/should have waited until after Wednesday. Oh well, fuck it!

Well, That Was Fun

2009-01-31T14:10:00.003-05:00

Not really. I mean you want to win, but being down by 20 at the half and coming back to make it a game has to be worth something. Right?

Watching the first half, there were so many situations where I thought West Virginia was fouled but nothing was called. Honestly though, the Mountaineers didn't look like they belonged on the same court with Louisville. The Cardinals beat West Virginia in every way you can imagine.

The second half was the complete opposite. This was the perfect game to show your team that the refs favor the team that is aggressive. Louisville came out in the second half sluggish and West Virginia was the more aggressive team. The commentators noted that Louisville was standing around on offense several times. When they couldn't buy a basket the pressure defense disappeared. Likewise West Virginia was able to get into their offense and score easy baskets.

Still, that first half lead for the Cardinals proved to be too much for West Virginia as the Mountaineers fell 69-63. And the schedule doesn't get any easier with four of the next five against ranked teams. Possibly five if Providence can beat UConn today. At least three of the next five will be at home.

Photo via ESPN.com

Going to Louisville

2009-01-30T19:06:00.004-05:00

Yeah, that win over St. Johns was a nice exercise, but the game with Louisville tomorrow is big. BIG big!It's a chance for a true signature win. West Virginia has been hanging around the upper-middle of the Big East pack, but hasn't been able to break through against a conference leader.

The big problem with this game as I see it is Louisville's ability to pressure the ball full court. It's not something West Virginia has had to deal with too much this year. And with a short bench of ball handlers, this could be major trouble if the Mountaineers get into foul trouble. Secondly, Louisville has some size, but not nearly the size of Pitt. So we might be able to get some stops on defense and hopefully not give up the easy baskets in the paint. Third is Freedom Hall. We have to keep that place quiet. My last vision of that place was the overtime period against Notre Dame. If we let it get like that, the game is over.

A lot of things will have to go right for us to win this game. We'll have to play our best defense of the year and hope that Louisville doesn't. Stranger things have happened, though. I mean Louisville did lose to Western Kentucky.

Tip off is set for noon on a Big East Network channel near you.

Thoughts on the Pitt Game

2009-01-26T17:19:00.002-05:00

I think Dave Poe said it best, that Pitt was just the better team. For most of the game I didn't feel like West Virginia was doing anything wrong. Pitt had a size advantage in the paint that West Virginia just wasn't equipped to deal with. I also like that Dave worked in a Yes reference.

One of my favorite rock groups in my formative years -there I go dating myself -was Yes, who produced the album Yours Is No Disgrace.
That's an apt description of the 79-67 loss suffered by West Virginia University's basketball team on Sunday at the Coliseum against arch-rival Pitt.
It's no disgrace in athletics to give your best effort and lose to a clearly superior team, which is exactly what took place.

West Virginia can make up for that if they can force turnovers, but Pitt's guard play was up to the task. Pitt only turned the ball over nine times, and that one stat sealed the Mountaineers fate. There were some head scratching turnovers for the Mountaineers, but there were also some that were excellent plays by Pitt.

The good news is that we probably beat 98% of the teams in America with that effort. One game certainly doesn't kill your season. And yes, everything will be fine.

On an unrelated note, I've really enjoyed the time away from this blog. I'm not saying I'm going to hang it up. It's just going to be spotty.

Peeking Through My Fingers at the Georgetown Game

2009-01-22T18:56:00.005-05:00

Hopefully we'll make Matt proud! Consider this an open thread for tonight's game with teh suxa.

The good news is that D.C. still seems to be hung over from the inauguration as there are a lot of empty seats.

Woo Hoo! 75-58

West Virginia Football National Champs at Last!

2009-01-20T11:50:00.004-05:00

Make your own transitive national champs thing, but we are the one true transitive national champion.

If you are one of these teams, better luck next year.

Of the 120 College Football Div 1-A schools, all but 5 (Southern Methodist, Washington, Washington State, North Texas and Western Kentucky) can claim to be the best through the Transitive Property.

We're Going On Vacation

2009-01-12T23:03:00.002-05:00

It's been a while, and we made a promise to a friend that we've been slacking on. Besides, we play Marshall and USF this week. Nothing to see there but a couple wins. So we'll be back next week with some good stuff. Promise.

Yeah, try getting that song out of your head.

Blogpoll Final Ballot

2009-01-11T20:01:00.002-05:00

Not a lot of changes from my original ballot. I had to work Iowa in there and get Northwestern out. I feel comfortable with the winner of the UF/OU game being the #1 team. Utah had a great season, but I just can't see them as the best team this year.

Southern Cal is a team I feel sorry for just a little, but they knew what they had to do at the beginning of the year considering they don't have a championship game and they didn't do it. More than anyone, Texas got screwed by not getting a shot at the Big 12 title game. Even though I ranked them below OU at the end of the season I've had a change of heart about what they did this season. They lost their only game by 1 second. One missed tackle. They didn't exactly prove they were deserving in their bowl game the way USC did. So that's how I came up with my top 5. The rest was just a matter of head to head and how I thought they would fair with everyone below them.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Florida	--
2	Southern Cal	3
3	Texas	--
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Utah	3
6	Alabama	2
7	Penn State	1
8	TCU	3
9	Ohio State	1
10	Oregon	10
11	Georgia	3
12	Boise State	3
13	Mississippi	11
14	Texas Tech	7
15	Oklahoma State	--
16	Virginia Tech	5
17	Iowa	1
18	Missouri	5
19	Georgia Tech	6
20	Cincinnati	8
21	Michigan State	1
22	Oregon State	4
23	Brigham Young	4
24	Pittsburgh	7
25	West Virginia	1

Dropped Out: Northwestern (#16), Boston College (#25).