Goodbye Cruel World...

I have decided to hang it up with the Mountainlair. It's been great to be sure, but holding this and the fanhouse down at the same time is just too much. I will still be writing over at the fanhouse, and also, I should be writing over at In the Bleachers soon. I really can't say enough nice things about those guys. I'm very thankful for the offer to work with them!

I just needed to step away from trying to do everything, because I wasn't really doing anything well. This will give me some time to work on other non-sports related items of interest. Thanks to everyone that stopped by and left comments. Thanks to Brian over at MGOBlog for letting me be part of the blogpoll as well. And thanks to everyone that gave me a link and helped me grow this blog.

Cheers,
Johnny

Mountainlair Seeking an Intern

That's what everyone else calls it anyway, but you would be a full partner in this thing I call the Mountainlair. By myself, I think I've taken this about as far as it is going to go. But with some fresh blood we might be able to make the Mountainlair a little bit more than what it is today.

If you are interested, click on the tip jar at the top right hand side and send me an email. Be sure to send links to any blogging/writing experience that you have. And yes, I will share 50/50 all the $4 I receive quarterly from Football Fanatics.

Hello Ass-Kickin'

Nice to see you. IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME... Hey! Who invited George Jones? We're talking basketball here dude. And it ain't pretty. West Virginia took one on the chin from Marquette Saturday, 81-63. I'm glad I had something else to do Saturday, and was spared the massacre.

There were a total of 41 personal fouls. Each team shot 23 foul shots. Both teams turned the ball over 17 times and Marquette won the war of the boards 40-26. YUCK! That has to be the worst Beilein scale production all year, -14. New rule when we go on the road, slip the other team a mic the night before the game. West Virginia shot on 38% for the game, and 22% from three. While Marquette shot 52 and 57 % respectively.

Dominic James lead all scorers with 21 and three other Golden Eagles were in double figures. Frank Young and Jamie Smalligan were the only two Mountaineers in double figures. Nice to see Jamie step up with 10 and 5, but ouch baby, ouch. The last time West Virginia lost close to this bad was at the beginning of last year against Kentucky, by 14. You have to go all the way back to January 16, 2005 to find a game that West Virginia lost by more than 18. Hats off to Marquette.

The first thing this team needs to do is get it's confidence back. The last time I predicted West Virginia would romp over South Florida it was in football, and I got the pants party. So I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin' it would be nice. The Bulls and the Mountaineers meet this Wednesday at 7pm in Morgantown. The game should be available on ESPN Fullcourt.

Marquette Preview/Open Thread

First off, my mental note from last years game was that Dominic James was a scoring machine. In a game that West Virginia was hitting every shot they took (20-38 from 3-pt.) on the way to a 104-85 victory. This is important because West Virginia only gets into their 1-3-1 defense after made baskets but it made no difference as James did whatever he wanted to. He had 28 points on 10-15 shooting with 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 7 turnovers. If West Virginia wasn't so hot from three, this game doesn't turn out the same.

This year has been a head scratcher for the Golden Eagles. They show wins @ Duke and UConn, and losses to North Dakota State and surprising Providence. This is a young team, though. None of their top five scorers are seniors. Actually they have one junior, three sophomores, and one freshman. You may want to consider James as a senior even though he is actually a sophomore, because I don't see him in anything but an NBA uniform next year.

West Virginia's last game against Notre Dame was disappointing to say the least. But on the road for the first time in the Big East is never an easy thing no matter who you play. West Virginia will need to shoot a little better at crucial times in this game. Their overall performance against the Irish wasn't that bad, but the timing of their mistakes couldn't have been worse. The defensive breakdowns can't happen in crucial situations if they hope to win. No predictions here, just hopeful that the Mountaineers can come away with their first Big East road win of the year. The game is @ noon on ESPN.

For more on Marquette, run don't walk over to Cracked Sidewalks and check out the fine work these guys do covering MU and the Big East.

College Football Blogger Awards

The nominations are up over at Rocky Top Talk, so head over there and follow all the links in the post as several fine bloggers were involved in the nomination process. Also, while your out following links, make sure to head over to MGOBlog to check out the final blogpoll to see the better than any MSM college football poll.

As for me, I will be out of contact for the next few days practicing for this great piece of news. Happy post season!

Notre Dame Wins With Bully Ball and No Calls

Yeah, before I get into that, Notre Dame did do a good job of defending the perimeter. The fact that West Virginia only took 26 three point shots proves that out. On top of that, many of those shots were contested. West Virginia was still able to hit 38% of their three point shots and made a furious comeback that fell three points short. Poetic justice? Maybe.

But the thing that just tore me up was all the pushes in the back that Notre Dame got away with, along with the goon squad Notre Dame calls their front court. Despite that, West Virginia was only out rebounded by 3. As of right now the turnover totals are not available.

It was good for the young Mountaineer team to go into a hostile environment and hold their own. The ranking might be a little high for this team at the moment, but as young as they are the experience should help down the road. Sadly, we don't get a return visit from the Irish this year. I would gladly take a crap in their seats. But I guess that will have to wait until next year.

In The Bleachers Bowl Pick 'em Bonanza

Thanks to the guys at In The Bleachers for letting me participate in their Bowl Pick 'em Bonanza. Somehow I was able to prove my prowess in picking bowl winners via the 12 pack of beer/dart throwing method and won with a 23-9 record. Hats off to Brian for all his bowl previews. Lord knows I didn't have the time or knowledge of most of those teams to make intelligent comments on most of those games.

Year End Blogpoll

Yeah, the final blogpoll of the year. It's been real fun throwing in my two cents. Looking back at my pre-season poll, I think it might be prudent for me to switch my methodology for assigning rankings. The resume method is something I paid attention during the year, but never seemed to have the time to implement it. Or maybe it was just easier for me to make a decision as to who I thought would win on a neutral field. Eight of the teams I had in my pre-season poll did not make the final poll. Most notably Iowa at #8 and Miami at #9. My pre-season rankings are in parenthesis.

Congratulations to Florida on an incredible game. I didn't see that one coming. And neither did Ohio St. Congrats to the Big East for going 5-0 in bowl games this year as well. Not quite dead just yet.

Update 01/10/2007 830am: I had to go back into the blogpoll widget and change Georgia and Va. Tech just because the dirty birds don't deserve to be ranked ahead of a team they just lost to. However, I'm not changing it here, because I just don't have time to.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	2 (6)
2	Ohio State	1 (2)
3	Southern Cal	2 (3)
4	LSU	2 (4)
5	Wisconsin	3 (nr)
6	Louisville	2 (13)
7	Boise State	6 (nr)
8	Michigan	6 (18)
9	West Virginia	1 (10)
10	Auburn	3 (7)
11	Rutgers	5 (nr)
12	Texas	6 (1)
13	Oklahoma	4 (22)
14	California	7 (11)
15	Brigham Young	4 (nr)
16	Arkansas	4 (nr)
17	Wake Forest	2 (nr)
18	Virginia Tech	4 (16)
19	Georgia	1 (12)
20	Notre Dame	9 (5)
21	Oregon State	2 (nr)
22	Penn State	4 (17)
23	South Florida	1 (nr)
24	Tennessee	7 (14)
25	TCU	1 (19)

Dropped Out: Texas A&M (#22), Nebraska (#25).

Shameless

I'm shameless if nothing else, so I thought I might as well go with it rather than fight it. Sure there is some football game of minor importance going on right now, but this seemed more important. You can find this and other meaningless articles of clothing over at the Mountainlair t-shirt shop. Wear it proudly! You never know who will be filming you.

I know I'm going to hell, and this just got me a ticket to the front of the line.

St. Johns Not So Good

I was thinking that Mr. Hyde might show up in the game, but we got all Dr. Jeckyll. And what the hell is going on with the Beilein scale? West Virginia out rebounded the Red Storm by 8 and had 7 fewer turnovers than the pushovers on the way to a 73-46 victory. Darius Nichols stepped up his offensive game to lead all scorers with 20. Joe Alexander and Frank Young had 10 and 12 respectively. So someone different is playing the go-to-guy every time out. Which is refreshing, and hopefully keeps opposing defenses off guard.

The Mountaineers were 13-31 from three point range this afternoon, and 29-59 overall. Which is a far cry better than the unrealistic ratio of three-to-two point shots that they had in their victory over Villanova. Blast me if you want, but I am really starting to believe that this team can be just as good as last years team, depending on how you define greatness. Yes they haven't played near the competition as last years team, but they haven't been playing the sisters of the blind either. We'll get a feel for how this team does on the road next week as they have two road games against top 25 teams in Notre Dame and Marquette. So I guess that's something to look forward to for all the naysayers. I expect at least a split. Notre Dame got exposed against Georgetown, and barring any major rubbing of the shalalee, I expect a win in this game. Marquette might be another story, but then again, maybe not.

Ween needs no reason!

St. Johns Preview/Open Thread

I don't know how to even begin with St. Johns. One day they are loosing to Texas by one point, the next they are loosing to the Hofstra Flying Dutchmen by 12. One day the beat DuPal, the next they need overtime to beat Boston University. Enigma seems to fit this team well. And much like every year since Lou Carnesecca retired, they are the model of inconsistency.

The all-time record for West Virginia against St. Johns is 15-15, but the Mountaineers have won the last five meetings. The Red Storm are led by the three headed monster of Lamont Hamilton, Avery Patterson, and Anthony Mason Jr. All three are averaging double figures in points. The Red Storm only averages 14.6 turnovers per game, and 14.3 assists per game. Also, they average 35 rebounds per game.

I see no reason to believe that the Mountaineers won't win this game, but you just never know who is going to show up for St. Johns. The game tips off at 4pm, and it does not appear that any form of ESPN will be covering the game. Check local listings.

Pat White Named Alabama Athlete of the Year

I made a wise ass comment earlier this year that if LSU had let Pat White even try out at quarterback instead of the Tigers insisting that he would be a receiver or nothing, that JaMarcus Russell would have been the greatest clipboard holder in SEC history. And apparently the people of Alabama agree with me.

How does someone this good get stolen from the SEC? I'm sure he didn't just wake up one day and have all the ability and composure he possesses. It is a matter of the perfect offensive system meeting the perfect quarterback for that system. And we are all very thankful for it!

Hopefully his abilities will be displayed for at least half the state of Alabama come the beginning of the 2008 season when West Virginia travels to Auburn. I guess that will depend a lot on how he progresses as a passer in 2007. If not, prepare to meet his very capable backup, Jarrett Brown.

Snap Thingy and other Thingies

OK, I've added the Snap thing to my blog, and thanks to Joel at Rocky Top Talk for putting up a link to snap into. It's both cool and funny that so many people have put so much time into blocking pop-up windows that we have come full circle and deliberately added html to force pop-ups on people.

West Virginia is loosing assistant coaches at an alarming rate when you consider that one of the big pushes in renegotiating Rodriguez's contract was to get more money for the assistants. Such is life for a winning program I guess. There's been lots of names thrown around for their replacements, but no real news yet.

And lastly, Pig by Sparklehorse, just cause we can.

Turdgate

What else could you call it? The thing that is bothering me right now is that he just has to be a WVU fan. I'm not saying it's not a Mountaineer fan, I'm just wondering how you identify him as a Mountaineer fan. Is it because he isn't wearing "Jorts?"And how the hell do you pinch a loaf right beside all those people and not get the shit kicked out of you?

I mean, you just have to make him bleed on principal, right? At any rate, I'm off today and I've searched the internets for court records all day long from Jacksonville, and found nothing. So maybe someone a little better at this type of search could provide a link and we can put this thing out of our misery.

Alabama Get's Their Marion County Coach

Nick Saban was hired at Alabama today. And at long last we can put this story to rest. Almost a month ago, they were in the middle of negotiations with fellow Marion County native, Rich Rodriguez. But thankfully, those negotiations did not work out between the two sides. And it is probably better for both Bama and West Virginia.

I hope he stays at Alabama longer than most of the talking heads are predicting. I'm looking at you Colin Cowterd. The state of college football seems to thrive when traditional powerhouses are involved in the MNC hunt. And it would be nice to see some stability at Alabama.

Mountaineers Hold on to Beat Villanova

After jumping out to a 46-24 halftime lead, the Mountaineers had to hold on for dear life as the Wildcats of Villanova screamed back to get within six points with four minutes left. Then the Mountaineers were able to pull away with some key three pointers.

Can we finally call him Frank "Fucking" Young? Young lead all scorers with a career high 25 points. His second career high in as many games. He was 8-13 from three, and 0-0 from two. Which is about the same ratio of three's to two's the rest of the Mountaineers shot. The Mountaineers were 15-36 from three, and 20-44 overall.

I didn't get to watch the first half, so I really only saw the bad part of the game for WVU. Villanova is a very good team, and Curtis Sumpter is an absolute demon. I would think that a guy that has missed the last year and a half due to two knee injuries would be a little, oh I don't know, slow. But Sumpter did anything he wanted to in the second half. He was only 2-7 in the first half, but ended the game 9-20 with 21 points. Those numbers might not look all that impressive. You just had to be watching, I guess. Mike Nardi was in foul trouble all of the second half, and wasn't much of a factor. Thank God!

Villanova is a tough team, and they will break a lot of hearts this year with their full-court pressure and Sumpter's inside game. So this was a huge win for the Mountaineers.

If you haven't watched a game on ESPN plus this year, it's kind of like watching a movie in Technocolor. You're not really sure what you are watching most of the game, but just enough to know who is winning, and Curtis Sumpter beating the triple team for a layup. Damn that guy is good!

And Not One Couch Was Burned

The time might be coming when West Virginia is no longer known as the couch burning capital of the world. All respect to Jonathan Tu. But West Virginia put couch burning on the map. And the administration and Morgantown's police department might have taken it off the map. I'd show you pictures of how anal the whole thing has become, but some fucker stole my camera before I could download the pictures.

The Gator Bowl isn't the Sugar Bowl, but I would have expected at least one couch to be burned after the amazing comeback win by the Mountaineers. But I can find no news of anything being burned in Morgantown after the win. Mind you I was talking about couches. You can go back to worshiping Trey Anastasio now, and what ever you burn to get you there.

It's like international basketball now. Much as the Mountaineers invented couch burning to celebrate, now everyone is doing it but the people that started it. And the US basketball team is lucky to win the bronze medal.

We'll just have to remember you for the way you were.

38-35!

Despite Steve Slaton sitting out most of the game, the Mountaineers were able to put together some impressive drives and hold Georgia Tech to seven points in the second half on their way to a 38-35 victory in the Gator Bowl. More to come over at the fanhouse.