Well, That Was Fun

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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).

Mountaineers Fall in Frustrating Loss To Marquette

For a game that was so physical, and quite ugly at times, it's hard to imagine such a disparity in fouls. More importantly, such a disparity in foul shots. Marquette ended the game 24-27 from the line while WVU was 6-10. It would be real easy to cry foul or some other frustrated gut reaction, but WVU didn't get screwed by the refs. They got screwed by bad decisions and not moving their feet.

Truck Bryant running headlong into defenders for two charging fouls took him out of the game early and forced the Mountaineers to run the offense with Alex Ruoff and Da'Sean Butler handling the ball. West Virginia can do that, but it changes responsibilities for those two and keeps them from their primary role, which is moving without the ball and scoring. It also forces them to defend smaller, faster guards. Over the course of a game that will take a toll.

Having said that, I don't mean to imply that this loss is all on Bryant. I'm just pointing out the precarious situation the Mountaineers are in with only one true point guard.

This was compounded by West Virginia failing to capitalize on the cold shooting of Marquette in the first half. Instead of playing smart basketball, we committed pointless fouls and poor shooting decisions that allowed Marquette to stay in the game. Also of note, Marquette kept West Virginia from second chance points that have helped the Mountaineers to this point in the season.

Unlike the UConn game that was frustrating but you could see how easily we could have won, there is no silver lining in this loss. It's time to regroup and focus on the things that work and the things that don't. West Virginia has games against Marshall in Charleston and South Florida in Morgantown this week. West Virginia needs to regain the confidence that brought them to this point and focus on making good decisions.

photo from Blue Gold News

Greg Isdaner Going Pro

Well, this is a bit of a kick in the shin. Greg Isdaner has decided to enter the draft and pass on his senior season.

Stanchek was an All-American last year and Isdaner was first-team all-conference. He didn't make an all-conference team this past season, though WVU finished in the top 15 in rushing yards again.

"He has been an integral part of our success, and I want to thank him for everything he has done for Mountaineer football," Coach Bill Stewart said.

WVU also loses Stanchek, center Mike Dent and right guard Jake Figner to graduation.

So basically, we have one starter returning on the offensive line. Awesome!! We'll find out what we have as far as depth goes. Josh Jenkins and Gino Gradowski were both highly recruited, but have yet to see significant game experience. Eric Jobe filled in for Mike Dent at center after the UConn game. Capers returns at tackle, although he is listed on BGN as a senior. I should really pay more attention to stuff like that. The thing that scares me is that behind the starting five, whom ever that might be, there isn't much depth.

But hey, good luck Greg. Maybe you'll get to block for Slaton again.

For not reason...

Why Yes, My Right Arm is Longer Than My Left

Or suffice to say, I'm going to pat myself on the back for winning the Bowl Pick'em at In The Bleachers. Alligator Blood is the best description, because after the first week of bowls I was in the 25th place range. But somehow managed to work my way up to third place before last nights game, and was fortunate enough to be behind two people that thought Oklahoma was going to win that game. So cheers to me, and thanks to Brian for organizing the pick contest!

Blogpoll Final Ballot Draft

Well, that headline sure is confusing. Anyway, this is how I see it. Your comments, please. I have until Monday to make changes. I already see that I left Iowa out, which is wrong for sure. Anyone else? Congrats to Florida!

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	Missouri	6
18	Georgia Tech	5
19	Northwestern	3
20	Cincinnati	8
21	Michigan State	1
22	Oregon State	4
23	Brigham Young	4
24	Pittsburgh	7
25	West Virginia	1

Dropped Out: Iowa (#18), Boston College (#25).