Well That Sucked

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

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 WMITC.

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

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

Basketblog Poll

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

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

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

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

-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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!