I was asked by some Pittsburgh bloggers who are working on a project with the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce, to write a post about the Pittsburgh Primary and how it has impacted my life over the past 6 weeks. I thought it would be impossible to tie it together with Mountaineer football until I really started thinking about it and realized it actually has. In the best way possible.

If you are a reader of this blog you know by now that I’m a Southern WV boy from Beckley living just north of the Mason Dixon line here in Pittsburgh. Because of this I’m right smack in the middle of a Democratic Primary battle and it’s been great, and not for the reasons a Political Junkie would talk about, no, for reasons only a Mountaineer fan would understand.

ZERO PITT PANTHER FOOTBALL TALK!

The greatest thing about being a Mountaineer living in Pittsburgh during the past 6 weeks is that there has been absolutly ZERO talk or news about PITT football.

Usually around this time all you hear is Wanny-stache running his mouth about how they are in a rebuilding year. How they will make it to a bowl game this year. How he has pulled in the best recruits in the Big East. Blah Blah Blah. Then he tends to yap on and on to distract the few PITT fans there actually are and lower everyones expectations so that a 6-6 season isn’t really that bad. Now that I think about it, it’s quite brilliant. He must have WVU Grad Public Relations people working for him.

Anyway, this year is different. Because of the attention Obama and Clinton are stirring up here in Pittsburgh you hear nothing about Pitt football… NOTHING, not even on the sports channels.

Sure, every now and then you’ll hear a quick sound-bite of Wanny, but it’s soon trumped by a rousing sound-bite of Obama telling Pittsburghers that they are the key to him winning in PA, or how the Steelers are on a Bus trip across South Western PA to drum up support for Obama. You hear stories about how Dan Rooney, the Steelers owner, has endorsed Obama. You see news clips of Hillary Clinton in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and You Tube video of Bill Clinton giving speeches to little round Pittsburgh moms. It’s a site to see, I’m telling ya.

Don’t get me wrong I love Pittsburgh, love it to death, but I hate PITT and the Pittsburgh Primary has been great for this Mountaineer.

I’m going to the Gold/Blue game on Saturday and I hope I see this kind of scene in the AM hours.

So I’ve been reading some people chatting over at bluegoldnews and apparently the fans that are attending the Spring game will not be allowed on the field after the game to mingle with the players and take pictures and such. Personally, I just want to watch some WVU football, it’s been way to long without football. If people are pissed that they can’t go onto the field then they are coming to the game for the wrong reasons.

First all the proceeds go to the Childrens Hospital, so it’s a good cause. Second, you should want to be there to show support for the new coaching staff and players and maybe learn a little bit about what a Coach Stew team is going to be like, not to get an autograph or take a pic of yourself standing on the 50 yard line (although a picture of me on the field would look great hanging over the living room mantle).

Anyway, I’m going to be there. I’m going to be tailgating. I’m going to be in all of my WVU Football glory for at least one glorious day before August. I just hope it’s enough to get me through the summer.

More to come about this in the next 2 days.

It’s that dreaded time of the year. Tax time. I’ve been doing my taxes all day and it really puts me in a bad mood… I mean, really bad. Anyway.. to the fun stuff.

CBS Sports

I missed this one last week, but we’re #9 in CSTV.com’s Adam Caparell Mid-Early season run down:

9. West Virginia - It’s Pat White’s team and everyone else is playing on it. The Owen Schmitt and Darius Reynaud losses can’t be overlooked. If you’re going to overlook anything with this team it’s the losses on defense. The Mountaineers don’t win with defense. And losing Steve Slaton isn’t that big of a loss. Previous: 7

Looks like we dropped in his eyes 2 spots since his Post Bowl game preview. He does get in a dig on Steve though, ouch!

also…

Penn State players are dropping like flies, I know this has nothing to do with the Mountaineers but I have a lot of Penn State friends and I love seeing them squirm this early in the season. The AP reported:

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State linebacker Sean Lee tore a knee ligament during practice and most likely will miss next season. He injured the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee Friday. Lee will have surgery within the next month and then will need about nine months of rehabilitation, the team doctor said. Lee, the leading returning tackler for the Nittany Lions, has a year of eligibility left. He was expected to be a captain this year.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA love it. Sucks for that kid not being able to play his last year but anything to stop Penn State from getting Joe Pa that last bowl win is all good for me. I will, however, be pulling for Penn State in at least 1 game this year.

MSNSportsNet.com

There has been a lot of talk about how bad our Athletic Department is. I will admit I’ve even been guilty of thinking it’s in disarray with all of the coaches leaving over the past couple of years. But I guess I/we are wrong big time. The WVU Athletic Dept. is ranked #6 in the country. Check out the article here.This article over at MSNSportsNet proves it. I guess it’s hard to ignore the success WVU has had lately. I hope it continues with the new AD coming in 2010. Only time will tell.

Registar-Herald, Beckley

Sounds like our Defense is taking it to the next level this year. According to Pat White:

“I think most of the time the defense dominates,” the 6-2, 185-pound senior quarterback said. “They’re an excellent group. They should feel good. When we make plays (offensively), I guess I feel good because they’re one of the best defenses in the nation by far.” [read article here]

Rivals.com

Here is a good read about how schools are scheduling this year. Interesting to see how the Big East is playing some of the hardest schedules this year and I think it’s f’ed up that Loserville gets 8 home games this year.. WTF? I thought we were doing good with 7 this year.

Big East: There are seven non-conference games against I-AA members, with each league school expect for Pittsburgh playing one such game. The Big East is second among “Big Six” leagues with 16 non-conference games against fellow “Big Six” members. Each league member has one such game, and Connecticut and Syracuse have three each. Louisville is one of just four schools nationally with eight home games this season.

Yahoo Sports

Terry Bowden has an interesting and very in depth article about what a coach goes through toward the end of the spring practice. I guess these coaches really do deserve the $$ they are getting now days. Too much math for me!

That’s it for this week and don’t forget to do that taxes you lazy asses.

It is well-known the coaches’ pre-season poll picked West Virginia to finish tenth in the Big East Conference standings.

It is also well-known what the Mountaineers often do when they are overlooked, underrated and not given deserving credit— they play with a chip on their shoulder.

Former West Virginia head coach John Beilein left the Mountaineers to fill the same position at Michigan a year ago. Beilein led the Wolverines to a 10-22 overall losing record and posted a 5-13 mark in the Big Ten Conference, landing UM in tenth place in the league’s final standings.

Beilein, along with other basketball coaches that make names for themselves by looking to the horizon, while breaking promises to head for what are perceived “greener pastures” with alternative coaching positions, are commonly referred to as “suitcase coaches.” He may have thought twice about packing his own suitcase, when college basketball’s coaching carousel didn’t take him to a place most coaches would like to be.

Instead of watching WVU execute his intricate backdoor plays while “making it rain” from three from the sidelines, Beilein watched WVU advance to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16— on television. He had time to do so because he failed to guide his Wolverines to any form of postseason play.

Current WVU head coach Bob Huggins could not have had a more night-and-day comparison to his predecessor.

Huggins led the Mountaineers to a 26-11 overall record in his first year back at his alma mater. WVU finished 11-7, good for fifth out of 16 teams in the Big East Conference. WVU made it to the semi-finals of the Big East Tournament and finished the season ranked No. 17 in the final ESPN/USA Today Poll.

WVU defeated Arizona and No. 9 Duke in the NCAA Tournament, before falling to Xavier, 79-75 in overtime.

Duke defeated Michigan by 28 points earlier in the season.

“I’m pleased overall, but you always want to do better,” was the statement Huggins told USA TODAY about reaching the Sweet 16 in his first year back at WVU.

After a successful first year with the Mountaineers, Huggins is now the fifth winningest active coach in all of college basketball, owning 616 career victories.

Huggins did a remarkable job utilizing the current players’ strengths and tendencies instilled from Beilein, while also bringing in a new focus on man-to-man defense and rebounding.

Joe Alexander made the most dramatic transformation as a basketball player when he bought into Huggins’ way of doing things. Alexander increased his season average in points (16.9), rebounds (6.4), assists (2.4), steals (0.7) and blocks (1.5) compared to a year ago. The 6-foot-8-inch forward from Mt. Airy, Md. broke on to the national scene for his outburst in March and now will test the waters for this year’s NBA Draft. Alexander scored 215 points during the stretch run of just nine games, good for an average of 23.8 points per game. Alexander wasn’t even remotely on the radar of becoming a NBA Draft prospect under the guidance of Beilein.

Alexander said this in a press release, “Right now, my plan is to test the NBA waters, but my inclination is to be back for my senior year at West Virginia University. I’m really looking forward to the experience of being able to work out for some NBA teams.”

“If he decides there is an opportunity out there for him, he will have 100 percent support of the Mountaineer basketball program,” Huggins said in a press release. “We are supportive of Joe and whatever Joe thinks he needs to do for himself and his family.”

“As of now, I cannot see myself leaving, because it would be very tough for me to miss a year playing with my teammates,” said Alexander in the press release. “I love playing for WVU and for the fans. Coach Huggins and I have talked extensively, and we are working on this together.”

If Alexander returns to WVU for his senior season, the Mountaineers are projected to be a pre-season top 10 team by members of the media. The common thinking is Alexander would be an early candidate for the Big
East Player of the Year Award and WVU will seriously contend for its first ever Big East Championship. He could try to improve his game and potentially become a lottery pick in the 2009 NBA Draft.

On the other hand, if Alexander is evaluated and projected as a first-round selection, which means a guaranteed contract, Mountaineer fans could not be upset with his decision to turn pro. This would be a valuable recruiting tool for Huggins, being able to claim he turned Alexander into a NBA player in just one season.

West Virginia has not had a player selected in the NBA Draft since 1997, when Gordon Malone was picked in the second round, 44th overall, by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The 2007-2008 Mountaineer basketball team won games against powerful programs such as Marquette, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Connecticut, Arizona and Duke. WVU fell just short in several heart-breaking losses to other quality teams, but nonetheless established themselves as a team to be reckoned with not only in the Big East, but in the NCAA Tournament.

With a solid recruiting class on the way, front lined by Parade All-American forward Kevin Jones, the Mountaineers will enter the 2008-09 campaign with high expectation.

Beilein left the cupboard full and Huggins is hungry for championships.

Well, we all knew it was coming eventually. Joe Alexander will test the NBA waters and declare for the draft but don’t panic Mountaineer Nation. According to Foxsports.com he will not hire an agent and even said that “I am pretty sure I’ll be back”. So for the next 3 weeks we will nervously await whether indeed if Alexander will be back to Motown for his senior season or not.

The way it works for underclassman such as Alexander when testing NBA waters is this. Alexander will apply for the NBA Draft to see possibly where his draft status will be from various general managers and owners. He would then receive a status update to see where he stands and what he needs to do to improve his
draft positioning. He would have to pay on his own to workout for various NBA teams which would be difficult in some cases.

What will put us at ease the most is that according to NBADraft.net he is projected to NOT be drafted in the 1st or 2nd round so anything short of a lights-out workout wouldn’t improve his draft stock as much (maybe as a 2nd round pick which is not what he’s shooting for). Furthermore, according to that same site, he is stated to be picked 7th.

We certainly wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors with the NBA but at the same time it is to his benefit to stay for his senior season to work on his ever-improving game and possibly lead the Eers to that elusive national championship.

In other WVU basketball news

• We at wvmountaineersports.com would like to congratulate Yinka Sanni for being selected by the Detroit Shock as the 18th overall pick in the 2nd round of the WNBA Draft. Sanni, in her senior season, averaged 16.2 points to go along with 7.1 rebounds a game as well as a solid 58.8% from the field. In an ironic twist of fate, coach Bill Laimbeer drafted Alexis Hornbuckle as the 4th overall pick. The Tennessee Volunteer star is of course a South Charleston native who lead the Vols to a victory over the Mountaineers last November at the Charleston Civic Center.
• This weekend former Indiana commit Devin Ebanks is coming to the campus of West Virginia University. This is huge since next Wednesday, April 16th, will be the beginning of the late signing period for recruits to sign up for NCAA basketball this coming season. In brief, he is a 6-8 185 small forward who hails originally from Brooklyn. In his senior season he played prep ball at St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Connecticut. He is a 5-star who is rated the 2nd best small forward prospect and 13th overall according to Rivals. He was also a Jordan Brand All-American as well. He’s also set to visit Texas, Rutgers, and Memphis before making his final decision by late May (close to the end of the signing period). Please give him a hearty welcome to Motown this weekend (that means you hottie co-eds) and show them that WVU is the place to be.
• Finally the West Virginia Mountaineers men’s basketball team finished the season ranked 17th in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll thanks in large part to their Sweet 16 appearance. Despite a disappointing finish the WVU women’s team finished 20th in their coaches poll.

Well done to both! As for the men’s team here’s hoping Ebanks’s commitment will catapult the Eers into a Top 10 for all next year if not better. GOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

Congratulations go out to WVUBB1 and Let’s Go Mountaineers for their excellent prediction in the bracket challenge. It was actually a tie between the two. In all the years of doing fantasy football and these types of challenges I’ve never seen a dead tie like this, especially in the NCAA Tourney Bracket Challenge.

Luckily there was a tiebreaker question: What will the final score of the Championship game be?

WVUBB1 guessed: 73 - 69
Let’s Go Mountaineers guessed:  80 - 72

The final score of the game was Kansas 75 - Memphis 68 so WVUBB1 wins in the tiebreaker and in OT.

I hope everyone had as much fun with this as I did and we’ll do it again come football season. See ya there!

WVU is being mentioned in the main stream media more than ever before. It’s one of the true signs that WVU has finally become a national contender year in and year out. Monday Media Melee’s is our new weekly feature that breaks down the past week(end) or so of media hype for WVU sports.

CBS Sports

Whether or not you think the pre-season ranking actually mean anything or not, every site out there has ‘em. Even after kicking Oklahoma’s ass last year, with the return of Senior Pat White and one of the best coaching staffs in the country, WVU’s pre-season rankings aren’t as high as one would expect. This is probably the highest I’ve seen.

We also have 2 players in CBS Sports early Heisman picks. Devine and White:

CollegeFootballNews.com

Interesting breakdowns galore on this site, one of my favs. They take a look at our schedule and here is their early ass prediction:

Realistic best case record with this schedule: 11-1
Barring total disaster worst case record: 7-5
Realistic record: 10-2

The schedule looks harder than it actually should be. The Big East slate isn’t bad early and gets tough late with road trips to Louisville and Pitt in the span of six days, but remember, those two didn’t go to a bowl last year. South Florida comes to Morgantown on December 6th; a perfect time to catch the warm-weather team. After a warm-up against Villanova to kick things off, the non-conference schedule gets nasty the rest of the way with trips to East Carolina and Colorado along with the mid-season showdown against Auburn. Win those three and a national title shot will likely be there for the taking.

Earlier this year they broke down the Big East teams, it’s a good read. Check it out here.

Read the rest »

It’s time to give back. I’ve always wanted to be able to give something to the Mountaineer Football and Basketball programs, but have never found myself in a position to give back to the teams that have given all of us so many years of enjoyment. Well, the other day I was over at BlueGoldNews.com and I found a thread to a donation drive for the MAC 1100 Club. They have been doing this for years and have been able to collect some impressive $$ amounts.

So I started to think about how WVMountaineerSports.com and our readers could do the same thing. I would like to be able to cut the MAC a check this year and help out the Athletic Dept., the recruiters, and the students facilities. (Some of you might be asking what is the MAC. Mountaineer Athletic Club, or MAC, is quite simply “the team behind the team”. Learn more about the MAC here.)

OK Great, Now What?

A lot of us only have $5, $10 or $20 that we can part with around this time of year and don’t think it’s worth sending such a small amount to the MAC. Well, I’ve set this whole donation drive up so that if we can all give a little, it will still go a long way. We can make a larger impact by sending in one big check sponsored by this site with fans from across the country.

MAC Donation Q & A:

Q) What is the goal of this donation drive?
A) I have set things up thru PayPal with a a goal of $800 by May 23rd, but that is just an arbitrary goal that I set to see what we can get and give us the ability to use the ChipIn Meter (right sidebar) If we collect $10 or $3000 it all goes to the MAC.

Q) How much should I donate and are there minimum/maximum donation levels?
A) You can donate whatever you can spare right now. There is no minimum or maximum. WVU Athletics can and will use every penny, so if you have $1 or $100 and you want to give something to WVU, now’s the time and this is the place.

Q) How do I donate? What are the methods?
A) There are three ways you can give via WVMountaineerSports.com

1. Credit Card/Bank Transfer via PayPal (preferred method) - This is the easiest way to donate. If you already have a PayPal account, it takes no time at all to donate. If you don’t have a PayPal account, it’s very simple to set up and only takes a few minutes. To use this method click here and/or use the MAC Meter Box in the right sidebar of this site or just click here.
2. Check or Money Order - If you don’t want to set up a PayPal account and donate through the MAC Meter Widget (right sidebar) you can always mail in a check. Please write the check out to WV Mountaineer Sports or Mountaineer Athletic Club and mail the check to the address below.
3. Cash - Cash is easy, but it will cost you a stamp. Just throw it in an envelope and mail it to the address below.

Q) Where do I mail a donation if I don’t want to use PayPal?
A) Mail your check/cash/money order to:

WVMountaineersports.com
P.O. Box 60112
Pittsburgh, PA 15211

Q) What do I get out of all of this?
A) First, you get the satisfaction that you have given back to the programs that fuel the blue and gold blood flowing through your veins. Second, for every dollar you donate your name will be entered into a drawing for a fabulous prize at the end of the drive. For example, if you donate 100 bucks you have 100 entries in the drawing. Check back soon for more information on the prize(s).

So there you have it, let’s all see what we can do. I did some math (I know.. shocker) and if each person that visits this site give $1 a week until the deadline of May 23, 2008, we can collect over $5,000 easy. I’m not that optimistic so I’m shooting for $800.

If you have any questions please email me at mountaineerbob@gmail.com

Thanks and LET’s GOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!!!

Ah Yes! The smell of freshly-cut grass, the crack of salted peanuts, the smoke of finely grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, the hum of the John Deere tractor swirling around the basepaths, and the best part the PING of an Easton Aluminum ball. Baseball season is in full effect. For a brief moment, I’m taking a brief respite from fabulous Coach Huggs basketball to update you on the Mountaineer baseball team and how they’ve done this season. Longtime coach Greg Van Zant, who recently achieved the 400-win milestone on Tuesday, will lead the charge of some talented young troops who will hopefully surprise the Big East in a good way. Read the rest »

I saw this video over at Bastard Sons of Pinfall Marks and thought you guys would enjoy it.
WVU: Where greatness is learned and beer pong tables kick ass.