The West Virginia Mountaineers arguably played the worst half of the season. However, their defensive intensity got the ‘Eers back in it to lead by one at the half. Then when Alexander’s loss was felt when South Florida’s big bull Kentrell Gransberry scored lay-up after lay-up it was backup point guard Joe Mazzulla who took it upon himself to guard the big bull throwing him off his game while on the offensive side drew some important fouls to get to the line and pull away from the clutches of USF. The Mountaineers get a huge road victory by the final score of 69-52. Da’Sean Butler got his first Mountaineer double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds while Mazzulla scored 11 points on 7 of 9 foul shooting.

In the beginning, South Florida threw all sorts of various defenses at the Mountaineers throwing them off their rhythm. That left the ‘Eers missing various wide-open shots in particular from Butler who appeared to try too much in the first half to take the place of Alexander. Dominique Jones, who earlier in the season scored 30 points in back-to-back game, banked in a three point shot from straightaway to bring some breathing room for the Bulls at 19-13. Then Gransberry showed his muscle early on when his lay-up gave the Bulls their biggest lead of the game at 25-18 lead with 5:30 remaining. As soon as Gransberry found himself with two fouls WVU tighten the screws defensively leaving the Bulls without a point in the final 5:30 of the half. From there, WVU got themselves back in the game as they scored the final eight points of their half led by Darris Nicholas two treys, the second one to give the Eers a 26-25 halftime lead.

In the second half the Bulls game plan for the second half was as simple as humanly possible. The memo: GIVE THE BALL TO GRANSBERRY ON THE POST! Sure enough they followed that with ease as he scored the Bulls first 13 points of the second half. That included a move that would make Michael Jordan blush as he caught a long pass off a fast break and made the uncontested lay-up to give USF a 38-33 lead with 14:18 left. The Rainmaker put a band-aid to that bleeding as he drained a three to cut that lead to two. Then Bulter made a sweet reverse lay-up to tie the game at 38. Read the rest »

In a time where the West Virginia Mountaineers need a crucial road win against Big East competition they will be without Joe Alexander as they play the South Florida Bulls this afternoon at 2pm.  Alexander apparently had played through groin discomfort for about a month.  Then he aggravated the injury Thursday night against St. John’s when he tried to throw down an empathic jam over a standing tall Larry Wright.  Alexander ended up cartwheeling hard into the ground.  He tried to play it off after the media timeout but the pain was too much too bare. 

This will mean more minutes for Jaime Smalligan whose play has not been rugged enough for Big East basketball. This will possibly   give sophomore Wellington Smith a chance to make his first career start as a Mountaineer.  You may also see extensive playing time for freshman John Flowers.  Finally, you may see double duty athlete Jarrett Brown get his first minutes as a Mountaineer near his hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida.

Of course the South Florida Bulls will give the ‘Eers a hard-fought battle especially coming from Kentrell Gransberry.  A bull at 6-9 270 pounds he leads the team in scoring and rebounding, averaging a double-double at 16.5 points and 11.1 rebounds per game.  Without the services of Alexander expect at least a 20 point 15 rebound game from him.  WVU can’t afford to get foul trouble but keep in mind Gransberry shoots 55% from the foul line.  Others to keep an eye on are Dominique Jones who’s scoring 15.6 points per game and point guard Chris Howard who leads the team with 5.2 assists per game. 

The Bulls are 10-8 with a 1-4 conference record.  They are led by respected head coach Stan Heath. Heath was responsible for leading the Kent State Golden Eagles to the Elite Eight in 2002.  He also led the Arkansas Razorbacks to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the past two seasons.  The game will be held at the St. Pete Times Forum not at the friendly confides on the USF Dome.   

So can WVU rough it without Alexander? I don’t know but his potential 20 point performance will undoubtebly be lost for this game.  Smalligan, Smith, and Flowers must step it up another level for the Mountaineers.  Get it done and GOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

Yinka Sanni and the West Virginia defense were too much to handle for the Red Storm as the 14th-ranked Mountaineers win 68-44.  Sanni scored a game-high 22 points and for the second straight game pulled down 15 rebounds.  WVU shot 48% from the field while the Lady John’s struggled all game shooting wise as they shot 30% from the field.

WVU got off to a hot start taking a 16-5 lead with 12:07 remaining.  They were comfortably ahead throughtout the first half until this one stretch when not only WVU could buy a bucket but had trouble controlling the ball as well.  They were up 30-19 off a Meg Bulger trey with 5:42 left.  That was the last basket WVU would make in the first half. St. John’s used their full court defense to force turnovers and get themselves at the foul line.  They cut the Mountaineer lead down to three at the half with the score of 35-32.

Apparently whatever Coach Carey said to the ladies at the half worked as WVU gave up only 12 points in the second half.  It took awhile to get the message as the Lady John’s nearly took the lead early but Kia Wright missed two foul shots. Wright came into the game as a 94% foul shooter, third best in the nation. This afternoon she was 4 of 9 from the line. OUCH! West Virginia would then hold the Lady John’s scoreless for the next eight minutes. They gave up six points in the final 15 minutes! 

Owens and Bulger each made three treys however as a team they had 21 turnovers which won’t please Coach Carey one bit.  The Mountaineers out-rebounded the Red Storm 40-35.  St. John’s had no answer for Sanni as she owned the inside all day long.

The Mountaineers women’s team will head to the Capitol City Wednesday for their meeting with rival Marshall. They improved their record to 14-3 with a 4-1 Big East record.  They should be able to move up a spot or two for next week. Way to go ladies and here’s hoping tomorrow’s game for the men will have the same result.  GOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS! 

The 14th-ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team will try to pad another win to their record this afternoon as they face the St. John’s Red Storm at the Lou Carnasecca Arena. The tipoff will be at 2:00 pm.  The Mountaineers have a stellar RPI rating of 20 and figures to be at that steady pace since all their remaining opponents have a winning overall record. St. John’s carry a record of 10-6 with a 1-2 Big East Record.

St. John’s is led by senior guard Kia Wright who certainly knows how to handle the ball. She averages 4.7 assists a game with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.65.  The top scorer on the team is junior Monique McLean.  She averages almost 15 points a game.  What may decide this game is the field goal percentage.  Defensively, WVU and St. John’s are ranked in Top 50 nationally in Field Goal Defense with the Lady John’s giving up 28 percent from the three-point line.

Some interesting stats to counter their defense is the fact that Meg Bulger is shooting 45.5% from three, leading the Big East, while LaQuita Owens is second with 43.4%. Yinka Sanni, who came off a very strong performance against Marquette, comes into the game with almost 60 percent shooting from the field averaging 17.3 points a game.  She is no doubt having an all-Big East type of year which needs to continue to keep up with UConn and Rutgers.

Good luck women and let’s get that W!

Another MUST READ by Carty:

Seems the Michigan folks have had enough bad press about their new beloved coach Rich Rod and popular opinion seems to be changing. Jim Carty came out with yet another article today criticizing the way RR left WVU.

Carty points out:

What he [Rodriguez] still doesn’t seem to get, though, is that the main reason he’s being smeared is because he behaved so poorly on his way out as West Virginia football coach.

Michigan fans want to overlook that. They want to circle the wagons around their guy, even though he’s a guy they hardly know.

If you’re inclined to do that, if you believe Rodriguez is in the right, and deserves the benefit of the doubt, ask yourself how you’d feel if the tables were turned.

This is one of those signature stories about how college sports has become a soulless, money-driven game, and you’re wrong to ignore it just because this time around Michigan benefits from a coach’s willingness to jump at the next big job and trample everyone who rooted for him and believed in him at his former school.

West Virginia fans loved Rich Rodriguez as much - or more - than you love him now.

This is an excellent point. I listen to Rivals Radio every morning (great show, Natty UP!!!) and every caller this week commented about how WVU is being hard on RR but RR is to blame for the way he left.

Carty gives a great example of how if the tables were turned, Michigan fans would be reacting the exact same way. Read the rest »

The West Virginia Mountaineer basketball team got themselves into a dogfight as I expected, but in the end, they defeated St. John’s 73-64. Da’Sean Butler had less foul trouble than he has had in the past few games and was the leading scorer with 19 points and nine rebounds. Joe Alexander was second leading scorer with 15 points, but likely suffered a hip or quad injury when he tried to jam on Larry Wright. We’ll find out in the next few days.

WVU had a slow start and the Johnnies jumped out to a 19-11 lead. Coach Huggs was visibly angry about it and you could see it from the top of the rafters. From there, WVU embarked on a 15-2 run off to Butler, making it 26-21 with 4:19 remaining. St. John’s countered right back to make it a 29 all halftime score.

WVU knew if they could D up and let the playmakers do their thing, the game could be theirs. Sure enough, that’s what happened with a 10-2 spurt to make it 55-43 in favor of the Mountaineers. St. John’s tried to rally with a few threes from Eugene Lawrence and Larry Wright, but WVU dominated at the foul line. The game got ugly in the end as the Big East refs called some ticky-tack fouls against WVU, but WVU prevailed.

The Mountaineers improved their record to 13-4 with a 3-2 Big East record. They head to Tampa, FL to face the South Florida Bulls at 2:00pm Sunday afternoon. Jarrett Brown didn’t see much action, so it will be interesting to see if he plays on Sunday. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

MUST READ article by Jim Carty of MLive.com (a Michigan Blog/News site), basically saying that Rich just needs to buck up and pay the buy-out and admit he is scUM so we can all move on.

The West Virginia basketball team continue their Big East portion of the schedule as they play the Red Storm of St. John’s tonight at the WVU Coliseum. The tip-off will be at 7pm and will be televised locally on FSN Pittsburgh.

Those, like myself, that will be attending the game will have the special privilege of witnessing the 2008 Fiesta Bowl Champion West Virginia Mountaineer football team. They will be honored during halftime of the game. Good stuff there.

To breakdown the Johnnies’:

• They carry a record of 7-8 with a Big East Conference record of 1-3
• They are coached by Norm Roberts who might be on the hot seat if they don’t improve on their record.
• They are a very young team which includes nine freshman. Fortunately for WVU fans they don’t have to deal with Darryl Hill anymore but they still have solid players on the squad which includes senior Eugene Lawrence and junior Anthony Mason, Jr. whose father had a stellar NBA career with the New York Knicks.
• One player to keep an eye on is 6-8 freshman Justin Burrell from the Bronx, he was rated the number 2 prep prospect in the nation. Believe it or not he spent his freshman year at University High in Morgantown. Imagine if stayed here he would’ve played for us instead. Anyway he’s leads the team with 12.7 points as well as 7.7 rebounds a game. Joe Alexander might have a devil of a time containing him.

Statistic wise they do not control the ball well giving up almost 16 turnovers a game while averaging just over 12 assists a game. It seems like they’re bringing Rucker Park ball to the arena (which is dribbling to the front-court then drive to hoop one-on-one and throw up a jumper then wait for someone to rebound and put the shot back in). They can also be very physical too as they get called for over 20 fouls a game while out-rebounding their opponents by two. WVU must rattle the ball handlers early and often or else they might find themselves in a real dogfight.

The game is not a sellout yet but if you go to the Blue Gate early enough it might sellout before the tip-off. Let’s get that home W and GOOOOOOOOOOO MOUNTAINEERS!

The West Virginia women’s basketball team overcame the wrong end of some calls in the end to defeat the Marquette Golden Eagles 68-63. Senior Yinka Sanni scored 21 points and pulled down an astounding 16 rebounds as the starters scored 63 of the team’s 68 points. All Big East guard Ellis scored 23 points in a losing effort.

The game was surprising close early with Marquette using their front-court height to their advantage by jamming the ball inside and causing WVU to get into foul trouble early. LaQuita Owens and Meg Bulger where the unfortunate ones as they each collected two fouls. Despite that WVU starts to take command with a 17-10 lead with 9:00 remaining in the first half. Undeterred Marquette used their zone trap to their advantage as they take control of a 22-9 run to take a 32-26 lead. Ashley Powell drove to the hoop with time running out in the first half to go down by four at 32-28.

The level of tempo went to a quicker pace as Marquette maintained their lead for the first eight minutes of the second half. Then WVU wakes up as they embark on a 16-2 run to take a big 53-43 with 8:32 left to go. Then Bulger hit back to back 3s to steady the big lead. It looked like WVU was going to comfortably get the W until some questionable calls riled up the WVU crowd and got Marquette back in it with foul shots closing the lead to 63-60 with 2:10 left in the game. All Big East player Krystal Ellis had a chance to tie the game on their next possession but her shot from the right wing was too strong.

Powell made some key foul shots to make it 66-60 but she was the culprit in fouling Ellis from way downtown. Ellis sank all three free throws 66-63 with 17.7 left. Then Marquette’s full-court trap would wreak havoc one more time as Owens was called for traveling with 15 seconds left. Ellis’s last shot was off the mark and Sanni pulled down the rebound in heavy traffic. She calmly made two foul shots and that was the end of a hard-fought game.

The West Virginia women’s team will go to the campus of St. John’s University Saturday afternoon to play the Red Storm. The win tonight improves their record at 14-2 with a 3-1 Big East record. Don’t forget the West Virginia men’s team will play the St. John’s Red Storm tomorrow night at the WVU Coliseum. The tip-off is at 7:00pm. Great job tonight ladies.

These uni’s will debut, from what I understand, in the Big East Tournament. Their will be a 4th uniform with the color of black. Those look very sharp IMO. The tops look similar to the uniforms worn in the early 80s during the Catlett years. What do you think of them?