The West Virginia basketball season may be over but the offseason has just begun.
In Coach Huggs first full recruiting season he has landed some quality players. Number one on the list is Mt. Vernon, N.Y native Kevin Jones. According to the Wheeling newspaper, The Intelligencer, he will be named Parade All-American in this weekend’s Parade magazine. UPDATE: According to the Cincinnati Enquirer KJ was named 4th team Parade All-American. I will also add that he was recently named Mr. Basketball for the state of New York. Congrats KJ!
Folks this is a prestigious honor. While McDonald’s cares about putting all the Duke recruits on their East-West squad, Parade consists of four All-American teams at ten players each. Hard to say what team Jones will belong too but just having West Virginia represented will put this basketball program on a grander scale.
This is a beginning off an exciting offseason for Coach Huggs and the West Virginia Mountaineers. WVMountaineerSports.com will be with you every step of the way.
I would like to personally thank Bob Huggins and the WVU men’s Basketball Team for helping all of us Mountaineers get over the damn Rich Rodriguez fiasco. What a great unexpected run in the NCAA tournament. One of many to come I’m sure.
Oh yeah, and a little thing called the Fiesta Bowl Champs doesn’t hurt either! I think JeremyC said it best in a comment earlier today:
Name another school that can boast this: ‘04-05 Elite Eight, ‘05-06 Sweet 16, ‘06-07 NIT Champs, ‘07-08 Sweet 16, 2006 Sugar Bowl Champs, 2007 Gator Bowl Champs and 2008 Fiesta Bowl Champs. Not many schools have dominated both major revenue sports as WVU has in the last four to five years. There is no question we have officially arrived as a national power in both basketball and football.
What’s harder than realizing that West Virginia will not make it to the Elite Eight is the fact that I have to blog about this roller-coaster ride of a game but for you, Mountaineer Nation, I must.
Missed free throws, the ones that plagued the Eers in losses to Oklahoma, Georgetown, and Pittsburgh, are the big reason that the Eers will not live to fight another day. Add to that the fact that B.J. Raymond hit a wide-open three off of an inbound pass with 31 seconds left and 2 on the shot clock. That shot was the final blow. Give the Eers credit though because they came back from a seemingly insormountable 18-point halftime deficit in the first half to make this a competitive second half. But again, those damn free throws cost us again. Joe Alexander had a chance to make a free throw with 14 seconds left but the pressure to take the lead and likely go to the Elite Eight got to him so much that he threw the foul shot to the back of the rim.
It’s the end of the road for Darris Nichols, who played a school-record 141 games and did not foul out a single time. It’s the end of the road for Jamie Smalligan the Butler transfer who struggled to adjust under Coach Huggs but was a trooper to the end. It’s also the end of the road for celebrated New Martinsville walk-on Ted Talkington. He brought us some good memories (like the one against UCLA) and it’s on to med school for him. We at wvmountaineersports.com wish those three all the best in their future endeavors. Read the rest »
What will be even sweeter is if we get by the Musketeers of Xavier in Phoenix, Arizona. From there it’s on to the Elite Eight and the chance to beat UCLA for the 3rd consecutive season. That will take us all the way to San Antonio. It will not be an easy task obviously as the private Jesuit Catholic school from Cincinnati is looking for an Elite Eight appearance of their own. Coach Huggs is familiar with Xavier as his former coaching stop Cincinnati and Xavier are known to be bitter rivals. Hopefully, that will be the push WVU needs tonight. The reason for Xavier’s success has been strong team chemistry with the fact that five players average over 10 points a game to go along with their stingy defense. Read the rest »
Make sure you pay attention to the :14 second mark. Freakin’ hilarious. Even in defeat Duke players are “fierce“.
Also good to note that Henderson got what he deserved, the Duke fans need to relax, it’s basketball. I hope we play this hard and mean tomorrow night. It’s March Madness, no room for babies!
Well, as I’ve been saying for the past few weeks about the West Virginia Women’s Basketball program, the late season slump was going to be there undoing. This senior-laden team, seven in all, had Sweet 16 potential all season. I mean they beat Rutgers this season. But a cop-out of a draw prevented all that.
West Virginia had to play the hardest 40 minutes of their careers to overcome the high attitude, the refs, and New Mexico at their home court. Vandy, on the other hand, breezed through Montana (as a 4 seed should) in a game in which their starters sat most of the second half. In the second half Vandy outscored the Eers 29-11 in the final 15:30 to win 64-46. Vandy, not WVU, will head to Spokane this weekend. Read the rest »
A little advice when you go to Vegas to bet College Basketball:
Stay away from the big lines, the guys who put the lines together are absolute geniuses. I swear I saw Biff Tannen there.
The spread kills.
Parleys suck (but they are sweet when you hit them).
Don’t listen to the strangely convincing asshole SEC fans as they are always wrong.
Always bet WVU! Good ol’ reliable.
Although I lost a little, doing Vegas during the 1st and 2nd round of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney is a shit load of fun. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend it. Guys and gals from all over the country, from every school from every corner of the Big Dance are there cheering their teams on and betting every game. It’s a blast. It really makes every single game worth watching.
So enough about this, back to business.
The WVMountaineerSports Bracket Challenge is very close. If you haven’t been over to check out your bracket here are the top 10 Brackets:
Bracket Challenge Sweet 16 Results
I’m hanging in at #11, but hell I don’t want to win and be stuck with all of these awesome prizes! I’m pulling for VCL Mounties, they are the only bracket in the top 10 that puts WVU winning the whole sha-bang! Good Luck!
So I’m signing off for now… WVU plays Thursday night at 7:10PM vs. Xavier. If you’re in Pittsburgh let’s all meet up at UGLY’s and get Ugly on some Xavier ass and get to the Elite 8 baby! This is going to be huge for HuggyBears recruiting!
When the selections for seeding and also their opponent were made last Monday evening everything went against West Virginia. They were seeded 5th and had to play New Mexico at THEIR home court at THE PIT. As the game played on apparently the refs decided to screw the girls in the second half and it ALMOST worked. Senior Chikhia Cole ruined their plans and sent the Lobo faithful home dejected and the refs bummed. Cole’s masterful 22 point 11 rebound performance including a turn around jumper from 14 feet with 19.6 seconds left gave the Eers a 61-60 victory over New Mexico. They will play 4th seed Vanderbilt Monday night at THE PIT. I doubt the locals will be cheering for the senior-dominated Eers which, as always, will be good for us Read the rest »
There were a lot of issues complicating this game even before tipoff. First of all, the second most hated man in West Virginia, Doug Gottlieb, picked West Virginia to win. That’s literally the kiss of death for us. Next, Coach K and their so-called star players Greg Paulus, DeMarcus Nelson, and McDonald’s All-American freshman Kyle Singler came down with the flu this morning. Good players seem to always rise to the occasion when they’re sick (Anyone remember MJ vs. Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals?) Lastly, the one and only Ed Hightower was the main official in today’s game. The odds were definitely stacked against us. When West Virginia was down 14-4 (thanks to some questionable calls against Wellington Smith not to mention Paulus draining a couple of treys) it looked like it was gonna be a long afternoon. When Coach Huggs chewed out Hightower and got called for the T, our prospects for a win started to look even worse.
Well, I only wish the Mountaineers were 40 minutes away from going to Phoenix against the 15 seed Belmont Bruins. Thanks to Gerald Henderson that didn’t happen so now the Eers must play 40 minutes of solid basketball against ESPN darlings the Duke Blue Devils. The good thing about West Virginia is that they play well when everyone’s against them. Look at how WVU did against overrated UCONN in the Big East Tournament for their signature win to lock up the NCAA Tournament berth. Coach Huggs and the people’s assistant Billy Hahn have had the Mountaineers play the best basketball of the year–all the while strutting their junk in ESPN’s faces. Anyone see Coach Huggs bringing down ESPN’s resident idiot Doug Gottlieb Friday afternoon? PURE GOLD! Now let’s focus on the Dookies. Read the rest »
The West Virginia basketball season may be over but the offseason has just begun.
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