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Post by cviller on Dec 20, 2008 14:30:59 GMT -5
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
West Virginia 82 Miami 46
Box Score
1 2 F Miami University 17 29 46 West Virginia 47 35 82 Stat Comparison FG Made-Att 15-41 31-62 FG Percentage 36.6% 50.0% 3P Made-Att 3-15 12-30 3P Percentage 20.0% 40.0% FT Made-Att 13-17 8-10 FT Percentage 76.5% 80.0% Rebounds 29 31 Turnovers 26 12 Top WVU Players Top Scorer Top Rebounder Da'Sean Butler 28 Points Kevin Jones 8 Rebounds MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The thought coming into today’s game was the first team to score 50 points wins. Well, West Virginia nearly had that by halftime as the Mountaineers rolled to 82-46 victory over Miami University Saturday afternoon at the WVU Coliseum.
Who would have thought it? Not ESPN’s Andy Katz, who earlier this week picked the Miami-West Virginia game as one of his three upset specials of the week. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins was equally surprised.
“I’m more shocked than anybody,” Huggins said. “I’ve watched all of their tapes and they’re good. We did a really good job defensively. I think switching everything bothered them and we’ve really never done that.”
West Virginia, at home for just the second time in a month, shot 58.1 percent in the first half to build a 47-17 halftime advantage over a RedHawk team that came into today’s game with an RPI of 22 with losses to just UCLA, Pitt and Xavier.
“When you travel as much as we have I think it does affect you,” Huggins said. “We didn’t shoot very well in practice and I told Larry (Harrison), ‘We’re going to have to hold them to 40 to be able to win.’ We came out and hit our first couple and that kind of loosened things up for us.”
Miami (6-4) was without starting point guard Kenny Hayes, a 14-points-per-game scorer, and it showed in the first half against West Virginia’s half-court pressure defense. Miami committed 15 first-half turnovers that led to 26 points with the Mountaineers scoring 15 straight at one point to put the game out of reach.
West Virginia (8-2) was also without starting point guard Joe Mazzulla, who is nursing a shoulder injury, and starting forward Devin Ebanks was limited to just 11 minutes with knee and ankle injuries sustained in practice yesterday.
“Dev tried to go a little bit today and I just didn’t see any sense of putting him back into the game in the second half,” Huggins said.
Da'Sean Butler poured in a career-high 28 points including his 1,000th career point and Alex Ruoff made his return after a 14-day absence with 15 points and eight assists.
“Alex passes the ball and he sees the floor and we can run some things through him,” Huggins said. “We didn’t run a whole lot of stuff today other than just our passing game but our ball movement was just so much better. Our cuts were sharper and I thought our screens were better.”
Truck Bryant scored 16 and has now reached double figures in eight of the first 10 games of his college career.
Miami’s Michael Bramos, who came into the game averaging 20.2 points per game including four straight games of 26 or more points, was held to six points below his season’s average on 5 of 13 shooting.
“Defensively I thought Alex was real good. He guarded Bramos who I think is a heck of a player and I thought Alex did a good job of forcing him deeper than he really wanted to go,” Huggins said.
The RedHawks committed 26 turnovers and the Mountaineers turned that into 38 fast break points.
West Virginia found its shooting touch from 3-point distance, hitting 12 of 30 for the game including 5 of 7 from Butler and 4 of 5 from Bryant.
“Da’Sean shot it with a lot of confidence. I think having Alex on the floor helps Da’Sean a bunch. Alex gets the ball to him when he’s open and he takes another defender that they can’t concentrate near as much on Da,” Huggins said.
The Mountaineers had 20 assists on 31 baskets and finished the game 31 of 62 from the floor for 50 percent.
“It’s a lot more fun when the ball falls in,” Huggins said. “We made some shots.”
Up next for West Virginia is Radford on Tuesday, Dec. 23, at the Coliseum. That game will be offered online through MSNsportsNET.com on MountaineerTV.
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Post by cviller on Dec 20, 2008 14:23:57 GMT -5
FINAL: WVU 82 Miami Ohio 46
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Post by cviller on Dec 19, 2008 16:08:32 GMT -5
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia will have one half of its starting backcourt available for Saturday’s noon game against Miami University at the WVU Coliseum.
Senior Alex Ruoff said Friday morning that he will be ready for the Red Hawks after missing West Virginia’s last two games against Davidson and Duquesne with a rib injury. Ruoff said he first injured the rib landing on his back during the Cleveland State game.
“I had to get the rib pushed back in because it was causing a bunch of spasms,” Ruoff said. “I had to wait for the spasms to go down.”
Meanwhile, Joe Mazzulla is still in limbo after being diagnosed with what he called a “growth plate fracture” on his left shoulder. Mazzulla said there is not timetable set for his return.
“There is a lot of swelling and it’s inflamed so we’re doing what we can to try and monitor it,” Mazzulla said.
Mazzulla indicated that surgery is a last resort.
“That’s the last thing that we want to do,” he said. “We really don’t want that at all because it’s a really long process. There is a good chance with what the doctors are doing that it can heal on its own.”
That means another start for freshman Truck Bryant at point guard on Saturday against a very good Miami University team. Bryant is coming off a career-high 18 point performance in the Mountaineers’ 68-63 victory at Duquesne in which he made four clutch free throws down the stretch.
Bryant shows averages of 10.8 points and 2.4 assists per game.
Devin Ebanks is another freshman that is developing rapidly. The Long Island City, N.Y., resident has pulled down 44 rebounds in his last three games – all double-doubles. Ebanks has increased his averages to 8.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.
Da'Sean Butler continues to lead the Mountaineers in scoring with an average of 14.7 points per game. The junior is also grabbing 6.9 boards per game.
Wellington Smith shows averages of 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while John Flowers has averages of 7.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game for the 7-2 Mountaineers.
It is unclear whether or not Coach Bob Huggins will start Ruoff on Saturday. Still, the coach is happy to have his senior back out on the floor.
“I’m hoping it will help us offensively and not just his scoring. He passes the ball so well and he understands how to play,” Huggins said. “He’s a guy that we can run some things and put the ball in his hands and he can make good decisions with it.”
Huggins is extremely impressed with a 6-3 Miami team that shows losses to nationally ranked UCLA, Pitt and Xavier. The red Hawks come into the Coliseum riding a four-game winning streak.
“They’re really good. They are extremely well coached, they really shoot the ball and they don’t make mistakes,” Huggins said. “It’s a veteran team. You’re talking about senior guards. Actually the one, two, three and four positions are all seniors. They know how to play.
“They’ve been coached in that system for four years and anytime you can get four seniors that are skilled as they are and be able to keep them together for four years you’re going to have a heck of a team. Charlie (Cole) has got a great team,” Huggins said.
Six-foot-five-inch, 225-pound senior forward Michael Bramos is averaging 20.2 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.
“He doesn’t miss any shots,” Huggins said. “He’s got great range and he can create a shot and they do a great job of getting him open.”
Six-two guard Kenny Hayes also averages double figures at 13.9 points per game. The red Hawks start a pair of 6-8 players in Tyler Dierkers and Adam Fletcher. Of the two, Dierkers is the better scorer and rebounder (8.9 ppg. and 7.1 rpg.).
Game time is set for noon and the contest will be televised nationally on ESPNU. MSN’s radio coverage begins with the Coliseum Countdown at 11:30 am.
Briefly:
The one positive sign with Joe Mazzulla’s shoulder injury was that there was no tear of the rotator cuff. “Fortunately I don’t have any of that under the muscle,” Mazzulla said. “It’s just the fracture itself.”
Mazzulla said he could tell right away during the Davidson game that it was going to be a futile effort.
“I didn’t really push it before the Davidson game so I didn’t really know what to expect,” he said. “I was just going to go and see what I could do and Davidson kind of picked up on it early. I was not an offensive factor and I kind of re-injured it on the foul and I just said that was enough. I was hurting the team by being out there.”
The big issue for Mazzulla now will be trying to remain in basketball shape so when he does return he can be effective on the court.
“I’m doing a lot of swimming exercises. Under water my range of motion increases tremendously so I’m able to do a lot of different things,” Mazzulla said. “I’m able to do treadmill and I’m able to do legs every other day so I’m keeping my legs in shape.”
Alex Ruoff said the first school that offered him a scholarship coming out of high school is Saturday’s opponent Miami University. “They have a great coaching staff; Charlie Cole is a good guy,” Ruoff said. “The guys they have there are like the guys we have here – genuine, good character guys and I really liked them because I’m from that area but West Virginia was just a better choice for me.”
Bob Huggins said with finals now completed his team will be able to concentrate solely on basketball for the next three weeks. “We gave them a day off. We’re a little beat up so we’re trying to get something done and get everybody healed up in the process,” Huggins said. “They’ve got more time to spend on basketball - I don’t think there is any doubt about that.”
Huggins won all seven times he faced Miami coach Charlie Cole when he coached at Cincinnati.
Because of the overlap with the Meineke Car Care Bowl and West Virginia's basketball game at Ohio State on Dec. 27, the following radio affiliates will carry the MSN broadcast of the Ohio State basketball game:
Beckley, WBDY-AM Bluefield, WKEZ-AM Charleston, WKWS-FM Clarksburg, WWLW-FM Cumberland, Md., WDYK-FM Elkins, WDNE-FM Logan, WVOW-AM Martinsburg, WEPM-AM Morgantown, WKKW-FM New Martinsville, WETZ-AM Parkersburg, WADC-AM Ronceverte, WKCJ-AM Summersville, WCWV-FM Sutton, WKQV-FM Wheeling, WBBD-AM
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Post by cviller on Dec 19, 2008 16:03:09 GMT -5
It looks like some pretty established bowl games are feeling the effects of a difficult economy. Fiesta Bowl sales have been slower than usual with Ohio State still trying to unload its allotment of 17,500 tickets for the game. In the past Ohio State has typically experienced little trouble reaching its bowl game ticket commitments. The Orange Bowl is in an even bigger predicament. Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer recorded a video imploring Hokie fans to travel to Miami to watch the game, while Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly told a Cincinnati TV station that he will go door-to-door to sell tickets personally to make sure the Bearcats use their allotted 17,500 tickets.
Cincinnati is in much better shape than Virginia Tech with a reported 10,000 tickets already sold.
While scanning the Cincinnati Enquirer I came across this: The Enquirer will be publishing a 128-page, full color book of UC’s special season. There will, of course, be limited copies available. I also happened to notice that the Bearcats began bowl preparation earlier this week with temperatures in the 30s. Cincinnati does not have an indoor practice facility.
We’ll see if that impacts Cincinnati on game day against the Hokies.
I stumbled on to some interesting information released by The Chronicle of High Education. The organization conducted a study of football recruiting expenditures for the 2006-07 academic year and it listed the 20 schools with the biggest recruiting budgets. Well, coming in at 18th with a football recruiting budget of more than $1 million is West Virginia University. The only other Big East program with a recruiting budget of more than $1 million was Syracuse, which spent a conference-high $1.1 million on football recruiting in ‘07.
Tennessee ($2 million) spent the most money of any school on football recruiting expenses during the 2006-07 academic year.
According to this study, during a five year period from 2002-07 West Virginia more than doubled its football recruiting budget. That is an example of Ed Pastilong’s athletic department being serious about fielding a first-class football program.
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Post by cviller on Dec 17, 2008 10:21:02 GMT -5
Quotes from Bill Stewart's Tuesday Press Conference We are having some good practices and they have been giving good effort. I’m happy about that. I think we need to pay attention to detail even more because anytime you have a break in the action, you go home and then reconvene in a bowl, I guess that’s standard. Our men have been working hard and I’m very proud of that This Carolina football team is going to be a real tough opponent. I don’t know which quarterback is going to play; T.J. Yates, the big pocket guy that is so very accurate or Cameron Sexton, the smaller guy who is very athletic, likes to run and likes to get out on the perimeter. We recruited Cameron Sexton up here. Their receivers are outstanding, led by No. 88, Hakeem Nicks. (Greg) Little was the starting back but when Brandon Tate, No. 87, went out, they moved Little out. Their backs are very good. Bobby Rome is a good fullback and the big fullback is No. 32, Ryan Houston. Their offense line is very good and their tight-ends are good. Defensively, they have a tremendous end and veteran in E.J. Wilson. Marvin Austin was the No. 1 defensive tackler in America two years ago and we recruited him out of D.C. Their linebacker and leading tackler is Quan Sturdivant and No. 54, Bruce Carter, is probably the best special teams player we’ll play against all year with four blocks, two for touchdowns. Their two safeties are excellent and their secondary is good so they have a good football team. Their special teams are sound and solid. On comparing UNC to a BIG EAST team They are a combination. They have the receivers, the speed and special teams of Cincinnati. I think their offensive linemen are a bunch of big tough guys. They are big, strong, strapping guys like Pitt. Their quarterbacks in the pocket, throwing the ball reminds me of Mike Teel when he was hot, like he was at the end of the year. Their running backs are a lot like the two we have on this team. They did lose a tremendous player in No. 87, Brandon Tate. Defensively, up front they remind me of Auburn. They are big, strong, get after you, uphill, sick ‘em guys. In our league, Cincinnati’s defense, those ten seniors they had, are a lot like UNC. They are a lot like Pitt and their safeties are sure tacklers like USF tacklers in the past. They are sure tacklers. I am very impressed with No. 31, Trimane Goddard and No. 27 Deunta Williams. I don’t take that away from their corners, because in the BIG EAST and just from what we have in our league, our corners are pretty special. I think the two corners at Cincinnati are pretty special. I don’t know if there are any better. These guys are a good football team. That’s what we’re looking at. Their backers, wow, No. 54 Bruce Carter is 6-3, 230lbs. That guy blocks punts like you’ve never seen. Mark Paschal is 230lbs and a big linebacker. Their leading tackler is 6-2, 235lbs. They are all big guys like Mortty (Ivy). It’s going to be a physical football team we play. On UNC Head Coach Butch Davis’ coaching scheme A lot of the pro, and I see with offensive coordinator John Shoop, it’s NFL stuff. The way the NFL plays, and why our team is looked at so much by the NFL, is the way we play our safeties. John Shoop has a lot of experience in this and you see it every Sunday in the NFL, and I wonder how we’re going to stop that thing. We may have to call up the Steelers and see what they think because there is just some things they do that are going to give us fits. We can’t go out there and change and act like it’s a different flavor of the month, we’re not going to put in a new defense and a new offense. We’re going to have our hands full with what Butch Davis does and what his coordinators do. They have tremendous coordinators; those guys are good and their staff is very good. They’ve got it rolling. Making redshirts eligible for Bowl Games I’m for five years. I really am for five years. When you come to school for five years, if you get out early and go to the pros after three; you know, I’ve talked to Coach Don Nehlen about this and all the old coaches had to juggle players, play this guy and not play that guy. You take a guy like Josh Jenkins that got hurt in the fifth game, he was on track and was going well, and all of a sudden it’s his fifth game he gets hurt in. He’s been struggling and fighting hard to get back. I want to see the guys get five years and tell them to play on special teams and give them some kind of concession to a fifth year. The good ones are going to go out early if they want to and those who want to stay four will. You have to juggle stuff and they say if they want to play in the Bowl, you tell those guys who have played all year to sit down? I don’t know if I like that but I would like to see five-year eligibility. When you don’t live right and you can’t get over here at 6:30 in the morning for a lift, when you don’t attend all of your classes and when you don’t do the things I demand in this program as the head football coach, they are never going to play in this program. On the schedule Our next two weeks: we’re going to practice Thursday morning and then I’m going to get on a plane and go recruiting. Three or four of us will tear out of here and we have three coaches on the road right now, and then we’ll recruit through Saturday. We’ll come back and try to see our families on Sunday, get on a plane on Monday and fly to Charlotte, have a welcome committee on Monday evening, Tuesday we will go to the Speedway, practice and Wednesday we practice, Thursday we practice, Friday we’ll have a walk through and Saturday we’ll play. It will be like a normal week. On players being Bowl eligible I will know that before we leave on Thursday. They are compiling grades right now and once we get the grades in, we check the guys off. Last year we didn’t want to lose any. We lost a fifth-year quarterback who had one three-hour class that he couldn’t pass and didn’t make the Bowl. I hope we don’t lose any. On recruiting Doc Holliday, David Lockwood and Lonnie Galloway are on the road and are being where they need to be. Chris Beatty and Jeff Mullen can take the wide-outs, David couldn’t leave with the line because I wanted him to stay here. Jeff and David have taken the tight ends and fullbacks as well. On defense, Jeff Casteel, Bill Kirelawich and Steve Dunlap have stayed and are taking care of the secondaries so we’re fine there. On Brandon Hogan Brandon Hogan will play cornerback all the way. He is going to be our guy on the kick returns and punt returns next year. I don’t want to tire the little guy out because he is playing a lot of plays. I hope he stays four years. He might be so good next year that they may make it advantageous for him not to. He has a chance to be really really good. Will he do it, work and get better? We’ll see, but he has a chance. On the earlier Bowl Game It’s been fast. I’m not going to say anything because a lot of the BIG EAST coaches have already complained about playing that first Saturday in December. I’m not going to say anything because I don’t want the front office mad at me. I’ll let them talk. But it’s tough, we lose a week of recruiting. Right now we have three guys out and we should have seven guys out this week. I’m going to get out Thursday and Friday, and then it’s a dead week. It’s been tough but that’s ok. On learning from Bowl mistakes Non grinding. We’ve ground them before. When we hit that whistle to start the game, I could have lay down and gone to sleep. We had no legs, and we were just beat and we learned from that. The two preceding Bowls after that we learned that. After the first two or three, you see that what you’re doing isn’t working. So we changed and that being said, we have a lot of fun here. You know what we did today? We had a gentleman come in today from the United States Navy, a tough guy, who is the director of our Fellowship of Christian Athletes. There wasn’t one scripture or biblical word spoken. What Sean talked about, with 16 years in the Navy, he talked about the iceberg, the 10-90 rule. 10% above the water is the part that people see but the 90% below, they don’t see. He talked about character and leadership and when the lights are off and no one is looking. The Titanic wasn’t supposed to sink was it? But it sunk. It wasn’t one big gash. It was six little slits that happen to hit all six chambers. So what we’re going to do, we’re going to have some fun and we talked about fun, leadership and character. After that 20 minute presentation, I showed them Tiger Woods. Tiger’s mother was outstanding and Tiger’s love for his father was even more outstanding. Then after that I told them that Tuesday we were going to Speedway. Only two of our chickens have signed up to ride in a sports car. I said, ‘give me those controls!’. I can’t wait to shift-I want to drive! The coaches are going to ride. Lonnie Galloway and I are going to ride. I can’t wait to put a helmet on. We’re also going to have family. We’re going to have a big family Christmas and we’re going to have a ‘gong’ show. The seniors stood up today in the meeting and begged me that after Patrick McAfee’s performance at the banquet, can we please have one more shot at Patrick McAfee? I said, ‘you got it!’. Quinton Andrews then asked, ‘can we start with the coaches?’. I told him to start with his favorite and he said, ‘I got you’. I said, ‘good, give it to me!’. We’re going to have fun. It’s going to be a lot of family stuff. Tonight the captains and I are going to go over to the Alumni Center and we’re going to get on the Children’s Hospital telethon from 7:00-8:00 p.m.. I’m very proud of that. Every night this week, the team has been out working with different projects. We’ve been in Fairmont and the surrounding cities and I’ll tell you what, we have the greatest young men ever. I love these guys. They are out taking youngsters to Wal-Mart, they did that last night and they’ve been down to Fairmont with the youngsters who didn’t have any parents, no money, no gifts and they acted like Santa’s elves and handed out presents. How about that? Tonight we’ll be with the Wish Project and it’s a great cause. Now why do we do that? We’re blessed. I had a son over at the hospital on the sixth floor with a bad broken arm. I tell you what, I sat on that floor when they fixed him, I stayed in that chair all night and I prayed to God and thanked Him because I knew how lucky I was. I looked to the left down the hall and I looked to the right down the hall and there weren’t people as fortunate as the Stewart family. Will my kid’s arm get better? If he works hard and the good Lord is willing, it will happen. If not, maybe his career might not be as good. I know one thing, if that is the only thing he has to go through, then he is going to have a long and happy life. That’s why we do what we do. Senior class They have bought into everything we’ve tried to do. They are good role models. They don’t do that for publicity, we didn’t even tell the press. I wanted to tell you because I wanted to brag on those guys a little bit. They will go out as the winningest senior class ever. It speaks volumes. It says if you work hard, do right then good things happen. On the team not having classes It’s been great. They’ve slept in, we’ve had breakfasts and they’ve been bonding. This is their time to bond has a football family. I think it’s been really good and I’m proud of what they’ve done. It’s almost like spring practice because you can just take some time. When we get down to Charlotte though, it will be like a normal game week. This has been really good for us. We’ve slowed things down, we’ve taught well and the young men have responded so great. Senior Bowl Pat White is going, Patrick McAfee is going and Ellis Lankster is going. For those three it is absolutely awesome. All that does is put accolades on the West Virginia program. Do you know how many young people watch that game? It’s really great that we have three young men who will represent the Old Gold and Blue down there. They are going to have fun and I hope they turn No. 5 loose and let No. 40 kick and punt and do it all, and I hope they let No. 2 bring some back and cover people. The three we’re sending are going to do a great job and I’m proud of them.
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Post by cviller on Dec 17, 2008 10:15:44 GMT -5
A special Bowl Edition of the Bill Stewart Statewide Sportsline will air Wednesday night from 7 o’clock until 9. As it has all season, the show will air from the Waterfront Place Hotel’s Regatta Bar and Grille as the Mountaineer head coach will answer questions from fans and talk with Tony Caridi. Fans who would like to call in during the show can dial 1-800-765-8255. If you’d like to email a question for the show, you can send it to coachstew@wvmetronews.com.
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Post by cviller on Dec 17, 2008 10:08:55 GMT -5
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen is impressed with what he’s seen on tape so far of North Carolina’s defense. “They’ve always got a new blitz package and that’s one of the most impressive things about them to be able to teach a new blitz package just about every week,” Mullen said. “What we have to do is to be able to handle something new that we haven’t seen on tape yet.”
Mullen said the trademark of Butch Davis-coached teams is a strong, physical defense designed to stop the run.
“They’ll always have an extra guy down there someway somehow,” Mullen said. “It’s always a different guy so you have to account for it in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it’s the weak safety, sometimes it’s the sam linebacker; sometimes it’s a corner coming in from the boundary. There is always an extra hat in there versus what you’re trying to do in the run game and you have to account for that each time you make a play call.”
Having gone up against North Carolina for seven years while coaching at Wake Forest, Mullen says Davis and his coaching staff have been able to upgrade their personnel in the two short years they have been in Chapel Hill.
“He has done a great job. In their recruiting they have really added an element of talent in his two years there. It’s pretty impressive,” Davis said. “He’s done a phenomenal job of adding skill, size, speed and toughness. Of course they are well coached on top of that.”
Mullen says a lot of that talent his homegrown.
“It’s their state flagship school so a lot of kids in their state grow up with the powder blue on so that certainly helps. There are 30-35 Division I signees out of the state and they usually get to handpick the ones they want,” Mullen said. “They’ve got pretty good name recognition throughout the entire Southeast. I used to run into those guys a lot recruiting Georgia, South Carolina and down in Florida, too.”
Mullen indicated that he’s talked to people he knows in the ACC to get a better feel for North Carolina’s defensive personnel.
“There are a number of guys that I still have ties with back in the Atlantic Coast Conference, not just at Wake Forest, but other staffs,” Mullen explained. “I was at Wake Forest for seven years and I befriended a lot of those people. At the end of the day there is nothing that is said over the telephone that is earth shattering that you can’t find out on tape.”
Having had the opportunity to see Davis’ team in person last year at Wake Forest will give Mullen some assistance during the preparation process leading into this year’s game.
“There is a comfort to it. You’ve seen the front and some of the things they’ve done in the past but once the ball is kicked all of that stuff goes out the window. It helps your game plan process up to that point,” Mullen noted. “They will have wrinkles and that’s the thing that we’ve got to be most prepared for. They’ve got a couple of weeks off, we’ve got a couple of weeks off and both can come in there with some tricks and we’re going to have to be ready to adjust to them.”
Briefly:
West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said that his team will have two-a-day practices here in Morgantown through Wednesday with a final workout on Thursday morning before excusing the team for holiday recess. Stewart said the team’s morning practices have been walkthroughs similar to what professional teams do.
“I talked to some of my buddies in the pros and we’re going to see how this works,” Stewart said. “We’ll do like the Steelers do and some other people that I’ve talked to.”
Asked how he planned to prepare his team differently for this year’s bowl game as opposed to the first time the Mountaineers traveled to Charlotte in 2002, Stewart said he plans on making sure the players have their legs for the game. “We grinded them hard down there the first time we were down there,” Stewart said. “We learned after that. After the first two or three we said that’s not working so we changed. We’ll use a plan similar to what we used last year for the Fiesta Bowl.”
Because West Virginia is a week behind in recruiting, Stewart had three of his coaches out on the road recruiting today – Doc Holliday, Lonnie Galloway and Dave Lockwood. “Jeff (Mullen) can take the tight ends, Chris (Beatty) will have the wide receivers, and Steve (Dunlap) can take Dave’s kids,” Stewart said. “We’re fine there.”
Stewart said he will be taking off to visit prospects after Thursday’s practice.
“We will recruit through Saturday and try and get back in here and see our families on Sunday,” Stewart said. “Then we’ll get on a plane Monday and fly to Charlotte.”
Despite not having a championship game the weekend of Dec. 6, the Big East chooses to extend its season by an additional week to take advantage of the national television opportunities on that weekend.
“It’s tough because we lose a week there recruiting. We have three guys out now and we should have seven guys out this week,” Stewart said.
Stewart and the team captains will be taking part in the Children’s Hospital Telethon from 7 to 8 pm this evening over at the West Virginia University Alumni Center. “We’ve got the greatest young men ever. I love these guys,” Stewart said.
In addition to quarterback Pat White, punter Pat McAfee and cornerback Ellis Lankster have also been invited to play in this year’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala. “It’s absolutely awesome and all it does is put accolades on the West Virginia program,” Stewart said. “It’s great that we have three neat young men representing the old Gold and Blue.”
According to WVU Sports Marketing Director Matt Wells, West Virginia has finished selling its allotment of tickets for the Meineke Car Care Bowl and the game is getting close to being announced a sellout. The Meineke Bowl has previously had two sellouts - the first year in 2002 when West Virginia played Virginia and in 2004 when North Carolina lost to Boston College.
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Post by cviller on Dec 17, 2008 9:47:24 GMT -5
Where's My Ticket? ? I'll be watching for the Fed-EX Truck today and I'm going flag him down! He better have my ticket! Or there will be Hell To Pay!
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Post by cviller on Dec 16, 2008 19:36:07 GMT -5
MOUNTAINEERS
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Post by cviller on Dec 16, 2008 19:33:15 GMT -5
Right On! Let's play Virginia. We need to pay them back Big Time! The last time we played AT Virginia their cheerleaders took our cheerleaders out on the field and did a hillbilly thing just like their band did at the Tire Bowl. After the Tire Bowl and all the up roar over it and calls from the WVU Adm and Gov. Joe, UVA made their pep band disband. At the time, that's the only kind of band they had. Now they have a regular marching band.
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Post by cviller on Dec 16, 2008 13:39:10 GMT -5
Ordered a ticket from WVU - but no Fed-Ex delivery yet?
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Post by cviller on Dec 15, 2008 12:26:03 GMT -5
Way to go guys! Good Football Players with BRAINS!! Thanks for being a Mountaineer! Good luck in the Bowl Game.
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Post by cviller on Dec 15, 2008 12:21:44 GMT -5
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Post by cviller on Dec 15, 2008 12:17:39 GMT -5
WVU, North Carolina tied together by movie
By Jack Bogaczyk Daily Mail Sports Editor
IT seems there's another, not-so-obvious angle to the box office-hot, (64,000 tickets sold to date) upcoming Muffler Bowl matchup between West Virginia and North Carolina.
It has nothing to do with common 8-4 records and wins over Rutgers and Connecticut.
WVU and UNC also are the two schools that were and would have been slandered and insulted by depictions of racism at home games by "The Express," a recent movie about late, great Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, the 1961 Heisman Trophy winner.
The flick depicted WVU fans hurling slurs and trash at Davis during a Mountaineer Field night game in 1959 (never mind that WVU didn't have lights until it opened new Mountaineer Field in the 1980s).
When West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin expressed his disgust and complained loudly about the cinema accusation, screenwriter Charles Leavitt wrote to Manchin that the scene was changed from what he had penned.
Leavitt had written the incident in the script as the incident happening at a game at North Carolina's Kenan Stadium in 1958.
Well, that really doesn't make it any better ... While Davis didn't play at WVU in 1959 (he did in 1960), the Orangemen <I>never<I> played UNC anytime, anywhere ... until 1995. And Davis was playing freshman football at SU in 1958, anyway.
So, just where did Davis play with the Orange in his three varsity seasons?
In 1959, when Syracuse went 11-0 and won the national title, the Orangemen visited Navy, Pitt, Penn State, Boston University, UCLA and beat Texas in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
In 1960, Davis & Co. visited WVU, Kansas, Holy Cross and Miami (Fla.), and played Army at Yankee Stadium.
In his senior season, Davis played at Oregon State, Nebraska, Maryland, Penn State, Notre Dame and Boston College, and beat Miami in the Liberty Bowl (then played in Philadelphia).
There's not much Deep South exposure there where Davis might have been vociferously heckled.
Well, maybe it will warm WVU and UNC hearts to know that the movie wasn't exactly "The Express" at the box office (and when it reaches DVD days it will carry a disclaimer about a portion of the movie being fiction).
After opening weekend receipts of $4.56 million, "The Express" theatre gross to date is only $9.652 million (with a $40 million production budget).
By comparison with other recent sports-related movies, "We Are Marshall" had a box office of $43.54 million two years ago. Earlier in 2006, "Glory Road" -- about Texas Western's unlikely run through racism to an NCAA basketball championship -- did $42.94 million worldwide at the ticket window.
* * *
IN THE "what might have been" file ...
Consider that in a season where a retooling offense took away a good amount of his own strength -- an ability and elusiveness to run the football in the zone option -- West Virginia senior quarterback Pat White still finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy balloting.
For those who didn't catch the top 10 in the 2008 balloting (see the chart on our Scoreboard page, 2B), White had three first-place votes, one second and eight thirds. A year ago, White's totals in those three spots were 16, 28 and 46, for 150 points.
White's 19 balloting points this time trailed sixth-place Iowa running back Shonn Greene considerably (65). Ball State QB Nate Davis was just behind White (0-1-8, 10 points).
So, White placed 12th, sixth and seventh in the run for the Heisman in his three seasons as WVU's starting quarterback. White and third-place Tim Tebow of Florida were the only players east of the Mississippi to make the top seven this year.
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Post by cviller on Dec 14, 2008 13:05:29 GMT -5
Right on Dave, tell it like it is!!!
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