By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
March 31, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Here are some West Virginia University news and notes, along with some benign observations to help take you into April:
West Virginia coach John Beilein will be a CBS studio guest this weekend for the Final Four to be played in Indianapolis, joining Hofstra coach Tom Pecora and Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl. Beilein’s West Virginia teams faced both UCLA and LSU during the regular season.
The hot topic on the message boards today is how Kevin Pittsnogle got “jobbed” during last night’s 3-point shooting contest. They claim the clock operator was a little quick with the trigger finger.
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Bill Kirelawich |
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They said it. When asked by Dominion Post Sports Editor Bob Hertzel what he thought of Scooter Berry’s nickname West Virginia defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich replied, “It could have been worse, they could have named him Chip.”
A must read for any Mountaineer football fan is Tom Dienhart’s March 29 column “Robbery on Campus” in The Sporting News.
West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez has not been happy with his offense so far during spring camp, complaining about mental mistakes, lack of wide receiver depth, etc., etc.
Haven’t we heard this before?
As a youngster growing up wondering if West Virginia could ever beat Penn State in football, I must admit it came as quite a shock last week seeing all those Penn State defensive coaches in Morgantown observing Rich Rodriguez and his coaching staff.
It’s been about 30 years since the last time that many Nittany Lion coaches crossed the state line to steal Pineville running back Curt Warner away from the Mountaineers.
Both Chris Henry and John Thornton were at football practice earlier this week. Thornton, a seven-year NFL veteran, spent some time out on the field with the defensive linemen offering pointers. Thornton says he plans on coming back to Morgantown for the spring game on April 15.
Go figure. Last weekend while the baseball team was outside in 40-degree weather playing a conference game against Pitt between snowflakes, the football team was scrimmaging indoors.
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Justin Jenkins |
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Who says you can’t win with jucos? The baseball team’s junior college trio of Dan Leatherman, Joe Stupka and Eric Saffell is a combined 10-0 with three saves, 58 strikeouts and a 2.08 earned run average heading into today’s game at Seton Hall.
Also, former junior college transfer Justin Jenkins is one of the top power hitters in the Big East with seven home runs and a .400 batting average. Stupka, Saffell and Jenkins all played for former West Virginia assistant coach Doug Little at Potomac State.
What a difference a year can make. West Virginia was a bunch of turtles last year ranking next to last in the country with 18 stolen bases. In 24 games this year, the Mountaineers have successfully swiped 54 of 57 bases including 11 in a three-game series against Pitt. Freshman Adam White leads West Virginia with 16 stolen bases.
Despite having the nation’s fifth-best winning percentage (.875), the West Virginia baseball team’s RPI is only 51st according to this week’s Boyd’s World Pseudo RPI, an online college baseball rating system.
The Mountaineers won’t make up any ground in next week’s ratings either, having already played a pair of games against No. 282 Maryland Eastern Shore and playing a three-game series at No. 253 Seton Hall this weekend.
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Dustin Nippert |
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Former WVU pitcher Dustin Nippert is ranked 67th among Baseball America’s top 100 major league prospects for this year. Nippert was a September call up by the Arizona Diamondbacks last year. Jacksonville manager John Shoemaker said: “He just kept pounding his fastball, and being a big guy, it came in at a downhill plane. This guy is a power pitcher, a big guy with a good future.”
Nippert has a 3.46 earned run average in four spring appearances with the Diamondbacks.
A couple of former West Virginia players were recently reassigned to minor league camp: infielder Scott Seabol was sent down by the Florida Marlins and pitcher Jeremy Cummings was sent down by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Recent experience has taught me that when you make an appointment with a contractor to have work done on your home, expect them to show up two months after the appointment date.
The women’s soccer program will host a 4-on-4 soccer tournament for boys and girls at the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility on Sunday, April 9. Three players and a fourth from the WVU women’s soccer team will make up the teams. All proceeds from the tournament will go to the Betty Puskar Breast Care Center to fight breast cancer. For more information, contact the Mountaineer Women’s Soccer Office at (304) 293-2300 x 5546.
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, Seton Hall has paired its list of basketball coaching candidates down to Pitt assistant coach Barry Rohrssen and Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez. One of those two will replace fired Louis Orr. The school is said to be looking for a coach with New York City ties. It is believed that Hofstra coach Tom Pecora was Seton Hall’s top choice before he signed a five-year contract extension last week.
Syracuse took care of its 12th football game this year by scheduling Wyoming for a date on Sept. 30. The Orange will return the trip to Laramie in 2009.
I don’t know what constitutes bigger news for Morgantown: getting an Olive Garden and a Chilis or the recent nugget that IHOP is also coming to town?
Former Mountaineer Tyrone Sally has played in 43 of 44 games for the Roanoke Dazzle of the NBA Developmental League and is averaging 3.8 points and 1.4 rebounds per game. Dazzle teammate D’or Fischer has played in 20 games and is averaging 6 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. Fischer is shooting 56.4 percent from the floor and is also averaging 1.4 blocks per game.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Green Bay Packers plan to bring in former West Virginia linebacker Barrett Green for a workout. Green was released by the New York Giants on Feb. 25 for salary cap reasons.
Gary Stills, another salary cap casualty with the Kansas City Chiefs, has found work with the Baltimore Ravens, recently signing a three-year deal. Stills played seven seasons with the Chiefs, earning Pro Bowl honors in 2003 (special teams) after leading Kansas City with 29 special teams tackles. In 88 career games with the Chiefs, Stills had 80 tackles, 7.5 sacks and four tackles for losses.
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Randy McCloy |
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It’s great to see Randy McCloy heading home much sooner than expected. His recovery has been nothing short of a miracle. Now, we’ve got to get Mountaineer Nation on the ball and get that man a West Virginia cap to wear instead of the Notre Dame hat he was pictured sporting at his Wednesday morning news conference.
How many of you had George Mason making this year’s Final Four? I know Billy Packer, Jim Nantz, Jay Bilas, Seth Davis, Dick Vitale and Tim Brando all had the Patriots headed to Indianapolis.
What do you say we keep an informal count of how many times Packer mistakenly refers to George Mason as George Washington during Saturday’s telecast?
Since the ACC has now gotten its football house in order, perhaps it needs to begin having discussions with George Mason to help improve its declining basketball conference.
I think the word “brethren” and the phrase “due diligence” were created specifically for conference expansion a few years ago. Now it seems like just about every time you read something in the sports pages these days “brethren” and “due diligence” are in there.
My wife even referred to our two children as “our brethren” and told me to do my “due diligence” and get the house fixed.
Well, not really.
But I am still waiting on that contractor to show up and if he does I'm paying him with Canadian money.
Have a great weekend!
