Oct. 1-5 Blog
October 01, 2007 10:56 AM | General
We’re changing things up a little bit. For the past four years Campus Connection has kind of been like a weekly blog full of tidbits, notes, commentary, quasi-opinion and weak stabs at humor that have sometimes hit the mark and at other times completely missed. Well, to keep up with the Jones', we’ve decided to turn Campus Connection into a daily blog. If we miss a day then you know we’re struggling.
Hope you enjoy it ...
Surprise, Surprise
Posted By John Antonik: October 5, 2007 (11:03 am)
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| Da'Sean Butler |
The person most surprised with Da’Sean Butler’s success last year playing in the Big East as a freshman? Da’Sean Butler.
“I really didn’t think that I was going to play that much,” Butler admitted recently.
From the moment the 6-foot-7-inch forward arrived on campus last summer former West Virginia coach John Beilein raved about Butler’s high basketball IQ and court moxie. Beilein said several times that Butler was one of the most advanced freshmen he had ever coached and it showed on the court. Butler averaged 10.1 points per game as the team’s top sub coming off the bench, scored a career-high 21 against his hometown team Seton Hall, and contributed 20 key points in the Mountaineers’ NIT championship victory over Clemson.
“When I got here all of the freshmen could do everything that I could do and were more athletic than I am,” Butler said. “That kind of worried me. But as far as everything else I just used my head a little bit more as far as learning the plays and being in the right spot at the right time.
“That helped me even more when I got into the games,” Butler said.
Presently, Butler is worrying about fitting into new style Coach Bob Huggins plans to use this season.
“Some people say we’re adaptable and other people say as a team we will have a tough time because he plays a more athletic style,” Butler said. “We’ve got a couple athletes on the team but not everyone is athletic as far as everyone else in the Big East. I feel like I can play however anyone wants me to play. If he talks to me and explains to me how he wants me to play I’m pretty sure I can do it.”
Fall practice for the Mountaineers begins next Friday night with Mountaineer Madness at 9 pm at the WVU Coliseum. West Virginia opens the regular season on Nov. 16 with the opening game of the Legends Classic.
Former WVU SID Ron Steiner Dies
Posted By John Antonik: October 4, 2007 (3:34 pm)
We’ve got word through Mickey Furfari this afternoon that former West Virginia University Sports Information Director Ron Steiner has died as a result of complications from heart transplant surgery in Louisville, Ky.
He was West Virginia’s SID from 1975-79. Steiner graduated from WVU in 1973 with a degree in Journalism and then spent two years at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973-74 working as assistant sports information director.
Steiner left WVU in 1979 to work with Coach Howard Schnellenberger’s Miami football program, and then later went with Schnellenberger to the University of Louisville.
Steiner was editor and publisher of the Louisville Sports Report until selling the publication last year. Most recently, he was doing freelance writing in Louisville. The Gibsonia, Pa., native was 55.
Cross Country Nationally Ranked
Posted By John Antonik: October 4, 2007 (11:44 am)
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| Sean Cleary |
Did you realize that four of West Virginia’s five fall sports are nationally ranked this week? Football is ranked 12th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, men’s soccer is 13th according to Soccer America, and women’s soccer is 22nd according to Soccer Buzz.
Joining the list of ranked teams is women’s cross country, which comes in at 20th this week.
The Mountaineers had a great race at the Paul Short Invitational last weekend finishing second to No. 7 Princeton. The Mountaineers finished ahead of Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Tennessee and Syracuse.
First-year coach Sean Cleary is excited about a team that is predominantly freshmen and sophomores.
“We don’t have an upperclassman in our top seven,” Cleary said.
Marie-Louise Asselin is West Virginia’s top runner, producing a third-place finish last weekend with a time of 20:19. Her time is just 19 seconds off of last year’s NCAA championship winning time and only 18 seconds shy of Megan Metcalfe’s school record.
Cleary believes the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship is shaping up as a three-team race for the top two spots to qualify for nationals. In addition to Princeton and West Virginia, Cleary is anxious to see how Georgetown performs this weekend.
“Georgetown hasn’t run a full team yet and they are going to this weekend,” Cleary said.
The Mountaineers are back on the course this weekend at the National Open at State College, Pa. Cleary anticipates at least four or five ranked teams will be in the field on Saturday.
Turnover Margin
Posted By John Antonik: October 3, 2007 (3:28 pm)
There are three undefeated teams in the Big East Conference. And all three – Cincinnati, South Florida and Connecticut – are one, two and three in turnover margin. Is that just a coincidence? Rich Rodriguez doesn’t think so.
“Not only is it a change of momentum, but the change in field position is critical,” Rodriguez said. “There are other things coaches will tell you offensively when you have good field position as opposed to being backed up. There are so many things that are safer to do.
“Defensively, you are more at risk when you are backed up: you have to blitz a little more and put more pressure and that leads to big plays,” Rodriguez said.
For the most part West Virginia has been pretty good at holding onto the ball. Just two years ago in 2005 the Mountaineers were seventh in the nation in turnover margin at plus-14. So far this year, West Virginia is sixth in the Big East at plus-two.
“Turnovers and negative yards are two things that we stress more than anything offensively that we cannot have,” Rodriguez said. “The games that we’ve lost over the years are the games when we’ve been bad in both of those categories: turnovers and negative yardage plays.”
Just the Facts
Posted By John Antonik: October 2, 2007 (8:55 pm)
Sometimes things just fall into your lap, like this one from Birmingham News columnist Ray Melick whose contribution to the intelligence of his readership falls just short of Bull Connor.
Melick’s explanation for the rapid rise of schools like South Florida, Rutgers and, yes, West Virginia, is because these schools can accept academic non-qualifiers. Melick argues that college football recruiting is no longer an apples-for-apples proposition. Some schools with lower admission standards can accept outstanding prospects that other institutions can’t.
He also writes that conferences such as the SEC have “pushed for legislation that would increase the NCAA’s minimum standards.”
Melick’s column is based on statements made by Alabama coach Nick Saban. According to Saban, the distribution of players is not equitable throughout the country.
“I think there are six guys starting on South Florida’s defense (that) probably could have gone to Florida or Florida State but Florida and Florida State couldn’t take them,” Saban said, implying that schools like South Florida actively seek out non-qualifiers as a means of getting better quickly.
USF coach Jim Leavitt rightfully took exception to Saban’s fuzzy logic and Melick’s lack of fact checking Tuesday afternoon. Leavitt said only two of his players were accepted as non-qualifiers. One starts and the other doesn’t.
Furthermore, Leavitt pointed out quite accurately that the Big East instituted a rule two years ago denying the acceptance of partial and/or academic non-qualifiers in any sport.
Incidentally, the SEC presently does take partial and non-qualifiers. In fact, according to SEC bylaws a school can admit up to four non-qualifiers a year including two in football. The other sports are only permitted one non-qualifier per year.
What Birmingham News subscribers read on Tuesday morning was simply wrong.
Sadly, one more telephone call by Ray Melick could have gotten it right.
Former Offensive Guard Dies
Posted By John Antonik: October 2, 2007 (2:04 pm)
I received the very sad news today from Jeff “Soup” Campbell that former WVU offensive guard Jerome Taylor died last Saturday night in Dallas from leukemia.
Taylor came to West Virginia from Hargrave Academy after earning all-state honors at Greenbrier East High School in Lewisburg, W.Va. The 6-foot-4-inch, 300-pounder also played basketball and ran track at Greenbrier East, and spent two seasons in the Mountaineer program in 1998 and 1999 before a back injury ended his career.
Taylor was just 28.
Ratings Bonanza
Posted By John Antonik: October 1, 2007 (7:10 pm)
Word has come down from the Big East office in Providence that last Friday's West Virginia-South Florida telecast on ESPN2 rated a 2.72, and ranks as the highest rated and most-viewed Friday night college football game ever on ESPN or ESPN2. It broke the most-viewed Friday record set last year by the West Virginia at UConn game on ESPN, which rated a 2.02.
Equally impressive was the fact that the WVU-USF game was the second highest rated and second-most-viewed regular season college football game ever on any night on ESPN2.
The Mountaineers are not strangers to high television ratings. Last year the West Virginia-Louisville game set an ESPN record for the highest-rated Thursday night telecast reaching 4.9 million households. It was the second-most viewed regular season game in ESPN history.
Preseason Polls Meaningless
Posted By John Antonik: October 1, 2007 (5:22 pm)
Do you remember a few weeks ago when West Virginia Coach Rich Rodriguez was talking about how meaningless early-season football polls were? Well, it looks like the old ball coach was on to something.
Our sports information graduate assistant Nate Zinn did a little research and discovered that seven of the nation's preseason Top 10 teams already show losses through the first month of the season. Two teams – No. 5 Michigan and No. 10 Louisville – have dropped out of the Top 25 completely.
AP started the season with USC at No. 1 and has since switched to LSU after the Trojans struggled at Washington last weekend. Wisconsin began the year seventh and has inched up to fifth despite all of the losses. Those three are the only ones that started the year in the Top 10 and remain unblemished.
No. 3 West Virginia, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Michigan, No. 6 Florida, No. 8 Oklahoma, No. 9 Virginia Tech and No. 10 Louisville have all hit the mat.
Ohio State, 10th in the USA Today Coaches’ Poll, has moved up to fourth in both polls while California, 12th in both preseason polls, is now third in both.
Before the season is finished there will most certainly be even more shuffling.
Maybe they had it right 40 years ago when the first poll didn’t come out until October. Just now we’re beginning to find out which teams are good and which teams are not.
White "Day-to-Day"
Posted By John Antonik: October 1, 2007 (10:58 am)
Rich Rodriguez said on Sunday afternoon that quarterback Patrick White will be “day-to-day” this week in preparation for this Saturday’s game at Syracuse. White took a helmet to the thigh late in the second quarter of last Friday night’s game against South Florida and spent the remainder of the game standing on the sidelines.
“Pat White began treatment,” Rodriguez said Sunday. “He didn’t do anything (Sunday). We will see how it gets better during the week.”
White completed 12 of 18 passes for 100 yards and ran nine times for 36 yards including the 18-yard rush to the South Florida 17 that caused the injury.
A deep thigh bruise limited running back Steve Slaton in last year’s Gator Bowl.
“(Pat) may wake up tomorrow on the day off and get better. It’s one of those things you can’t predict so we’ll see,” Rodriguez said.
The coach listed some other ailments that came out of last Friday’s physical game against the Bulls.
“Tito Gonzales sprained an ankle,” Rodriguez said. “He should be OK by Saturday but he won’t practice today. Ovid Goulbourne has a hamstring again. He’s probably out this weekend. James Ingram was out for the last game and he probably won’t be ready this weekend either.”
