Nov. 12-17 Blog
November 13, 2007 09:41 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 ...
Video Streaming
Posted By John Antonik: November 17, 2007 (1:39 am)
Well, we did it. We were assigned with the task of video streaming three West Virginia University athletic events in the same day: women’s soccer’s NCAA tournament first-round match against Navy, women’s basketball’s game against St. Francis, Pa., and the school’s first-ever online pay-per-view broadcast.
Thankfully, all three went off without a glitch but I must say I hadn’t been this nervous since the day I was married nine years ago.
The men’s basketball pay-per-view broadcast was particularly interesting because we had just 15 minutes to break down the camera from the women’s game, unplug cables, and successfully test the video and audio feeds from the truck before the start of West Virginia’s game against Arkansas-Monticello.
It worked.
Many schools are streaming athletic events. And some, like West Virginia University, have chosen to expand their coverage beyond a simple one-camera operation and a play-by-play announcer. Friday night’s pay-per-view broadcast required a production truck capable of delivering instant replays and the graphics you’ve come to enjoy with regular television broadcasts (Click here for a sample of Friday’s webcast).
Our goal is to bring the basketball games you can’t see on television right to your computer – just as you would enjoy them on TV. The new Big East television contract permits us the freedom to deliver these events to you. Four more pay-per-view games are scheduled through December before the Mountaineers begin Big East action.
We also plan on bringing you expanded varsity sports coverage – soccer postseason, women’s basketball, wrestling and gymnastics – in the future.
Here are the minimum requirements you need to view our online programming:
To order Sunday's pay-per-view game agaisnt Prairie View A&M Click HERE.
We hope you enjoy them.
Sign Here
Posted By John Antonik: November 15, 2007 (10:51 pm)
Considering the late start, Bob Huggins and his coaching staff were able to land a three-player early signing class rated 17th in the country by Scout.com.
The Mountaineers signed 6-foot-2-inch point guard Truck Bryant from Brooklyn, N.Y., 6-foot-10-inch center Roscoe Davis from Hargrave Military Academy and 6-foot-8-inch forward Kevin Jones from Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Jones waited until the first day of the signing period to cast his lot with the Mountaineers after considering offers from Pitt, Indiana, UMass, Rutgers and Seton Hall.
“I think it fills our needs as best as we can with those scholarships. We needed size and certainly Roscoe gives us size and he gives us an agile guy that can run and kind of play the way we want to play,” Huggins said. “We want to kind of play faster and having a 6-10 guy like that who can run certainly does that.
“Kevin and Truck both come from programs where they play up-tempo and they’re both good in the open floor. We needed a point guard because we lose Darris (Nichols),” Huggins said. “You don’t want to go into the season with one point guard and I think Truck is as physically ready to come in and play as you’re going to get with a high school kid. He’s a strong guy and he’s played against great competition. I think he’s kind of what we needed.”
Jones is from a storied Mount Vernon program that has produced the McCray brothers, Ben Gordon, and former Mountaineer standout Lowes Moore - a teammate of Huggins at WVU.
“Kevin is as versatile a guy as there is out there. He can guard anybody on the floor; he runs, he’s long – whatever he is, 6-7 or 6-8 with a 7-3 wingspan,” Huggins said. “He blocks shots; he just does a lot of things because of his wingspan. Offensively he can play inside and he can play outside. He’s got pretty good ball skills.
“I don’t know that we could have done a whole lot better under the circumstances,” Huggins said.
Now that West Virginia has filled its scholarship allotment for 2008, Huggins and his staff can focus solely on 2009 and 2010 recruits.
“From this point on you start working on next year - not that we haven’t all ready,” Huggins said. “We’re going to go watch these guys naturally but you spend a lot of time now trying to recruit for the following year and get involved with the best guys that you can get involved with and continue to recruit all the guys that you were recruiting for next year.”
Right now, Davis and redshirt freshman Jacob Green are slotted to be the only players on West Virginia’s ‘09 roster standing taller than 6-9.
“Sometimes you have enough and sometimes you don’t. I think a lot of it has to do with how many availables there are out there. I’ve had as many as six guys 6-9 or taller or maybe more than that to having one,” Huggins said. “It has to do with how many availables there are out there and it has to do with what your needs are.
“Sometimes you can afford to take a 6-10 guy and redshirt him and get him ready to play and sometimes you have to get the best available because that’s what you need to give your team a chance to win,” Huggins said.
In the Big East, Georgetown, Louisville, Syracuse and Connecticut also had strong early recruiting classes, according to Scout.
BCS Celebrates 10th Anniversary
Posted By John Antonik: November 14, 2007 (4:53 pm)
 |
||
| Rich Rodriguez |
The BCS is celebrating its 10th anniversary this season. Right, wrong or indifferent, the system in place now for the most part has worked. And Rich Rodriguez believes the BCS has been fair to West Virginia.
“There is always going to be controversy and everyone is going to have their opinion on it,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “I think what we have now is better than what we had before the BCS. There was always controversy before.”
At least the process is now open: the two polls (ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ Poll and the Harris Poll) and the computer rankings make up the criteria for selecting college football’s two best teams.
In some instances in the past, politicians had a say in football’s national champion as was the case in 1969 when President Richard Nixon proclaimed the winner of the Texas-Arkansas game college football’s champion. That proved unfortunate for Penn State, which like Texas also finished the year undefeated.
“In D-1, every football game is a playoff game and that what makes D-1A football so exciting,” Rodriguez said. “In a year like this year when you see so many upsets it has brought the importance of each game to the forefront.”
Right now undefeated Kansas would be shutout out of the national championship game if the season ended today. Rodriguez believes that if a team from one of the six BCS conferences goes undefeated it should be in contention for the national championship game. It remains to be seen if Kansas can earn enough points to get into the title game should it finish the year without a loss.
“I think if you are undefeated and you are a BCS team, and there is another BCS team that is undefeated then those two should be playing for the national championship. To me that’s fair,” Rodriguez said.
Hidden Yards
Posted By John Antonik: November 13, 2007 (3:23 pm)
Are you interested in learning about a hidden stat that could play a big factor in Saturday’s West Virginia-Cincinnati game? Pay attention to where West Virginia starts each possession.
Cincinnati punter Kevin Huber is ranked No. 1 in the country this week averaging 46.7 yards per kick. The Bearcats are ranked fifth in net punting averaging 39 yards per punt. Cincinnati is also first in the Big East Conference in kickoff coverage with its opponents’ average starting position at the 27 yards line.
Cincinnati has had eight touchbacks this year.
West Virginia ranks third in the Big East in net punting with a 34.4 average and is fifth in kickoff return coverage with its opponents’ average starting position being the 30.
Cincinnati is having a great season for a number of reasons and hidden yardage is just one of them. Hidden yards and turnovers could play big factor in Saturday’s game.
Cincinnati is 8-2 and in the hunt for a Big East title not because the Bearcats rank second in the conference in scoring offense averaging 36.6 points per game or second in scoring defense giving up 16.4 points per game, its because they are first in the league in turnover margin at plus-1.60 per game.
Cincinnati has had five games this year in which it has created at least four turnovers including a season-high eight in a 38-33 victory at South Florida. The Bearcats caused seven turnovers in a home win against Oregon State.
UC is 8-0 when it gets points off of turnovers. The Bearcats are 0-2 when they don't get points off of turnovers.
West Virginia has normally been pretty good about holding onto the football this season but it did fumble three times in a seven-point win over Louisville and had six turnovers in its only loss of the season at South Florida.
Another area of note: the Bearcats are tied with South Florida and West Virginia for the conference lead in sacks with 26 and they also have the best red-zone defense in the Big East limiting opponents to red-zone scores just 71.9 percent of the time (23 of 32).
The Mountaineers are next to last in the Big East in red-zone defense allowing their opponents to score 90 percent of the time (18 of 20).
It will be important for West Virginia to score touchdowns and not field goals when it has red-zone opportunities against Cincinnati on Saturday.
RIP Yup-Yup
Posted By John Antonik: November 13, 2007 (9:41 am)
The real old-timers remember Chop ‘Em Down, who used to walk around town with a hatchet in his hand while professing his hatred of the Pittsburgh Panthers. Today we’ve got Tommy, who excites the crowd at West Virginia home games with his trademark cheer “Ding it out!”
Whenever Tommy used to wander around the Coliseum concourse former basketball coach John Beilein would stop practice and wouldn’t let the team continue until Tommy yelled “Ding it!”
Yesterday, Morgantown said good-bye to Henry Drosky, another fixture at WVU athletic events for many years. Henry, 85, was better known as “Yup-Yup” because he often muttered that phrase watching West Virginia games or while walking around town.
Those of us living in Morgantown consider Yup-Yup just as much a part of West Virginia University athletics as Major Harris or Kevin Pittsnogle. Usually armed with a cup of coffee and his transistor radio, Yup-Yup never missed a game or a score.
Gale Catlett used to put money in his pocket and give him rides downtown. Other WVU coaches did likewise.
Guys like Yup-Yup, Chop ‘Em Down and Tommy have always made the games a little more interesting and enjoyable to watch. Their ranks may be thinning, but the bond remains strong.
Rest in Peace Yup-Yup.
