Nov. 5-9 Blog
November 05, 2007 04:20 PM | 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 ...
Paying Dividends
Posted By John Antonik: November 11, 2007 (3:12 pm)
The West Virginia women’s soccer team captured its first Big East title Sunday afternoon in Morgantown, knocking off nine-time Big East champion Notre Dame on its home field in Morgantown.
For Nikki Izzo-Brown, the program’s only coach, a Big East title was one of the major goals her nationally ranked program had not yet achieved. Three previous times the Mountaineers had knocked on the door only to get turned away in the finals.
One of Izzo-Brown’s best teams in 2002 with All-Americans Katie Barnes and Chrissie Abbott couldn’t get over the hump, losing in the finals 1-0 to Connecticut. The next year the Mountaineers made the NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” but fell in the Big East tournament semifinals on penalty kicks to Villanova.
Izzo-Brown’s 2005 team once again came up short, losing 1-0 to Connecticut in the championship game.
This year the Mountaineers finally got it done. So what was the difference? Better players? Better luck? No. West Virginia was playing the Big East tournament at Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium where the Mountaineers are 27-2-2 over their last 31 games.
Not to take anything away from the achievements put forth by Notre Dame and Connecticut in their past dominance the Big East, but ask any coach in any sport the advantage gained by having a postseason a tournament at home and they will tell you it means the world. And a good number of the Big East soccer championships have been played at Notre Dame and Connecticut.
Dick Dlesk Stadium, constructed at a cost of $2.2 million, was built with the idea of accommodating Big East and NCAA tournaments and transforming WVU into a major player in college soccer.
Dick Dlesk Stadium paid its first dividend on Sunday.
Fan Support
Posted By John Antonik: November 9, 2007 (12:42 pm)
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| A crowd of 60,992 watched Eric Wicks celebrate his 44-yard fumble return for a touchdown Thursday night against Louisville at Milan Puskar Stadium.
AP photo |
Hoppy Kercheval got me thinking when he called out the students for leaving the Mississippi State game early, so I decided to do a little research this morning and I came up with an interesting statistic: Thursday night’s Louisville game represented the fifth straight crowd of more than 60,000 to watch a football game at Milan Puskar Stadium.
It’s the first time that has ever happened. Even during the Major Harris years in 1988 and 1989 the Mountaineers couldn’t sustain that type of fan support. The first two games of 1988 saw West Virginia draw sub-60,000 crowds before finishing strong with four straight 60,000-plus draws.
The streak was snapped in the 1989 season opener when 57,866 came out to watch WVU beat Ball State 35-10.
Once again, the ‘89 team drew four-straight 60,000-plus crowds before the streak was broken during the 1990 opener against Kent State when 52,346 showed up to watch the Golden Flashes.
Since the stadium was expanded in 1985 to accommodate 63,500 spectators, 44 times West Virginia has drawn more than 60,000 for a home football game. That represents 31 percent of the time out of 142 total home games during that span.
West Virginia had its streak of 14 straight years of having at least one game draw more than 60,000 snapped in 1999. The only other season WVU didn’t have at least one 60,000-plus crowd came during Rich Rodriguez’s second season in 2002 after the Mountaineers were coming off a 3-8 campaign in 2001.
Since then, 12 of the last 30 home games have drawn more than 60,000. That represents 40 percent of the home games during that span.
Based on West Virginia’s historical difficulties getting students to attend home games during Thanksgiving recess, it will be interesting to see if the Mountaineers can extend their streak of 60,000-plus crowds when No. 13-ranked Connecticut comes to town on Saturday, Nov. 24, in what is shaping up to be a battle for the Big East championship.
Stay tuned.
Kragthorpe Familiar With WVU
Posted By John Antonik: November 7, 2007 (9:36 am)
Steve Kragthorpe is familiar with Morgantown, W.Va., having been a member of Dan Henning’s coaching staff at Boston College in 1996.
The Eagles lost that game to the Mountaineers, 34-17.
“It’s a great college environment,” Louisville’s coach said Monday. “It will be a rowdy crowd, particularly with it being a night game. I think it’s even going to be more so.”
Kragthorpe has been through Morgantown on other occasions as well.
“When we lived in Buffalo we drove there a couple of times on vacation when you pass through,” he said.
Kragthorpe has a tie to West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez through Todd Graham, who served as WVU’s co-defensive coordinator in 2002 before leaving to join Kragthrope’s staff at Tulsa in 2003. Graham brought the odd-stack defense with him so Kragthorpe is extremely familiar with the mechanics of the defense.
“Rich has probably got his most complete football team since I’ve been watching them and I’ve been watching them for a long time because of the fact that I hired Todd Graham from West Virginia in 2003 when I went to Tulsa,” Kragthorpe said.
Kragthorpe says West Virginia is doing some things schematically a little differently than it did last year.
“They’re playing more cover-two, two-deep configuration with the odd-stack front which presents a major challenge for you,” Kragthorpe said.
“They’re more multiple on the defensive side than they’ve been in the past - not quite as much pressure than maybe we saw last year,” he said.
Early Season Basketball Tournaments
Posted By John Antonik: November 6, 2007 (11:15 pm)
Bob Huggins is a big fan of early season tournaments. He believes that’s the best way to pair some of the best teams in college basketball early in the season on neutral sites.
“A year ago we went to Vegas and beat Southern Cal and beat New Mexico which I thought was really good for our team for a confidence standpoint and certainly from an RPI standpoint,” Huggins said Tuesday. “When you look at the great match ups by and large … Kansas played Florida, one playing two a year ago and it was at a tournament. I think that’s where the great games come from early in the year.”
The balancing act, of course, is getting the necessary home games needed to balance your athletic budget.
“Everybody has to make money and you have to have home games to make money. People don’t want you to say that but that’s the reality. You have to have so many home games to make your budget. With that being said, you can only play so many home and home games,” Huggins said.
“I think these tournaments give you an opportunity. A year from now we’re going to go to Vegas and play Iowa, Kentucky and Kansas State. That’s a great field. We’re looking to that.
“We’re looking forward to this year. We go play Tennessee, Texas or New Mexico State … you’re playing quality opponents. I think it tells you a lot about your team. It’s on a neutral site which is very similar to what postseason is.”
League Home Games
Posted By John Antonik: November 5, 2007 (4:21 pm)
West Virginia is one of just a handful of college football teams to have played only three home games so far this year. Mountaineer coach Rich Rodriguez has said many times that his wish has been for the Big East Conference to consider moving some of those late-season games up to September and October when the weather is more enjoyable for the fans.
WVU did not play a single Big East home game in the month of October and will play all three of its conference home games after Nov. 8, including a Dec. 1 clash against Pitt in what will be the 100th Backyard Brawl.
A conspiracy to try and keep the Mountaineers down, you might think?
Not in the least. The reason so many key conference games have been back-loaded is because the Big East has made a conscious effort to pit the most appealing games at the end of the year for television. And the league’s biggest TV draw right now is West Virginia.
That’s why West Virginia-Louisville is on Thursday night. That’s why the Backyard Brawl is on championship weekend.
The West Virginia-UConn game at Milan Puskar Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 24 could be for the league title.
Television is driving today’s schedules and when you’ve been ranked in the Top 10 in 25 of the last 28 polls, late-season conference home games are a part of the deal.
