Dec. 17-22 Blog
December 17, 2007 08:04 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 ...
Merry Christmas
Posted By John Antonik: December 24, 2007 (9:51 pm)
Merry Christmas Mountaineer Nation! We'll see you in Arizona on the 26th with daily reports from the bowl site.
Football Recruiting Being Maintained
Posted By John Antonik: December 19, 2007 (5:51 pm)
Interim head football coach Bill Stewart said the remaining football staff will maintain the program’s recruiting efforts until a more definitive direction is determined in the coming days.
“We’ve talked to some youngsters calling in and now we at least have some direction to go in with the interim tag,” Stewart said. “Until we know a little bit more … you want to save that call and say, hey, this is the coach and this is the direction we’re going in. All my players over in Virginia and Maryland there are some schools trying to get in with them. They are calling these coaches and kids I’ve been told.
“Most of these young men picked West Virginia University for West Virginia University and coaches have a lot to do with that,” Stewart said. “Right now we’re holding in there pretty good.”
Because some calls were made on Sunday, Stewart said the staff will be limited this week with phone contacts.
“We have to watch how many calls we can make. There were some calls made I understand – I don’t know much about that – but we were in a quiet time last Sunday and now we’re in a dead time,” he said. “You get one call and you can record it. If young men call us or their coaches call us we can answer the phone. We have met with the Director of Athletics and I can assure you we are not going to have any infractions there.”
Stewart said the remaining staff had essentially two days of idle recruiting time.
“We now who we can call we know who we can’t call,” he said. “I couldn’t tell anybody anything until 12:01 last night and I was asleep at 12:01.”
Basketball Aptitude
Posted By John Antonik: December 19, 2007 (12:11 pm)
Tuesday afternoon West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins was asked to give a reason why his team is off to an 8-1 start heading into tonight’s game against Radford.
He answered this way: “Some have picked it up faster than others. I think everyone has aptitudes. That’s why when you are a kid you take those tests so they can try and figure out what you were going to be,” Huggins said. “I’m sure they said this guy is going to be a hell of a sportswriter when you took the test.
“The reality is if you’re not great at math you’re not going to be a mathematician. It’s the same thing here. You’ve got some guys that will conceptualize a lot better what you’re talking about than other guys. Other guys it’s a lot harder for them to understand and it doesn’t have anything to do with innate intelligence,” Huggins said. “I think it has to do with aptitude.
“Alex (Ruoff) conceptualizes what you’re talking about really well,” Huggins said. “I’ve been fortunate enough when I have had teams that way. The majority of the guys on our team you could call timeout and tell them what the other team is doing and what kind of adjustments we’re going to make and they can see that in their heads.”
There were also times when Huggins said some of his past teams had great difficulty making adjustments.
“I’ve had other guys that you had to drill it, drill it and drill it and they still when something a little bit different happened they had a hard a time because of their attitude,” Huggins said.
“Sometimes you’re smartest guys aren’t your best students. They don’t have really an interest excelling academically and they have all of the ability to excel academically. Then there are other guys that work hard at it and it means a lot to them,” Huggins said.
Numbers Don't Lie
Posted By John Antonik: December 17, 2007 (8:05 pm)
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| Joe Alexander |
The numbers don’t lie: Bob Huggins is already doing wonders with Joe Alexander’s game.
Last year through nine games Alexander was averaging 12.8 points, grabbing 4.1 rebounds and jacking up more than four 3-points shots per game.
If you drew a bar graph of his production it would look like a rollercoaster – four points against Mount St. Mary’s, 18 points against Montana, one point against Western Michigan, 18 points against Savannah State and so on.
Through the same number of games this year, Alexander is averaging 16.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game. He has taken 25 fewer 3-point shots and his play has become more consistent, particularly of late.
He scored 16 points and grabbed 10 rebounds against New Mexico State. He got 22 points and eight boards against Maryland Eastern Shore.
He had 19 points and 10 rebounds in a nice home win against Winthrop and had 17 following a strong second half against Auburn.
Most recently, Alexander had 26 points and six rebounds against Duquesne and 20 points and eight boards against UMBC.
“I think we all realize how gifted Joe is. I don’t want everyone to be surprised or have a parade if Joe gets 20 and eight because he’s gifted enough to do that,” Huggins said. “Let’s be honest, I told the team if he doesn’t get 18 to 20 and get us eight to 10 rebounds we aren’t going to win the Big East.”
Huggins has a number of conference titles to his credit and he believes there is usually one common denominator with most championship teams.
“The one thing I’ve come to realize over the years is that when you win the league championship generally you have the best player in the league,” Huggins said. “If we’re going to win consistently in the league and we’re going to bring the championship trophy back to Morgantown then he’s got to get his 20 and eight.
“That’s the cold, hard reality of the situation.”
