March 20 Notebook

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
March 20, 2007

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In today’s news: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may no longer be able to hire federal attorneys, Hooters is going to Israel, and a New Jersey couple is splitting $390 million with a truck driver from Georgia.

I’m splitting hairs with this week’s Campus Connection:

Did you realize that N.C. State played West Virginia without its starting point guard Engin Atsur the last time these two teams met in Charleston on Dec. 3? I was also recently told for the first time that the Mountaineers beat UCLA without its starting point guard Darren Collison.

Wolfpack coach Sidney Lowe played a big part in N.C. State’s 67-59 victory over West Virginia at Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford, N.J., on Dec. 28, 1982.

Lowe scored nine points and handed out 10 assists for No. 17-rated State, which went on to win the national title that year under the late Jim Valvano. Teammate Dereck Whittenberg, who spent one year as an assistant coach at West Virginia and is now the head coach at Fordham, scored a team-high 19 points.

I would take Gale Catlett's black leather sport coat over Sidney Lowe's bright red jacket any day.

Wasn’t it N.C. State’s Charles Shackleford who said, “Left hand, right hand – it doesn’t matter. I’m amphibious.”

Feel free to use that the next time you run into a Wolfpack fan making fun of your West Virginia University education.


	Adam Bednarik

This fall it will be nearly two years since West Virginia quarterback Adam Bednarik last saw game action. The senior admits it has been a long two years.

“I’ve been anxious to get back out there,” he said after last Saturday’s scrimmage. “Obviously I’m in the green (injured jersey) and when I’m fully back I’ll have my yellow jersey (no-contact). There is nothing like being in an actual game being under the fire.”

Bednarik has never been one to shy away from the action.

“That’s how I grew up,” he shrugged. “It’s a tough mentality; blue-collar hard-working type. When I get out there people always say, ‘Why don’t you slide?’ It’s hard to. When you’re out there reacting and that’s how I react.”


	Patrick White

Informed sources have told me that Patrick White has now assumed the title ‘Fastest Mountaineer Football Player.’ White finally beat Steve Slaton in a race earlier this spring.

“I got lucky,” White chuckled. “He must have caught a blade of grass or something in the beginning. I got my rematch.”

White says 100 meters is probably the distance that most suits him.

“I don’t know if I can do the 200. Getting around that turn a bear might jump on my back,” he joked.

On April 15, the women’s soccer team will be hosting a 4-on-4 soccer tournament at the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility in an effort to kick breast cancer. It is $75 for each 3-member team to register with the fourth player coming from the WVU women’s soccer team. Anyone grades three and up is eligible to sign up.

For more information, contact WVU assistant coach Nikki Goodenow at (304) 293-2300 x 5547.


	Charley Hockenberry

Charley Hockenberry, a 2005 member of the WVU Sports Hall of Fame, died last Thursday, March 15, at Monongalia General Hospital. Hockenberry was a baseball (1939-41), football (1938-39) and basketball (1939) letterman at WVU who went on to play professional baseball in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, advancing all the way to Triple-A.

“Charley in my opinion was the best catcher in WVU history,” said longtime sports writer Mickey Furfari.

Hockenberry returned to West Virginia to coach the baseball team in 1947 before going to West Virginia Tech to coach there for five years. Hockenberry came back to WVU in 1952 and served various roles in the athletic department until retiring in 1978.

“He wore a lot of different hats and put in a lot of good service for the University,” Furfari said.

Hockenberry was 88.


	Meg Bulger

If only the WVU women could have had Meg Bulger out on the wing shooting 3s last night against LSU. Bulger’s outside shooting would have been the perfect ingredient to get West Virginia to the NCAA tournament “Sweet 16” or perhaps even farther.

West Virginia coach Mike Carey will have his strongest WVU team next season with seniors Bulger, Olayinka Sanni, Chakhia Cole and LaQuita Owens. It could be the first time in school history the West Virginia women are nationally ranked in the preseason.

West Virginia’s lone November basketball signee John Flowers was recently named to the Capital All-Star Team for the 2007 Capital Classic to be played at the Comcast Center, April 5.

Flowers, a 6-7 forward, averaged 17.5 points per game at St. Mary's Ryken High School, scoring a season-high 28 points on Feb. 9 against Good Counsel High School. Flowers reached 20 points in three of his final five high school games.


	Major Harris

ESPN’s Bruce Feldman lists former West Virginia quarterback Major Harris among the 10 players he believes is deserving of enshrinement into the College Football Hall of Fame. Harris, who led WVU to the national championship game against Notre Dame in 1989, was an innovative player who was years ahead of his time.

Wrote Feldman in his March 14 ESPN blog: “Almost single-handedly led the Mountaineers into the Top 10. Maybe in two years Patrick White will leave Morgantown as the greatest QB in school history, but this is the guy he has to surpass. And it won’t be easy. Harris set a WVU record with 7,334 total yards and became one of just two quarterbacks in Division I history to pass for more than 5,000 yards and rush for more than 2,000 yards.

Speaking of Feldman, the ESPN expert also ranked West Virginia’s Patrick White, Steve Slaton and Darius Reynaud the nation’s top trio for 2007.

Wrote Feldman: “I was tempted to rank Michigan No. 1 because Mario Manningham has a decent size edge over Darius Reynaud, but Patrick White is such a dazzling talent running Rich Rodriguez’s offense, that I opted for the Mountaineers. I’d also take Steve Slaton over Mike Hart.

“Also, don’t undersell Reynaud who is as lethal in space as any WR in the country.”

So much for the mid-majors. Only four of the 16 teams remaining in this year’s NCAA tournament hail from non-BCS conferences: Memphis, Southern Illinois, UNLV and Butler. The field is even sparser in the NIT where only Air Force is left among the big boys.

It is what it is, or so I have been told.

After watching the ACC get paired down to just one team left in this year’s NCAA tournament, a slight edge has to go to the SEC over the Pac 10 as the strongest basketball conference. Both the SEC and Pac 10 have three teams remaining in the field of 16, with the Big East and Big 12 having two remaining.

Maybe all those wins over Duke weren’t so golden for the other six ACC teams that made it into this year’s tournament.

Jim Boeheim would probably agree with that.

If you subscribe to the argument that teams either improve or regress during the season, how can victories in November and December accurately be quantified in those RPI computers? We all would agree that the Georgetown team we’re looking at right now is vastly different than the one Old Dominion defeated 75-62 on Nov. 19.

But it was that victory over Georgetown that helped get the ODU Monarchs into the NCAA tournament. Interestingly enough, a Georgetown victory down the stretch wasn’t good enough for Syracuse to make the Big Dance.

You would think a Princeton AD would be smart enough to figure that one out.

Here is a quick scorecard on how Ed Pastilong’s WVU athletic department has performed so far this year:

Men’s Soccer: NCAA tournament appearance

Women’s Soccer: NCAA tournament appearance

Football: Gator Bowl championship and Top 10 finish

Men’s Swimming: 20th-place finish at NCAA nationals

Wrestling: 28th-place finish at NCAA nationals

Women’s Track: 56th-place finish at NCAA indoor nationals

Women’s Basketball: NCAA tournament second-round

Men’s Basketball: NIT quarterfinals

Gymnastics: Ranked 24th in the nation

Yes, this is a Golden Era in WVU athletics.

Have a great week!

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