March 7 Notebook

By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
March 7, 2007


	Richard Nixon

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- You can’t pick up a newspaper in North Carolina without reading about Gerald Henderson’s gruesome foul of Tyler Hansbrough in the waning seconds of North Carolina’s 86-72 win over Duke.

The Charlotte Observer is conducting an online poll and 41 percent of its readers believe Henderson’s karate chop was as flagrant as you can get. Fifteen percent (Duke fans and Billy Packer) voted that the foul wasn’t intentional and was instead a “total miss.”

Packer during Sunday’s telecast said the ejection of Henderson and subsequent one-game suspension was excessive. College basketball’s preeminent expert reiterated his stance in Tuesday’s Observer saying, “The call was just not consistent with common sense refereeing.”

Whatever Packer is making from CBS it must now be considered stealing. Even Duke’s own Jay Bilas thought the suspension was warranted.

Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski coyly implied afterward that while he was sorry Hansbrough got his face flattened, maybe he shouldn’t have been in the game at that time in the first place.

Many have since pointed out that Coach K has been known to leave his starters in during blowouts and Sunday’s episode wasn’t the first time something like this has happened with Duke.

There was the 1992 NCAA tournament game when Christian Laettner stepped on the chest of Kentucky's Aminu Timberlake, and then later famously hit the winning shot.

I haven’t studied the tape as many times as Billy Packer has and to be honest, I could care less whether or not Henderson was intentionally going after Hansbrough.

All I wanted to point out about this entire episode is the fact that Richard Nixon is a Duke Law graduate. That in itself is worth mentioning anytime you begin a discussion about the Duke Blue Devils.

Briefly:

For those counting, North Carolina has won four of the last five games against Duke.

Do you recall the saying “no autopsy, no foul?” I can remember as a teenager playing basketball all afternoon at New Martinsville’s Bruce Park and having at least one person each game get their legs taken out from underneath them going in for a lay up. Of course most of the guys I played with had trouble touching the net so the falls weren’t really that bad.

One other Bruce Park basketball story to pass along. Twenty some years ago all of the games were played on the two side baskets meaning they were essentially half-court affairs. Defense was optional, making it even easier for the 50-year-olds to join in the action.

Well, I got on a hot streak one Saturday afternoon and made a couple of baskets and was feeling pretty good about my game. It was at that point that my older brother, a future Marine who also happened to run cross country, decided to pick me up man-to-man. He was playing me like Mike Barwis on amphetamines.

It was the first box-and-one in Bruce Park history, my big brother guarding me all the way to the water fountain. What was to be a wonderful afternoon of basketball and fellowship on a gorgeous summer day quickly deteriorated into the afternoon from hell.

I can still hear the rest of the guys saying, "Cross country defense!"

The lesson of this story: don’t play basketball against your older brother who runs cross country and is also a Marine. Today, I’m proud to say he is well on his way to reaching the rank of Colonel and I’m not yet a buck private.

So what does all this have to do with West Virginia University athletics? I’m not sure.


	Digger Phelps

I was watching ESPN basketball expert Digger Phelps the other night and he now believes West Virginia must win its NCAA tournament first-round game to get a bid into this year’s Big Dance.

In Tuesday’s Lexington-Herald Louisville coach Rick Pitino said the team he least wants to face in the Big East tournament quarterfinals is West Virginia because of its unorthodox 1-3-1 defense and two-guard, motion offense.

“We don’t match up with West Virginia well at all,” the coach said before leaving for New York City. “It would be a lot of fun for (Louisville’s four freshmen) to have to try and play against that, knocking into each other and falling down.”

I’m not 100 percent certain of this, but last Friday during John Beilein’s courtside talk with reporters I’m reasonably confident that I heard the coach say “bubblicious” in reference to West Virginia’s NCAA tournament prospects.

I have to admit I haven’t heard the word “bubblicious” in quite some time.

Someone the other day told me that Texas already has something like 15 verbal commitments for next year’s football class. Isn’t that kind of like being engaged to be engaged?

Former West Virginia University assistant football coach Todd Graham now holds the distinction of having both co-offensive and co-defensive coordinators at his new head coaching gig with Tulsa.

I wonder how long it takes him to order dinner?


	Jeff Neubauer

I was excited to see former Mountaineer assistant coach Jeff Neubauer get to cut down the nets at this year’s Ohio Valley Conference championship after his Eastern Kentucky team knocked off Austin Peay to get into the NCAA tournament. The 36-year-old Neubauer is certainly a rising star in the coaching profession.

I can still remember his big head coaching break in 2004 when John Beilein’s back spasms forced Neubauer to take over the team against St. John’s. West Virginia defeated the Red Storm 73-64.

It was Neubauer's first college coaching victory and it's not even in the record books.

Airline difficulties forced the West Virginia women’s team to bus back from Hartford, Conn., after Sunday’s Big East tournament quarterfinal-round loss to Louisville.

The team didn’t arrive in Morgantown until late Tuesday afternoon.

Enjoy tonight’s West Virginia-Providence game and be sure to stop back afterward for our unbiased post-game coverage.

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