March 17-22 Blog
March 17, 2008 02:54 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 ...
Mountaineer Pride
Posted By John Antonik: March 22, 2008 (11:45 pm)
When you’ve been as good as West Virginia has been in all of its sports one of the offshoots of that success is the amount of pride that is developed within the athletic department.
With the aid of modern technology, the women’s soccer team was able to crowd around a computer in their hotel room in Prague to watch the final minutes of West Virginia’s 73-67 victory over Duke to advance to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
West Virginia’s eight-time NCAA Tournament women’s team is spending 10 days in Europe during Spring Break training for the upcoming 2008 campaign.
As you can see, Mountaineer pride is world wide. Thanks to Tim Goodenow for sending us the photo.
Conspiracy Theories
Posted By John Antonik: March 18, 2008 (2:45 pm)
I don’t think Mike Carey buys into grassy knolls and Trilateral Commissions, but he does wonder how the NCAA Tournament selection committee came to the decision of sending his fifth-seeded Mountaineers out to New Mexico to play the 12-seeded Lobos on its home floor in the first round.
It wasn’t like they had 15 minutes to finish their brackets either. They had almost a whole week to put this together.
“That’s the way the women’s tournament is and that’s a shame that you have to play on people’s home court,” Carey said. “We did that our first time here playing Ohio State on their home court. Of course we were a lower seed so it really didn’t bother me as much.
“Now we’re a fifth seed playing on a home-team’s home court,” Carey said. “And that’s a big advantage for them.”
New Mexico has been on a roll of late, winning six in a row and capturing its fifth conference title in the last six years. The Lobos are making their seventh straight NCAA appearance and are expecting a crowd of more than 10,000 for this weekend’s games.
ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel and Melanie Jackson both have New Mexico as a possible tournament Cinderella pick.
That means West Virginia must now take on the role of the wicked stepsisters.
“We’re just going to have to go and play them on their home court,” Carey shrugged. “It’s not going to be any different than we’ve done all year playing on people’s home court.
“Either you win or you go home so we’ve got to come out and be ready to play.”
Tomlin in Town
Posted By John Antonik: March 17, 2008 (2:56 pm)
You probably know the two guys on the outside. In the middle is our football sports information director Mike Montoro, who was able to work his way into a photo of two old buddies Bill Stewart and Mike Tomlin. Stewart gave Tomlin his first coaching job at VMI in 1995.
Presently Tomlin is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Tomlin and the entire Steelers front office were in Morgantown last Thursday afternoon for West Virginia’s Pro Day.
Twenty four organizations were on campus to watch draft-eligible players from the area lift weights, do agility drills, run the forty yard dash and perform specific workouts. The Pro Day was run by West Virginia’s strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Joseph.
