April 7-12 Blog
April 07, 2008 11:56 AM | 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 ...
NFL Draft Stock
Posted By John Antonik: April 11, 2008 (10:36 am)
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| Steve Slaton |
The NFL Draft is coming up in two weeks on April 26-27 in New York City and West Virginia could have its most players taken since 1999.
According to USA Today’s listing of the Top 500 draft prospects as rated by NFL Draft Scout.com, West Virginia has eight players listed in its rankings including five ranked in the Top 175.
Running back Steve Slaton is the highest rated Mountaineer at 104th overall and 11th at his position. Defensive end Johnny Dingle is rated 123rd overall and 12th at his position. Wide receiver Darius Reynaud is rated 132nd overall and 18th at his position, while Owen Schmitt is the No. 1-rated fullback with a 141 overall rating.
Keilen Dykes is rated 175th overall and 15th among defensive tackles in the draft.
If those rankings hold true that places those five Mountaineer players somewhere between the fourth and sixth rounds in this year’s draft. A total of 255 players were taken in seven rounds last year.
Ryan Mundy (14th-rated free safety and 265th overall), Marc Magro (21st-rated inside linebacker and 422nd overall) and Eric Wicks (18th-rated strong safety and 436th overall) were also listed in the rankings.
Despite having impressive success on the field the last three years, West Virginia has not been able to capitalize on that success in the draft. Since 2001, the Mountaineers have only placed seven players in the draft and just one (Dee McCann, 6th round, Detroit) since 2005.
West Virginia had six players taken in the 1999 draft and 11 selected during a three-year span from 1998-2000.
West Virginia’s NFL Draft Picks Since 2001
2006, Dee McCann, CB, #179, 6th, Detroit
2005, Pacman Jones, CB, #6, 1st, Tennessee
2005, Chris Henry, WR, #83, 3rd, Cincinnati
2005, Rasheed Marshall, WR, #174, 5th, San Francisco
2004, Quincy Wilson, RB, #219, 7th, Cincinnati
2003, Lance Nimmo, T, #130, 4th, Tampa Bay
2003, James Davis, LB, #144, 5th, Detroit
The Rest of the Story
Posted By John Antonik: April 10, 2008 (12:01 pm)
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| Jack Fleming |
The late Voice of the Mountaineers Jack Fleming never really cared much for recruiting. Yet during his broadcasting prime in the 1970s and 1980s West Virginia coaches would sometimes ask Jack to lend a hand with a blue-chip player, perhaps having him say a few words or jot down a little personal note about the benefits of receiving a WVU education.
Having the guy who called the Immaculate Reception giving a brief speech or writing a sentence or two to high school football players – especially in Pittsburgh - was the Holy Grail as far as West Virginia coaches were concerned.
Jack helped when he could but he never really warmed to the idea of going into homes and making a personal pitch for his alma mater. He figured the coaches were better equipped than he to do that.
The Voice did make one exception.
Rick Trickett was making some progress with an outstanding offensive line prospect from Penn Hills High School - he needed a little something extra to seal the deal and Trickett figured Fleming was just the guy who could do it.
So he called up Jack and asked him if he would like to take a ride across the city to help with an important home visit. Running out of excuses and succumbing to Trickett’s persistence, Fleming finally agreed.
He could never have imagined what he got himself into. When Trickett arrived at Jack’s home in Mount Lebanon to pick him up in an old, beat-up University car the snow was just beginning to fall. It continued to come down and was starting to pile up on the slick city streets by the time they began their journey across town. Undeterred, Trickett plowed through the ice like Mario Andretti causing Jack to fish for a seldom-used pack of cigarettes he had stored in his jacket pocket.
By the time they arrived Fleming had gone through the entire pack and was looking for more to calm his frayed nerves. If this guy Trickett coaches like he drives then WVU is in big trouble, Fleming thought to himself. Fleming had been on bombing runs in Germany during World War II and he actually bailed out of a plane over France, and nothing he had encountered in his life up to that point came close to matching the fear he felt sitting in the passenger seat with Rick Trickett driving.
The visit went fine: Fleming was able to sell the virtues of getting a WVU education and playing football for an honorable man in Frank Cignetti and the kid wound up signing with West Virginia University. Fleming was 1 for 1 on the recruiting trail, vowing to keep his unblemished record intact by never again going out on the road to hunt down high school prospects.
So who do you ask was the player’s name? It was none other than Dave Johnson, offensive line coach at West Virginia University.
And now you know the rest of the story.
What They Are Writing
Posted By John Antonik: April 8, 2008 (9:36 am)
Poll Position
Posted By John Antonik: April 7, 2008 (2:18 pm)
For the third time in four years West Virginia has finished the season ranked in the final ESPN/USA Today Men’s Basketball Coaches’ Poll, announced today following Kansas’ overtime victory over Memphis in the national championship game.
The Mountaineers (26-11) finished ranked 17th after beating Arizona and Duke to reach the NCAA Tournament “Sweet 16” under first-year coach Bob Huggins. West Virginia finished 15th in the Coaches’ Poll in 2006 and 12th in 2005.
The only other time West Virginia managed to crack the post-NCAA Tournament poll was in 1998 when it finished 18th. Post-tournament polls were first conducted in 1994.
The Associated Press does not have a poll following the NCAA Tournament.
West Virginia’s ESPN/USA Today Post-Tournament Poll Finishes
West Virginia’s Final AP Poll Finishes
Mature Approach
Posted By John Antonik: April 8, 2008 (1:47 pm)
He can’t predict how far his team will go, but WVU baseball coach Greg Van Zant certainly likes their daily approach. He got a sense that this year’s team is mature beyond its years following a four-game split with Akron to open the season.
“The first weekend down at Winston-Salem we were feeling our way through it,” Van Zant said. “We just kind of came out and went through the motions. Then we came back on Saturday and really played with a sense of urgency and won two tough games. Then I didn’t think we showed up to play on that Sunday and we talked about that.
“Since then, we’ve shown up to play every game,” Van Zant explained. “Even the Duquesne game when we came home after the Myrtle Beach trip and we were 5-3 and it was about 27 degrees – it was ice cold and our guys really wanted to be out there and showed up to play.”
West Virginia has a very young team that could return eight of nine hitters from this year’s lineup.
“We are very young,” Van Zant pointed out. “(Jedd) Gyorko gets a lot of attention because he’s from Morgantown but what Tobias Streich and Dan DiBartlomeo have done is unbelievable. We have three freshmen contributing to our team.
“With Streich behind the plate teams don’t try and run on us. Di-Bart is a third baseman who has played leftfield for us very well,” Van Zant said. “He had a big double to help us win the game at Rutgers. Then he steps up and gets a big base hit up the middle in game two against South Florida. He’s had big base hits all year.”
Gyorko presently leads the team with a .438 batting average with 17 extra base hits and 39 RBI. DiBartolomeo is batting .322 with seven doubles and 15 RBI while Streich shows a .310 average with 11 doubles, three home runs and 27 RBI.
Jones Named to Parade Team
Posted By John Antonik: April 7, 2008 (11:45 am)
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| Kevin Jones |
West Virginia men’s basketball recruit Kevin Jones was named to the Parade All-America boy’s basketball team announced today. Jones, a 6-foot-7-inch, 210-pound forward from Mount Vernon, N.Y., averaged 22.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game and had 22 double-doubles as a senior in 2008.
Jones, who signed with West Virginia during last November’s early signing period, was named to the fourth team.
He is believed to be just the fifth Parade All-American boy’s player to sign with West Virginia University since 1985, joining forwards Darryl Prue and Chris Brooks, and guards Greg Simpson and Jonathan Hargett.
Others who made the Parade All-America team first picked in 1957 include Rod Thorn, Bill Maphis, Ron Williams, Dave Reeser, and Lowes Moore.
Reeser and Williams made the team during the same year in 1964. Moore, picked to the Parade All-America fourth team in 1976, hails from the same hometown as Jones.
