May 12-17 Blog
May 12, 2008 12:50 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 ...
NFL Draft
Posted By John Antonik: May 16, 2008 (5:03 pm)
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| Jerry Porter |
Can you win in college football without a lot of great, pro-level football players? The answer, of course, is yes. West Virginia proved that during Rich Rodriguez’s seven years in Morgantown, capturing a pair of BCS bowl games and finishing ranked in the Top 10 in each of the last three years despite having only 10 players drafted since 2003.
Compare that to USC, which during the same span of time had four times that many players picked including 11 first-rounders.
In fact, some of West Virginia’s best teams were not stocked with professional quality football players. The 1988 team that went undefeated and played Notre Dame for the national championship had just one first rounder (junior Renaldo Turnbull) and a pair of second rounders in Reggie Rembert and Mike Fox.
The 1993 team that played Florida in the Sugar Bowl had nine players drafted in the top seven rounds, but six of those nine were underclassman. The second-highest player taken off that team happened to be a punter: Todd Sauerbrun (56th overall).
It wasn’t until after the Sugar Bowl in 1993 that West Virginia’s rosters became stocked with professional quality players. The 1996 and 1997 teams had 11 players that wound up being drafted in the first seven rounds by NFL teams, representing the most NFL-drafted players on a Mountaineer roster at a single time. Those two teams combined for just a 15-9 record.
The underachieving 1998 team had 10 players taken in the draft including six from its senior class.
To be fair, I only counted those players selected in the first seven rounds for the years when the draft was extended beyond the current seven-round format.
Prior to Don Nehlen in 1980, the team with the most players drafted in the first seven rounds was Art Lewis’ 1955 team that had six taken - all six in the top three rounds. Bobby Bowden’s worst team at West Virginia was also his best for pro players. Bowden’s ‘74 team that year had four players drafted including seniors Danny Buggs and Charles Miller.
Most interesting was the fact that despite experiencing great success at WVU, Rodriguez never had more than four players on his roster at the same time that were eventually drafted: 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.
West Virginia had three players taken in the most recent NFL draft, including Michigan transfer Ryan Mundy who was taken in the sixth round by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The numbers are equally intriguing when breaking down the top overall draft picks.
Rodriguez had just three players taken in the Top 100 (first three rounds) of the NFL draft and just one Top 50 player (Pacman Jones).
Nehlen coached 22 Top 100 players and 10 Top 50 players during his 21 seasons in Morgantown. Bobby Bowden had four Top 100 players in six seasons.
Jim Carlen had one Top 100 player.
Big Draw
Posted By John Antonik: May 16, 2008 (11:59 am)
One way you can judge how your favorite football team is doing is by how much other schools are charging for the price of tickets. East Carolina and Colorado, two of West Virginia’s five road games in 2008, are charging big bucks for their fans to see the Mountaineers.
To get into Folsom Field to watch the West Virginia game Buffalo fans are going to have to pay $60. That’s only $5 more than what East Carolina is charging their fans to watch the nationally ranked Mountaineers.
Within the Big East Louisville is charging $45 for the West Virginia game, Pitt is charging $40 and Connecticut $25.
The Rest of the Story
Posted By John Antonik: May 15, 2008 (10:59 am)
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| Mike D'Antoni |
Mike D’Antoni recently signed a four-year, $24 million contract to coach the New York Knicks. So what does that have to do with West Virginia University?
Well, the one-time Marshall star seriously considered a scholarship offer from the Mountaineers. D’Antoni was the No. 1 player in the state in 1969 playing for his father Lewis D’Antoni at Mullens High School.
West Virginia was in a holding pattern because of the uncertain status of its basketball coach Bucky Waters. Those in West Virginia were convinced that Waters was going to succeed Vic Bubas at Duke, but Blue Devils athletic director Eddie Cameron was dragging his feet. WVU already had a plan in place to hire Sonny Moran, going as far as having the Board of Governors sign off on the move.
The problem was Waters. He was still employed by West Virginia University but he was already beginning to work for Duke. When Waters made a visit to D’Antoni’s home he was doing so as the Duke basketball coach, according to D’Antoni’s father Lewis.
D’Antoni had whittled his college choices down to four: Marshall, West Virginia, Duke and Davidson.
With Waters working for Duke and Davidson coach Lefty Driesell close to taking the Maryland job, it essentially became a three-horse race between West Virginia, Duke and Marshall for D’Antoni.
Marshall’s situation was settled with Ellis Johnson, a good recruiter who built the Thundering Herd program into a consistent winner in the late 1960s with players like George Stone and then later D’Antoni and Russell Lee, who helped them to the NCAA Tournament in 1972 playing for Coach Carl Tacy.
Sonny Moran’s hands were tied with D’Antoni. He couldn’t do anything until Waters was officially gone and the delay proved costly. Marshall wound up getting Mike D’Antoni.
Ellis Johnson probably would have landed D’Antoni’s services anyway, but the way Waters and Duke handled the situation handicapped the Mountaineers’ chances for Mike D’Antoni, and that rankled West Virginia supporters. That is just one of the reasons Waters was held in such low esteem by diehard WVU backers back then.
And as they say, now you know the rest of the story.
1,000-Yard Rushers
Posted By John Antonik: May 14, 2008 (11:04 am)
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| Steve Slaton |
Rivals.com writer David Fox recently came up with some interesting statistics earlier this week. His research started with an examination of Oregon State’s run of 1,000-yard rushers and then expanded to all of the BCS schools since 1998. He then added 3,000-yard passers and 1,000-yard receivers.
What he discovered was interesting:
Also, Kay-Jay Harris (959 yards in 2004) and Quincy Wilson (901 yards in 2002) were within striking distance.
The next closest school in the Big East to West Virginia’s 10 10,000-yard rushers was Syracuse with four. All four 1,000-yard rushers came during the Paul Pasqualoni era.
West Virginia’s 3,000-yard passer was Marc Bulger in 1998. Bulger threw for 3,607 yards and 31 touchdowns that season in leading the Mountaineers to an 8-4 record.
Second among Big East schools is West Virginia with 12. The fewest was Syracuse, Connecticut and South Florida with four each, although Connecticut didn’t make the jump to Division I status until 2004.
Other surprising things … Miami has not had a 1,000-yard receiver during the BCS era and has had just one in its long history of producing professional-quality receivers 9eddie Brown in 1984).
Florida State has not had a 1,000-yard rusher in 12 years since Warrick Dunn did it in 1996.
North Carolina has never had a 3,000-yard passer or a 1,000-yard receiver in its history. The Tar Heels have failed to have a player reach any one of those three categories in the last 10 years.
WNBA Update
Posted By John Antonik: May 12, 2008 (12:50 pm)
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| Yelena Leuchanka |
Three former West Virginia University players remain on WNBA rosters with a week remaining in the preseason. Center Yelena Leuchanka is with the Atlanta Dream after spending parts of last season in Washington and Charlotte. Leuchanka played a total of 10 games, averaging 1.6 points per contents.
Olayinka Sanni was a second-round pick of the Detroit Shock and the word from there is that the two-time all-Big East center has an excellent shot of making the team. Detroit is coached by a couple of the Detroit Piston Bad Boys Bill Laimbeer and Rick Mahorn.
LaQuita Owens is still with the Phoenix Mercury. Owens has scored 15 points in two preseason games after being signed as a free agent.
Meg Bulger (Washington) and Chakhia Cole (Detroit) were released last month.
Jim Lewis, a 1968 graduate of WVU and a member of the 1965 freshman team that broke the color barrier at West Virginia, is an assistant coach on Lin Dunn’s staff at Indiana. The 37-year coaching veteran is also coaching girl’s basketball at T.C. Williams High School in his native Alexandria, Va.
Regular season play in the WNBA begins on Saturday, May 17.
