Thursday Notebook
November 19, 2009 01:54 PM | General
(1:54 pm)
Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt played three times against West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti’s father, Frank Sr., coached the Mountaineers from 1976-79, and director of football operations Chris LaSala was a 1988 West Virginia University graduate.
Rod Rutherford is also on the Pitt staff as a defensive assistant.
West Virginia football staff members Doc Holliday, Steve Dunlap, Dave Johnson and Dave Lockwood have also played in the Backyard Brawl.
Coach Bill Stewart’s extended staff includes Donnie Young, Dale Wolfley, JaJaun Seider and George Shehl - four more veterans of the West Virginia-Pitt game.
This is just another reason why the Backyard Brawl is one of the most unique rivalries in all of college football.
More on the Backyard Brawl to come this weekend …
There is a light schedule of Big East football games this weekend. Louisville is at USF, Connecticut travels to Notre Dame and Rutgers is at Syracuse.
The UConn-Notre Dame game will get the attention of the Big East folks because the Gator Bowl could be riding on the outcome. The struggling Irish are searching for a seventh win and with Notre Dame finishing the regular season at Stanford, this weekend’s game against the Huskies could be a make or break game for Charlie Weis’ Irish.
As strange as this may sound, the Big East actually has a chance of getting two teams into the BCS. Here is how it could happen: Pitt has to win its remaining two games against West Virginia and Cincinnati to land the Big East’s automatic berth, and the Bearcats have to remain high enough in the BCS standings after a loss to Pitt to stay in contention.
The only conference right now in line to get multiple BCS bids is the SEC with Alabama and Florida heading for a showdown in the SEC championship game on Dec. 5. The winner goes to the BCS championship game and the loser will play in the Sugar Bowl.
What other conference has a shot of getting two teams in the BCS? A two-loss Penn State/Iowa team from the Big Ten, you ask? Maybe.
It is now very likely that undefeated TCU and Boise State will play in BCS bowls; one projection has the Horned Frogs going to the Orange Bowl and Boise State going to the Fiesta Bowl. The only other scenario that could upset this is Texas getting tripped up by either Kansas or Texas A&M in the regular season, or losing in the Big 12 championship game.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/bowls/predictions
Could that last BCS spot come down to Iowa-Cincinnati should the Bearcats beat Illinois next weekend and then lose to Pitt on Dec. 5? Maybe.
On the flip side, the loser of the Pitt-Cincinnati game could find themselves sliding all the way down to the Meineke Bowl against the fifth or sixth-place team from the ACC because the Gator Bowl badly wants Notre Dame if it still is available.
Unfortunately, despite having great seasons, these two programs still don't have enough fan support to spark the interest of New Year's Day bowls.
With a couple of weeks left in the regular season, I thought this might be a good time to see how the preseason football rankings stack up to the most recent BCS standings.
The AP’s preseason Top 10:
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Alabama
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia Tech
8. Mississippi
9. Oklahoma State
9. Penn State
The preseason USA Today Coaches’ Poll:
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Oklahoma
4. USC
5. Alabama
6. Ohio State
7. Virginia Tech
8. Penn State
9. LSU
10. Mississippi
Here is how the current BCS standings stack up:
1. Florida
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. TCU
5. Cincinnati
6. Boise State
7. Georgia Tech
8. LSU
9. Pitt
10. Ohio State
By my count, there are only four (Florida, Texas, Alabama and Ohio State) of the 10 still remaining in the Top 10 on the writer’s side, and five (Florida, Texas, Alabama, Ohio State and LSU) left on the coaches’ side.
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| An aerial view of the new women's soccer practice facility located across the street from Dick Dlesk Stadium.
Courtesy of Fawcett's Flying Fotos |
Construction work on the brand new $3 million women’s soccer practice facility is nearing completion. Here is a recent aerial picture taken by Fawcett’s Flying Fotos. The new practice field is located across the street from Dick Dlesk Soccer Stadium near Shoney’s.
Congratulations to former record-setting WVU running back Avon Cobourne, recently selected to the CFL all-star team. He ran for 1,214 yards and 13 touchdowns this year. Way to go Avon!
Yesterday Bob Huggins announced the signing of 7-foot-1 center David Nyarsuk. When Nyarsuk arrives next fall he will become the seventh 7-footer to wear a West Virginia uniform.
Here are the others: Mike Heitz (1970-72), Lyle Shannon (1985), Alex Chan (2001-02), Luke Bonner (2005), Rob Summers (2006-07), Jamie Smalligan (2007-08)
The Big East is the only basketball conference in the country that has yet to lose a game, the league going 30-0 through the first two weeks of the season.
The Big East will look to extend its winning streak tonight with games featuring Villanova-George Mason, Pitt-Eastern Kentucky, South Florida-Davidson, Syracuse-Cal and Notre Dame-Long Beach State.
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| Joe Alexander |
Former Mountaineer forward Joe Alexander said he would welcome a trade if he is not going to be a part of the Milwaukee Bucks’ future plans, the web site Fanhouse reported today.
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/11/18/bucks-joe-alexander-wants-to-be-traded/
The Bucks declined to pick up Alexander’s third-year option on his rookie contract, meaning he can become a free agent after this season. Alexander, drafted No. 8 by the Bucks after his junior season at WVU in 2008, is the highest drafted player to have his option year declined.
“They made it pretty clear that they don't see me having a future here,” Alexander told Fanhouse.
Alexander averaged 4.7 points in 59 games as a rookie. A hamstring injury has kept him off the floor for the first three weeks of the season and he expects to be back in another month.
Ticket sales for next Tuesday’s West Virginia-Citadel game in Charleston are ahead of last year’s pace for the Delaware State game that drew 10,434 at the Charleston Civic Center, according to WVU Sports Marketing Director Matt Wells.
Wells said approximately 8,000 tickets have already been sold for the game. Those wishing to purchase tickets can do so by logging onto WVUGAME.com or by calling the Charleston Civic Center Box Office at (304) 345-SHOW.
The ratings numbers are in from last Friday’s West Virginia-Cincinnati game that aired on ESPN2.
It was the highest rated ESPN2 telecast of the year for any conference thus far with a 2.64 rating. It was the second-highest rated ESPN2 game ever involving a Big East team with the highest being the WVU-USF game that earned a 2.72 rating on Sept. 28, 2007.
It was the fourth-highest rated ESPN2 telecast of all-time and the fourth-most viewed ESPN2 game of all-time.
Here are the top three:
If you enjoy watching Mountaineer basketball on national television then you are going to really like this season. West Virginia will have 17 regular season games airing on CBS, ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPNU this year with 10 additional games airing on Big East Television. Here are West Virginia’s regular season national TV appearances:
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| Sean Cleary |
Track and cross country coach Sean Cleary said earlier this week that a lot of cross country programs around the country have been bothered by illnesses this fall, his team included.
“I think more than anything the time of some of our illnesses is what has been a little bit frustrating,” Cleary said.
Heading into this season, West Virginia was one of the preseason favorites to win the national championship based on the fact that the Mountaineers had everyone returning from last year’s team that finished fourth at nationals. But West Virginia finished second to Villanova at the Big East championships and had to get an at-large bid to nationals this year after placing third at regionals behind Villanova and Princeton.
“We knew coming into the year that we were going to have to maximize our potential and we were probably going to have to take advantage of mistakes of other people for us to really do what we thought could happen in the right scenario,” Cleary said. “Washington really didn’t lose anyone. Oregon brought one of the more prolific high school recruits ever in this year and didn’t really have much lost to graduation.
“Really, all of the teams that we finished around last year were in the same boat as us,” he added. “We all pretty much returned our teams.”
Cleary is hopeful of having a breakout performance this Monday in the NCAA championships that will be televised live on Versus.
“We still know we’re good,” Cleary said. “Marie-Louise (Asselin) had a setback the last few weekends. We’ve had little things to work out with Keri (Bland). I’m still a firm believer that we’re going to go in and really run a great race at nationals and come home quite proud of ourselves.”
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| Liz Repella |
West Virginia junior guard Liz Repella returns to her home state tonight to face Ohio State in a preseason NIT game at Value City Arena in Columbus. The game will be extra special for her father, Gary, who played for the Buckeyes in the early 1970s.
The younger Repella, despite being one of the state’s top prep prospects out of Steubenville, was not heavily recruited by Ohio State.
The Buckeyes have one of the best centers in the country 6-foot-4 Jantel Lavender, who averages 25.7 points and 11 rebounds per game. West Virginia coach Mike Carey likens Ohio State to Rutgers in terms of athleticism, and he expects an entertaining, up and down affair tonight.
West Virginia’s outstanding freshman center Aysa Bussie is averaging 14 points and 8.5 rebounds per game and will draw the assignment of guarding Lavender. Carey will also get some help off the bench from 6-foot-5 sophomore Natalie Burton.
“This year we have 10 fouls to give instead of five last year,” Carey said of his two centers.
West Virginia has never beaten the Buckeyes, losing all nine previous meetings including a 73-67 decision the last time these two teams met in the NCAA Tournament in 2004 in Columbus.
Fans can watch the game online at BigTenNetwork.com for $2.99.
Enjoy your weekend!
