Campus Connection
December 03, 2010 01:58 PM | General
The announcement earlier this week that TCU will become the Big East’s 17th member obviously bolsters a football league that has only one team in the Top 25 this week (West Virginia).
The Horned Frogs are presently No. 3 in the BCS ratings and finished the regular season with a 12-0 record. TCU still has a chance of qualifying for the national championship game should Auburn stumble against South Carolina in the SEC championship game on Saturday.
TCU was 12-1 last season and has won 38 of its last 41 games. Sixteen of TCU’s last 19 victories have been by 27 points or more and twice this year the Horned Frogs have scored 60 or more points in a game.
“TCU is a great addition to the BIG EAST and makes the conference much stronger,” said WVU Director of Athletics Oliver Luck earlier this week. “TCU has a very good athletic program and is an excellent academic institution with a focus on top-notch facilities. Much like the great football traditions at West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse, TCU has a long legacy in the sport and a history of excellence.”
TCU’s football value to the Big East is apparent, but what does the school offer the rest of the conference?
Well, Big East baseball will also realize an immediate upgrade with the addition of the Horned Frogs. Last year, TCU posted a 54-14 record and advanced to the College World Series under eighth-year coach Jim Schlossnagle, winning three games to finish fourth in Omaha.
Women’s basketball recorded a 22-9 record last year under 12th-year coach Jeff Mittie and is now 4-3 this year after last night’s 69-57 win over Houston. The Horned Frogs were briefly in the national rankings before losing to West Virginia down in the Virgin Islands during Thanksgiving.
Men’s basketball begins its third season under former Kent State coach Jim Christian. Last year, the Horned Frogs produced a 13-18 record before losing to BYU in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament. This year, Christian has TCU off to a 6-2 start after most recently defeating Prairie View A&M 78-61 on Wednesday night.
“I have great respect for coach Jim Christian and what he has done in his coaching career,” said West Virginia's Bob Huggins.
The TCU volleyball team posted a 27-7 record in 2009, advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Texas. This year, the Horned Frogs finished the season with a 15-16 record.
Women’s tennis advanced to NCAA tournament play for the seventh consecutive season in 2010, falling to South Carolina 4-2 in an opening round match. The Horned Frogs spent a good portion of the season ranked in the Top 60, despite having a 10-17 record against one of the toughest schedules in the country.
TCU’s women’s track program scored four points at last year’s outdoor nationals to place 46th; during the indoor season the women placed 28th with eight points. TCU had four different competitors ranked among the nation’s top 30 in their respective events last season and finished second at the Mountain West indoor and outdoor championships.
In men’s swimming, the Horned Frogs sent sophomore Edgar Crespo to the national championships in the 100 breast stroke, becoming the second TCU swimmer since 1997 to qualify for nationals. The men’s team placed fifth and the women were seventh at last year’s Mountain West swimming and diving championships.
TCU’s women’s soccer team finished 2010 with a 7-12-2 record after winning nine of 19 matches last year. As recently as 2008, the Horned Frogs were in the national rankings and won 14 matches under sixth-year coach Dan Abdalla.
Friday’s Notes …
- Before you count a win over Rutgers on Saturday consider this: Three out of the last four times these two teams have played the outcome has been decided by a touchdown or less.
Last year, West Virginia needed a late fourth down conversion to preserve a 24-21 victory. Two years ago in Morgantown, the defense had to make a stop on its side of the 50 to maintain a 24-17 lead, and of course four years ago, WVU needed three overtimes to knock off the Scarlet Knights to advance to the Gator Bowl.
The series may be lopsided in West Virginia’s favor, but recent games with the Scarlet Knights have not been.
Here is something else very interesting: Do you know how many former Rutgers players are currently in the NFL? The answer is 22. For comparison purposes, West Virginia has just eight active players on NFL rosters.
- Among the bowl game possibilities for West Virginia, should the Mountaineers and Connecticut both win on Saturday, is a rematch against Maryland in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Right now the Champs has the second pick among Big East teams and the No. 3 pick from the ACC. Also in the mix for the Champs Bowl is Notre Dame and NC State.
If West Virginia doesn’t get the BCS bid and the Champs Bowl picks Notre Dame, look for the Meineke Car Care Bowl to scoop up West Virginia in a heartbeat. The Mountaineers helped get the game off to a good start with a sellout against Virginia in the inaugural game in 2002, and later played before more than 73,000 in their game against North Carolina in 2008.
The Mountaineers have played before more than 67,000 fans in eight straight bowl games.
- Saturday is going to be another extremely busy day for the Mountaineer Sports Network. Football coverage begins at 11 a.m. with the Mountaineers Today leading into the Rutgers game. The football broadcast will sign off at approximately 3:50 p.m. and MSN's coverage will resume with the men’s basketball game against Miami that tips at 4 p.m.
West Virginia’s women’s basketball game against High Point at 6 p.m. will be an Internet-only telecast, and can be accessed on MSNsportsNET.com.
Tony Caridi will be in Morgantown to handle the football play-by-play, Kyle Wiggs will be traveling with the men’s basketball team to cover the Miami game, and after completing his public address duties at football, Travis Jones will drive across town to do the play-by-play for the women’s basketball game.
- Phil Steele College Football Preview, which touts itself as one of the nation’s most informative preseason football magazines, came out with its 2010 postseason all-Big East football teams. The magazine picked three different teams and interestingly enough, all five of West Virginia’s offensive linemen made one of the three units.
Joe Madsen and Don Barclay were listed on the first team; Josh Jenkins made the second team while Eric Jobe and Jeff Braun were third teamers. Considering the criticism that group has received this year that’s pretty remarkable.
By the way, all 11 defensive starters were listed on Phil Steele’s all-Big East teams with Chris Neild, J.T. Thomas and Keith Tandy earning first team honors.
Brandon Hogan was among those picked on the second unit. Unfortunately, I am afraid Hogan is going to get overlooked this year because of the fabulous numbers his counterpart Keith Tandy has put up. There are a lot of people over in the Milan Puskar Center that will tell you Hogan is the best cornerback in the Big East.
Speaking of top players, I am hearing that certain NFL scouts are absolutely in love with Chris Neild, particularly those teams that employ 3-4 defenses. Among the teams that play a 3-4 in the pros are the Steelers, Patriots, Jets, Packers, Chiefs, Broncos, Cowboys, Chargers and the Browns.
- Noel Devine still needs 147 yards in his final two games to reach 1,000 yards rushing for a third season. Only three players in WVU history have done that: Amos Zereoue (1996-98), Avon Cobourne (1999-02) and Steve Slaton (2005-07).
Cobourne is the only player in school history with four 1,000-yard seasons.
Zereoue and Slaton would have likely had four 1,000-yard seasons as well, but they chose to leave school early to pursue professional careers.
In the case of Zereoue, Slaton and Devine, all three players showed declining numbers in their final year at WVU. After running for 1,589 yards as a sophomore in 1997, Zereoue produced 1,462 yards as a junior. Slaton went from 1,704 yards as a sophomore to 1,051 yards during his junior campaign and after running for 1,465 yards last year as a junior, Devine presently shows 853 yards during his senior season.
- Be sure to check out the Mountaineer Athletic Club's new-look website, unveiled yesterday. The WVU Varsity Club website also has a new design.
- Casey Mitchell’s four consecutive 25-point-plus performances is the first time a West Virginia player has done that since Lowes Moore did it in 1979. Mitchell is just a natural scorer who is fully capable of putting 50 on somebody if he gets on a roll.
The most impressive scoring performance I have ever witnessed in person came in the Atlantic 10 tournament semifinals played at the Coliseum in 1988 when Rhode Island’s Tom Garrick put up 50 on Rutgers.
Garrick, by the way, is presently the women’s basketball coach at his alma mater.
- Former Mountaineer forward Devin Ebanks has appeared in eight games for the Los Angeles Lakers so far this season and is averaging 3 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. Ebanks scored a season-high 7 points against Golden State in a Lakers win back on Nov. 21.
- Joe Alexander is playing well in the NBA D-League, scoring 24, 16 and 21 points in his first three games playing with the Texas Legends. Texas is affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks.
One-time Mountaineer player B.J. Byerson, who finished his career at Virginia Union, is also playing in the D-League with Sioux Falls.
- No one understands the RPI better than Bob Huggins. He has stated on many occasions that the key to having a good RPI is avoiding games against teams rated below 150. He says some of that entails good scheduling and some of it is blind luck. A coach can project which teams are going to be good but sometimes it doesn’t always pan out.
According to CollegeRPI.com’s last update earlier this week, the Mountaineers are currently No. 5 behind Connecticut, Tennessee, Pitt and UNLV.
West Virginia’s strength of schedule is presently rated fifth. DePaul, Duquesne and Marshall are the three lowest rated teams on West Virginia’s schedule, but all three should get a boost in the ratings when they get deeper into their schedules.
Huggins said before Tuesday’s practice that many schools are beginning to schedule Division II programs instead of playing lower-rated Division I schools because they don’t get penalized in the RPI for playing them.
- WVU soccer star Megan Mischler is going to run unattached in the 60 and 200-meter dashes during Saturday’s Holiday Invitational track meet in the Shell Building. In high school, she was a three-time state qualifier in the 300-meter hurdles and medaled in the 2003 USATF Junior Olympics in the high jump and pentathlon.
Mischler has used up her eligibility in soccer and would have one year remaining in track if she chooses to come out for the team.
Speaking of women’s track, coach Sean Cleary is expecting to field one of the strongest teams in school history this year. Strategic redshirting has enabled Cleary to assemble a veteran roster with several potential NCAA qualifiers, including returning indoor All-American Chelsea Carrier.
- WVU Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Parsons is a member of the NCAA women’s soccer selection committee and is presently in Cary, N.C. observing the 2010 Women’s College Cup being played at WakeMed Soccer Park.
- Volleyball coach Jill Kramer, known for her involvement in nationally ranked recruiting classes as an assistant coach at Virginia and Alabama, announced her first recruit at West Virginia, inking Evyn McCoy from Clare, Ill.
- The Robert Morris men’s basketball game on Tuesday, Dec. 7, will be West Virginia University’s annual toy drive. Any fan who brings a new, unwrapped toy will receive a coupon good for free admission to an upcoming women's basketball game.
- The 10th-ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team won its 23rd consecutive home game on Thursday night against Elon. The Mountaineers have another home game on Saturday (moved to 6 p.m.) against High Point before opening Big East play at Villanova next Wednesday night.
Villanova improved its record to 5-3 with a 30-29 victory over Fairfield last night. That’s correct - 30-29. The score at halftime was 16-9. And not surprisingly, only 253 showed up for the game.
Stay warm and have a great weekend!
Julie Brown contributed to this story.
The Horned Frogs are presently No. 3 in the BCS ratings and finished the regular season with a 12-0 record. TCU still has a chance of qualifying for the national championship game should Auburn stumble against South Carolina in the SEC championship game on Saturday.
TCU was 12-1 last season and has won 38 of its last 41 games. Sixteen of TCU’s last 19 victories have been by 27 points or more and twice this year the Horned Frogs have scored 60 or more points in a game.
“TCU is a great addition to the BIG EAST and makes the conference much stronger,” said WVU Director of Athletics Oliver Luck earlier this week. “TCU has a very good athletic program and is an excellent academic institution with a focus on top-notch facilities. Much like the great football traditions at West Virginia, Pitt and Syracuse, TCU has a long legacy in the sport and a history of excellence.”
TCU’s football value to the Big East is apparent, but what does the school offer the rest of the conference?
Well, Big East baseball will also realize an immediate upgrade with the addition of the Horned Frogs. Last year, TCU posted a 54-14 record and advanced to the College World Series under eighth-year coach Jim Schlossnagle, winning three games to finish fourth in Omaha.
Women’s basketball recorded a 22-9 record last year under 12th-year coach Jeff Mittie and is now 4-3 this year after last night’s 69-57 win over Houston. The Horned Frogs were briefly in the national rankings before losing to West Virginia down in the Virgin Islands during Thanksgiving.
Men’s basketball begins its third season under former Kent State coach Jim Christian. Last year, the Horned Frogs produced a 13-18 record before losing to BYU in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West tournament. This year, Christian has TCU off to a 6-2 start after most recently defeating Prairie View A&M 78-61 on Wednesday night.
“I have great respect for coach Jim Christian and what he has done in his coaching career,” said West Virginia's Bob Huggins.
The TCU volleyball team posted a 27-7 record in 2009, advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Texas. This year, the Horned Frogs finished the season with a 15-16 record.
Women’s tennis advanced to NCAA tournament play for the seventh consecutive season in 2010, falling to South Carolina 4-2 in an opening round match. The Horned Frogs spent a good portion of the season ranked in the Top 60, despite having a 10-17 record against one of the toughest schedules in the country.
TCU’s women’s track program scored four points at last year’s outdoor nationals to place 46th; during the indoor season the women placed 28th with eight points. TCU had four different competitors ranked among the nation’s top 30 in their respective events last season and finished second at the Mountain West indoor and outdoor championships.
In men’s swimming, the Horned Frogs sent sophomore Edgar Crespo to the national championships in the 100 breast stroke, becoming the second TCU swimmer since 1997 to qualify for nationals. The men’s team placed fifth and the women were seventh at last year’s Mountain West swimming and diving championships.
TCU’s women’s soccer team finished 2010 with a 7-12-2 record after winning nine of 19 matches last year. As recently as 2008, the Horned Frogs were in the national rankings and won 14 matches under sixth-year coach Dan Abdalla.
Friday’s Notes …
- Before you count a win over Rutgers on Saturday consider this: Three out of the last four times these two teams have played the outcome has been decided by a touchdown or less.
Last year, West Virginia needed a late fourth down conversion to preserve a 24-21 victory. Two years ago in Morgantown, the defense had to make a stop on its side of the 50 to maintain a 24-17 lead, and of course four years ago, WVU needed three overtimes to knock off the Scarlet Knights to advance to the Gator Bowl.
The series may be lopsided in West Virginia’s favor, but recent games with the Scarlet Knights have not been.
Here is something else very interesting: Do you know how many former Rutgers players are currently in the NFL? The answer is 22. For comparison purposes, West Virginia has just eight active players on NFL rosters.
- Among the bowl game possibilities for West Virginia, should the Mountaineers and Connecticut both win on Saturday, is a rematch against Maryland in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Right now the Champs has the second pick among Big East teams and the No. 3 pick from the ACC. Also in the mix for the Champs Bowl is Notre Dame and NC State.
If West Virginia doesn’t get the BCS bid and the Champs Bowl picks Notre Dame, look for the Meineke Car Care Bowl to scoop up West Virginia in a heartbeat. The Mountaineers helped get the game off to a good start with a sellout against Virginia in the inaugural game in 2002, and later played before more than 73,000 in their game against North Carolina in 2008.
The Mountaineers have played before more than 67,000 fans in eight straight bowl games.
- Saturday is going to be another extremely busy day for the Mountaineer Sports Network. Football coverage begins at 11 a.m. with the Mountaineers Today leading into the Rutgers game. The football broadcast will sign off at approximately 3:50 p.m. and MSN's coverage will resume with the men’s basketball game against Miami that tips at 4 p.m.
West Virginia’s women’s basketball game against High Point at 6 p.m. will be an Internet-only telecast, and can be accessed on MSNsportsNET.com.
Tony Caridi will be in Morgantown to handle the football play-by-play, Kyle Wiggs will be traveling with the men’s basketball team to cover the Miami game, and after completing his public address duties at football, Travis Jones will drive across town to do the play-by-play for the women’s basketball game.
- Phil Steele College Football Preview, which touts itself as one of the nation’s most informative preseason football magazines, came out with its 2010 postseason all-Big East football teams. The magazine picked three different teams and interestingly enough, all five of West Virginia’s offensive linemen made one of the three units.
Joe Madsen and Don Barclay were listed on the first team; Josh Jenkins made the second team while Eric Jobe and Jeff Braun were third teamers. Considering the criticism that group has received this year that’s pretty remarkable.
By the way, all 11 defensive starters were listed on Phil Steele’s all-Big East teams with Chris Neild, J.T. Thomas and Keith Tandy earning first team honors.
Brandon Hogan was among those picked on the second unit. Unfortunately, I am afraid Hogan is going to get overlooked this year because of the fabulous numbers his counterpart Keith Tandy has put up. There are a lot of people over in the Milan Puskar Center that will tell you Hogan is the best cornerback in the Big East.
Speaking of top players, I am hearing that certain NFL scouts are absolutely in love with Chris Neild, particularly those teams that employ 3-4 defenses. Among the teams that play a 3-4 in the pros are the Steelers, Patriots, Jets, Packers, Chiefs, Broncos, Cowboys, Chargers and the Browns.
- Noel Devine still needs 147 yards in his final two games to reach 1,000 yards rushing for a third season. Only three players in WVU history have done that: Amos Zereoue (1996-98), Avon Cobourne (1999-02) and Steve Slaton (2005-07).
Cobourne is the only player in school history with four 1,000-yard seasons.
Zereoue and Slaton would have likely had four 1,000-yard seasons as well, but they chose to leave school early to pursue professional careers.
In the case of Zereoue, Slaton and Devine, all three players showed declining numbers in their final year at WVU. After running for 1,589 yards as a sophomore in 1997, Zereoue produced 1,462 yards as a junior. Slaton went from 1,704 yards as a sophomore to 1,051 yards during his junior campaign and after running for 1,465 yards last year as a junior, Devine presently shows 853 yards during his senior season.
- Be sure to check out the Mountaineer Athletic Club's new-look website, unveiled yesterday. The WVU Varsity Club website also has a new design.
- Casey Mitchell’s four consecutive 25-point-plus performances is the first time a West Virginia player has done that since Lowes Moore did it in 1979. Mitchell is just a natural scorer who is fully capable of putting 50 on somebody if he gets on a roll.
The most impressive scoring performance I have ever witnessed in person came in the Atlantic 10 tournament semifinals played at the Coliseum in 1988 when Rhode Island’s Tom Garrick put up 50 on Rutgers.
Garrick, by the way, is presently the women’s basketball coach at his alma mater.
- Former Mountaineer forward Devin Ebanks has appeared in eight games for the Los Angeles Lakers so far this season and is averaging 3 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. Ebanks scored a season-high 7 points against Golden State in a Lakers win back on Nov. 21.
- Joe Alexander is playing well in the NBA D-League, scoring 24, 16 and 21 points in his first three games playing with the Texas Legends. Texas is affiliated with the Dallas Mavericks.
One-time Mountaineer player B.J. Byerson, who finished his career at Virginia Union, is also playing in the D-League with Sioux Falls.
- No one understands the RPI better than Bob Huggins. He has stated on many occasions that the key to having a good RPI is avoiding games against teams rated below 150. He says some of that entails good scheduling and some of it is blind luck. A coach can project which teams are going to be good but sometimes it doesn’t always pan out.
According to CollegeRPI.com’s last update earlier this week, the Mountaineers are currently No. 5 behind Connecticut, Tennessee, Pitt and UNLV.
West Virginia’s strength of schedule is presently rated fifth. DePaul, Duquesne and Marshall are the three lowest rated teams on West Virginia’s schedule, but all three should get a boost in the ratings when they get deeper into their schedules.
Huggins said before Tuesday’s practice that many schools are beginning to schedule Division II programs instead of playing lower-rated Division I schools because they don’t get penalized in the RPI for playing them.
- WVU soccer star Megan Mischler is going to run unattached in the 60 and 200-meter dashes during Saturday’s Holiday Invitational track meet in the Shell Building. In high school, she was a three-time state qualifier in the 300-meter hurdles and medaled in the 2003 USATF Junior Olympics in the high jump and pentathlon.
Mischler has used up her eligibility in soccer and would have one year remaining in track if she chooses to come out for the team.
Speaking of women’s track, coach Sean Cleary is expecting to field one of the strongest teams in school history this year. Strategic redshirting has enabled Cleary to assemble a veteran roster with several potential NCAA qualifiers, including returning indoor All-American Chelsea Carrier.
- WVU Deputy Director of Athletics Mike Parsons is a member of the NCAA women’s soccer selection committee and is presently in Cary, N.C. observing the 2010 Women’s College Cup being played at WakeMed Soccer Park.
- Volleyball coach Jill Kramer, known for her involvement in nationally ranked recruiting classes as an assistant coach at Virginia and Alabama, announced her first recruit at West Virginia, inking Evyn McCoy from Clare, Ill.
- The Robert Morris men’s basketball game on Tuesday, Dec. 7, will be West Virginia University’s annual toy drive. Any fan who brings a new, unwrapped toy will receive a coupon good for free admission to an upcoming women's basketball game.
- The 10th-ranked West Virginia women’s basketball team won its 23rd consecutive home game on Thursday night against Elon. The Mountaineers have another home game on Saturday (moved to 6 p.m.) against High Point before opening Big East play at Villanova next Wednesday night.
Villanova improved its record to 5-3 with a 30-29 victory over Fairfield last night. That’s correct - 30-29. The score at halftime was 16-9. And not surprisingly, only 253 showed up for the game.
Stay warm and have a great weekend!
Julie Brown contributed to this story.
John Neider | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Zac Alley | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 18
Saturday, April 18
Mountaineer Invitational Recap
Thursday, April 16
