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Coach Bob Huggins has led the Mountaineers to another 20-win season and a top 25 ranking. |
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All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
I get a sense that there are a lot of West Virginia University basketball fans out there still trying to wrap their arms around this year’s team.
Yes, Bob Huggins’ Mountaineers are coming off a great home victory over Kansas, are 20-6 overall, 8-5 in the most difficult basketball conference in the country, have been nationally ranked now for 13 straight weeks with the possibility of nailing down a good seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.
But, you get the feeling that some fans are still sticking their toes in the water with this group instead of jumping right in.
Well, here’s some perspective. Do you realize that this year’s team has been nationally ranked longer than some other really good teams in school history?
For instance, Huggs’ excellent 2008 squad with Joe Alexander that reached the Sweet 16 spent just two weeks in the national rankings.
John Beilein’s 2005 club with Kevin Pittsnogle, Mike Gansey and the rest of the gang that captured everyone’s hearts by nearly reaching the Final Four was in the top 25 for only one week, and that was in January before the Mountaineers made their late-season run.
One of Gale Catlett’s best teams - the 1998 squad with Damian Owens that reached the Sweet 16 and reenergized Mountaineer basketball fans everywhere – was in the top 25 for a little more than half of the season and dropped out of the polls completely at the end of the year following an upset loss to Rutgers in the opening round of the Big East tournament.
Those teams were widely followed and admired.
But with this year’s team you get the general impression that some folks are still apprehensive about jumping on board with these guys because it seems the Mountaineers don’t score enough points.
Actually, that’s not true.
West Virginia this year is averaging more points per game (74.5 ppg.) than the 2006 squad that advanced to the Sweet 16. For the record, Beilein’s Bombers that year averaged 70.7 points per contest.
WVU this year is averaging more points than Gale Catlett’s outstanding 1982 club that won 23 straight games and reached as high as No. 6 in the national rankings that season.
It is averaging more points than the 2009 and 2011 teams that made the NCAA tournament, and it is right in line with the ‘08 team that nearly made it to the Elite Eight.
Here is something really shocking … at least it is to me: Did you realize that this year’s team is actually averaging 2.1 points per game MORE than the 2010 Final Four squad?
Clearly it’s not the scoring that has some people still toeing the water but rather West Virginia’s low shooting percentage.
The Mountaineers this year are making just 41.1 percent of their field goal attempts, which makes them the third-worst shooting WVU team in the last 58 years.
Since 1957, when shooting percentages were first kept here, there are only two teams that shot the ball worse than this one - and both had losing records: Huggs’ 2013 club that finished six games below .500 and Bucky Waters’ 1969 squad that ended the year with a 12-14 record.
By the way, shooting 40.4 percent as the Mountaineers did back in 1969 was pretty difficult to do considering defenders during that era rarely got within three feet of the guy with the ball for fear of drawing a foul. And the defensive scouting reports in those days were in the assistant coach’s head - not on an iPad for the players to watch.
The lesson we can learn from this year’s team is that poor shooting doesn’t necessarily equate to poor results, as long as the guys doing the missing are doing the other things that Huggins demands of them.
That is something Huggs has been preaching now for months.
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Just because a team scores a lot of points does not guarantee success. Five of the top-10 scoring teams in school history failed to make the NCAA tournament in 1971, 1991 and 1972, 1966 and 1961.
Here are the top-10 scoring teams in school history:
- 1960, 89.5 (NCAA)
- 1971, 88.7
- 1991, 87.3
- 1967, 87.2 (NCAA)
- 1958, 86.7 (NCAA)
- 1972, 86.8
- 1966, 86.5
- 1961, 86.1
- 1962, 85.4 (NCAA)
- 1959, 84.8 (NCAA)
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Speaking of shooting percentages, I found this stat quite interesting … Gale Catlett still has the six best shooting teams in school history:
1989, 51.4 percent
1983, 49.3 percent
1982, 49.2 percent
1991, 49.0 percent
1985, 48.7 percent
1984, 48.3 percent
It’s not really surprising, though, because Catlett always wanted his best players taking most of the shots, especially the important ones. When his players took bad shots they usually found a seat next to him on the bench.
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Incidentally, I got a nice note from Coach Catlett the other day. Evidently someone had sent him a link to the story I wrote last week on his great victory over the late Jerry Tarkanian in 1983 : http://www.wvusports.com/blogs.cfm?blog=ccBlog&story=27422.
He is enjoying the warm weather in Hawaii right now with his wife Anise, their oldest daughter Krista, her husband Ed, and their 6-year-old grandson Sam.
Catlett also mentioned in his postscript to me that the temperature in Hawaii was a very enjoyable 82 degrees – which is about 82 degrees warmer than it is in Morgantown right now!
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For those of you interested, the last time the Mountaineers had three players go in the first round of the NFL draft it took 15 years to accomplish that (1990-2005).
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The WVU Varsity Club is planning to recognize women’s basketball players who scored more than 1,000 points during their careers as part of Varsity Club Weekend for Saturday’s Iowa State game at the WVU Coliseum.
I am told 14 former 1,000-point scorers will be back on campus to be recognized along with other returning alums.
West Virginia is reaching a critical point in its season following Wednesday night’s disappointing 52-46 loss to Oklahoma State. The Mountaineers are now 15-11 with four games left until the 2015 Big 12 tournament.
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This would obviously benefit Mazey’s Mountaineer program, every team in the Big Ten, as well as the northernmost schools in the Pac-12, ACC and Big 12.
The two biggest hurdles in getting this done, as I see it, are the southern schools that have had a competitive advantage for years and years and the pro baseball draft that takes place in early June. Naturally, the pros use the June draft to stockpile their minor league rosters and they would have little interest in seeing the college season last deep into the summer.
“By the time March Madness is over and people are done being basketball fans our season is almost half over,” Mazey points out.
That makes it very difficult for the average sports fan to really get behind college baseball, naturally, and that’s one of the main reasons why legendary college baseball coaches such as Skip Bertman, Augie Garrido, Rod Dedeaux, Mike Martin, Jim Brock, Cliff Gustafson, Ron Polk and Ron Frazier are generally unknown to the common sports fan.
And as long as there is a competitive imbalance in college baseball, it will remain that way.
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Interestingly enough, West was actually a small forward in college at West Virginia and didn’t take on the true role of shooting guard until he went to the pros to play for the Lakers.
What people forget about West was that he was a phenomenal athlete with long arms who played above the rim in college. Then, late in his professional career with the Lakers, he transitioned to point guard while playing on one of the greatest teams in NBA history in 1972.
My point is this: Whoever wins the Jerry West Award has to be a pretty remarkable player.
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I am told it is the most-listened-to clip that IMG has posted to the popular audio site so far this year.
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The other day I enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and had a big glass of milk for probably the first time since I was a kid.
I once heard that Washington Redskins coach George Allen used to have his secretary make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every day before practice, which I guess means big kids like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, too!
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Our thoughts and prayers go out to Frank Giardina for a full and speedy recovery after he suffered a stroke last weekend. Frank has become a fixture each year on Capital Classic basketball telecasts and his weekend sports columns in the Charleston Gazette are very popular in the Capital City.
On a personal level, Frank is a great sportsman and an even greater person!
Get well soon my friend!
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Mountaineer player Leon Jenkins poses with Jim Gerkin's football logo design. |
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WVU Athletic Communications photo |
And finally, here is the story of how the helmet logo used by Bobby Bowden and Frank Cignetti came to be.
When Bowden took the WVU coaching job in 1970 he wanted to have a logo designed for the helmet that clearly identified Mountaineer football with the state of West Virginia.
Rather than spending a lot of money having a logo designed by an advertising agency, the first-year coach opted instead to have WVU students submit logo designs and from those he would pick the best one.
The one Bowden ultimately chose was created by New Martinsville native Jim Gerkin, a WVU art major and the head manager of the Mountaineer basketball team for Bucky Waters.
Jim’s design was an integral part of Mountaineer football throughout the 1970s until Don Nehlen changed the logo to the now famous Flying WV in 1980.
Gerkin’s old-school football logo was revived two years ago when West Virginia played Texas and then was displayed once again this past season when the Mountaineers played Kansas State.
It goes to show you that sometimes you can get good football stories just about anywhere, including at basketball reunions!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
