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Campus Connection: Weekend Notes
January 08, 2016 02:04 PM | General
Bob Huggins continues his march toward the top of the NCAA record book. Huggs got win No. 778 at TCU on Monday night to place him 12th on the NCAA all-time victory list.
His next triumph, hopefully Saturday afternoon against Oklahoma State, will put him in a tie with Lou Henson for 11th place with 779 victories.
Then comes Lute Olson at 780 followed by the Lefthander - Lefty Driesell - at 786. Of course, some of those victories Lefty got came at the expense of West Virginia when he coached at Davidson in the 1960s and later for Maryland in the 1970s and early 1980s.
I remember Mickey Furfari telling me a story about Lefty once pulling him aside after a Davidson-West Virginia game to complain about the way Mickey was portraying Driesell in his local sports columns, which Lefty was receiving via mail.
“What do you mean when you write that I’m controversial?” Driesell asked Mickey.
“Well, coach, some people consider you to be controversial,” Mickey answered.
“Well I’m not!”
Whenever you hear a coach say they don’t read anything that’s written about them it’s a lie – they read everything!
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Think about this: since the roster exodus in the summer of 2014, Huggins has won 38 of his last 49 basketball games for a 77.5 winning percentage, proving it was clearly more a matter of personnel than the old ball coach losing some of his mojo.
By the way, the Mountaineers have been nationally ranked in 23 out of the last 28 AP polls since the start of last season.
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Ticket sales have picked up for West Virginia’s upcoming Big 12 games on Saturday against Oklahoma State and Tuesday night against No. 1-ranked Kansas, according to WVU associate athletic director Matt Wells, but there are tickets still remaining for both games. You can order online through WVUGAME.com or by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME.
If Kansas can get past Texas Tech on Saturday, the Jayhawks will become just the sixth No. 1 team to play at the WVU Coliseum since the facility opened in 1970.
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Congratulations to women’s basketball coach Mike Carey, now a grandfather times three! Mike’s daughter, Chelsy, and son-in-law Wellington Smith celebrated the birth of their daughter Sloane Alexandria Smith earlier this week. By the way, Carey is now just two victories shy of 600 for his career.
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Speaking of Carey’s WVU women’s basketball team, the Mountaineers got a nice road win at Kansas State on Wednesday night to improve to 13-3 on the season. West Virginia has an RPI of 41 this week with games on the horizon against No. 6 Baylor (Jan. 12 and Jan. 30), No. 8 Texas (Feb. 21), No. 23 Oklahoma State (Feb. 13 and Feb. 27) and No. 32 Oklahoma (Jan. 27 and Feb. 13).
West Virginia’s three losses this year have come against No. 15 USC, No. 8 Texas and No. 54 Gonzaga.
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The final 2015 football stats show West Virginia making considerable improvement from last season in rushing yardage (+591), sacks (+9) and turnovers (+17).
The two main areas where the Mountaineers dropped were passing yardage (-852) and total yardage (-261).
Oddly enough, West Virginia’s defense surrendered the same number of first downs (257) and rushing first downs (99) as last year.
And, the Mountaineers’ 87 penalties were two more than last season’s total of 85. The last two seasons West Virginia was the eighth-most penalized team in the Big 12 after finishing fourth in penalties in 2013.
Baylor, by far, has been the most penalized football team in the conference. The Bears were flagged a league-worst 118 times in 2015, which is actually an improvement over the 127 infractions they committed in 2014 and the 120 penalties they had in 2013.
That’s 365 penalties over the last three seasons for Baylor, and that’s a lot!
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On the topic of the refs, I got an interesting email from former WVU sports information director Rene Henry the other day commenting on the foulfest West Virginia took part in Monday night at TCU.
The two teams combined to commit 60 fouls and shoot 79 free throws.
Star West Virginia player Devin Williams spent most of the game on the bench watching the action when he picked up foul No. 4 early in the second half. Williams and Elijah Macon were disqualified, while Jonathan Holton, Jaysean Paige, Nathan Adrian and Brandon Watkins finished the game with four fouls each.
Heading into Saturday’s action, West Virginia leads the Big 12 with 342 personal fouls committed. TCU is next with 305, followed by Texas (303), Kansas State (278) and Baylor (261). Iowa State has committed the least number of infractions with 198.
One more stat tidbit I picked up from our resident basketball expert Bryan Messerly - West Virginia’s opponents are averaging just 0.82 points per possession this season, which ranks second in the country to Purdue.
That’s pretty good stuff right there!
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Big 12 rushing champ Wendell Smallwood announced earlier this week he plans on entering this spring's NFL draft.
Congratulations to junior Wendell Smallwood for finishing as the Big 12 rushing champion with 1,519 yards following the conclusion of the bowl season. Smallwood entered West Virginia’s bowl game against Arizona State trailing Texas Tech’s DeAndre Washington by eight yards after regular season action.
Smallwood announced earlier this week his intention to enter the NFL draft a year early, joining Mountaineer teammate Daryl Worley.
Thinking back to some of the West Virginia players that have left early through the years, it’s really been a risky proposition for a lot of these guys. Among those I would put in the successful category - based on the years they played in the league - are cornerback Pacman Jones, running back Amos Zereoue and offensive tackle Solomon Page.
The late Chris Henry likely would have had a long professional career; the same goes for Steve Slaton if not for injuries that derailed his promising pro start with the Houston Texans.
And, the verdict is still out on wide receiver Stedman Bailey – hopefully Stedman can make a full and complete recovery and get his career back on track after being shot twice in Miami Gardens, Florida, on November 25.
Bailey’s three-year NFL totals show just 59 catches for 843 yards and two touchdowns.
The guys that probably should have stayed in school another year include safety Robert Sands, fullback Rodney Woodard (undrafted), quarterback Major Harris and running backs Kerry Marbury and Eddie Williams, who left with eligibility remaining in the early 1970s to play in the Canadian Football League.
With Worley and Smallwood announcing their early departures, this marks the third time West Virginia has had at least two players leave school early for the pro draft. The others were Jones and Henry in 2005 and Page and Zereoue in 1999.
At any rate, best of luck to Wendell and Daryl as they pursue their childhood dreams!
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And finally, pictures are beginning to circulate on the Internet of the work being done on the installation of the new Milan Puskar Center turf. Meanwhile, work also continues on the new Hot Rod Hundley statue going up outside the WVU Coliseum.
Construction projects during this time of year are always tricky considering the cold temperatures in January and February. Hopefully it remains warm enough for work crews to stay on schedule.
Hope you have a great weekend!
Alumni Series | Violet Hewett
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Wednesday, April 29
SWIM: What it Means to Become a Mountaineer
Wednesday, April 29
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Sunday, April 19
