With two weeks remaining in the regular season, it’s clear the Mountaineers have to continue to win baseball games if they want to snap their streak of 19 consecutive years without making the NCAA Tournament.

 

West Virginia dug itself a deep hole in mid-April with a 19-18 overall record before taking the final game of the Oklahoma series on April 24. Since then, the Mountaineers have won nine out of their last 10, including a recent three-game sweep of Texas and a nice midweek win over Maryland.

 

On the horizon for West Virginia is an important three-game weekend series against William & Mary (No. 118 in the most recent Warren Nolan.com RPI rankings), a critical midweek game at No. 63 Pitt, followed by an even bigger three-game series at No. 11 Texas Tech to conclude the regular season.

 

West Virginia, now 28-19 heading into today’s doubleheader against the Tribe, has done a great job of digging itself out the hole.

 

But the No. 88-rated Mountaineers still have quite a bit of digging left to do to get themselves into the NCAA Tournament discussion.

 

***

 

Those who follow West Virginia football and football recruiting know all about St. Clairsville, Ohio, linebacker Brendan Ferns, perhaps the top-rated prospect in Dana Holgorsen’s signing class this year.

 

But what about Brendan’s big brother, Michael, a Michigan transfer now playing the hybrid tight end-fullback position for the Mountaineers as a redshirt sophomore?

 

“He’s an extremely intelligent guy and he is a joy to work with,” offensive coordinator Joe Wickline said recently. “He takes things personal, he’s early and he stays late, he wants to know exactly how to do it, he’s a student of the game and I wouldn’t trade him for anything.”

 

Wickline added, “He’s very flexible in terms of he can play on the front end, on the line, he can play on the back end in the backfield, he can move, he can go out for a route, he can block, he can carry the ball. He’s still young, still new, still getting it and he’s got a long way to go, but I like what I’ve seen so far.”

 

***

 

As I was going through some old interviews, I came across this from Wickline on the importance of intelligence in offensive line play:

 

“(Players possessing intelligence) was always a huge deal because of assignments. You had to have a controlled aggression, but fundamentally, skills and techniques had to be right because you’re playing in a posture and a position like nobody else out there. We just can’t stand up. We have to do things balanced, with leverage, up foot, back foot, eyes, and there is a lot of stuff going on.

 

“Now, you see odd fronts, you see even fronts, you see Bear, you see stack, you see 6-1 crash, you see corner blitz, so you have to adjust to all of those things in a very small amount of time,” he continued. “What makes it even more important nowadays is you’re out of the huddle. When you were in the huddle you had a little time to say, ‘You know what, me and you we’re going to work these guys if they’re in this’ because they had a little time to take a breath.

 

“Secondly, now, not only are you in no-huddle, but you’re getting plays with one second left so it’s our job (as coaches) to make sure we’re doing A, B and C so we’re all on the same page so we can get this done. But (offensive linemen) have to make a split-second decision so it makes it tougher for guys that can’t process things mentally. It is what it is.”

 

Therefore, it’s difficult to play a lineman with great physical traits if he can’t process information fast enough.

 

“If I’m really skilled, tall, strong and fast and my guy is making the tackle in the backfield because I can’t process fast enough, then I’m not going to be there very long,” he said. “We’re going to have to get a guy that can get in front of a guy because at the end of the day it’s about getting your guys in front of their guys. Blocking is a real simple proposition. Nowadays, offensive linemen have to think faster, so it goes beyond just being technically sound, fundamentally sound and making the right calls, now you’ve got to do it in an abbreviated amount of time.”

 

Interesting stuff.

 

***

 

Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson told us during spring practice that he was keeping his eyes open for any corners that might become available later this spring. Well, it looks like he found one in Iowa senior transfer Maurice Fleming, a 6-foot, 205-pounder from Chicago.

 

You can read his full biography here.

 

***

 

Shelton Gibson’s 41-catch, 947-yard, nine-touchdown performance as a sophomore could be a sign of bigger things ahead in 2016. Gibson admitted before last year’s Cactus Bowl game against Arizona State that he learned a lot during the season about preparation and how to go about his business.

 

The most important thing he learned was to just play and not dwell on things too much.

 

“You don’t want to put too much pressure on yourself like I’ve been doing in previous years and you also don’t want to work on just one specific thing,” Gibson pointed out. “Every other day you want to work on something new and get better at it. Once you get better at something during the week then the next week you work on a different thing, but don’t forget about what you worked on last week.”

 

The two biggest areas Gibson said he needs to work on are getting off the line of scrimmage and consistently catching the intermediate passes.

 

“Instead of being great one game and not so good the next, I’m trying to just be good every game,” he explained.

 

Gibson said he went from weighing 186 the week of the bowl game against Arizona State to his current weight of 197.

 

***

 

My congratulations to Bria Holmes for making the Atlanta Dream roster. In the WNBA, there are no guarantees - even for first-round draft picks - because the rosters are small and there is very little turnover from year to year.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Holmes will become just the fourth former Mountaineer with service time in the WNBA. The others are Yolanda Paige, Yinka Sanni and Yelena Leuchanka.

 

***

 

A quick scan of the latest NCAA Division I East Regional women’s track qualifying list shows these West Virginia athletes currently ranked in the top 50:

 

Jillian Forsey (8^th), 16:05.89

 

Amy Cashin (22^nd), 10:21.36

Megan Yuan (36^th), 10:27.39

 

Shamoya McNeil (24^th), 41-10 ½

 

Millie Paladino (34^th), 4:21.93

 

Savanna Plombon (43^rd), 34.48.76

 

Hannah Stone (47^th), 5-8 ½

 

The Mountaineer women are in Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend for the Big 12 Championships and 11 days later, will be in Jacksonville, Florida, for the NCAA East Regional.

 

This year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships will once again take place in Eugene, Oregon, June 8-11.

 

***

 

And finally, I found this little tidbit of information stuck in the back of my phone. Bob Huggins did a little bit of bird-dogging at the the old Moundsville Penitentiary in order to discover Cameron’s Logan Routt, an improving young center who could eventually have a role in the men’s basketball program down the road.

 

Huggins said he ran into a lady during a speaking engagement at the old penitentiary site, which has since been converted into a Marshall County tourist attraction.

 

“Coach, you should take a look at this boy we have on the basketball team from Cameron,” she told Huggins. “He was the quarterback on the football team and the local TV station did a big thing on him.”

 

Huggs asked her if he could run.

 

“I don’t know, I’m the mayor there,” she answered.

 

He thanked her for the recruiting tip and when he got back to Morgantown he told associate head coach Larry Harrison to look into it. Eventually, the connection was made and Routt decided to join the Mountaineers as a preferred walk-on.

 

“I figured he’d be about 170 pounds and here he comes walking in and I’m like, ‘Holy Cow,’” Huggins said.

 

Not only is Routt a legitimate 6-feet-11 inches tall, but he’s also a rock-solid 250 pounds. Plus, he’s got some ability; he can move a little bit for a big guy and he may eventually help the team as specialty player.

 

“I guess there’s still a lot of information coming out of that old Moundsville prison,” Huggins joked.

 

Indeed, it looks that way.

 

Have a great weekend!