Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Campus Connection: WVU Sports Notes
November 29, 2017 02:32 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
Senior guard Jevon Carter has to rank among the best West Virginia University defenders these eyes have ever seen.
Darryl Prue was probably the most versatile, the 6-foot-7-inch, 245-pound forward capable of guarding any position on the floor from one to five with his tremendous hands and great instincts.
Damian Owens was in the same class as Prue, his ability to diagnose plays in the open court and his great toughness making him the Big East defensive player of the year in 1998 – the first player in school history to earn a major Big East honor.
And then there is JC, whose prowess on the defensive end has made him one of the most impactful guards in the country over the last two seasons.
We saw first-hand what Carter is capable of during a seven-minute stretch in last Sunday's remarkable 16-point, come-from-behind win over Missouri to help WVU capture the AdvoCare Invitational, West Virginia's third in-season tournament title since 2014.
The Missouri game turned when a frustrated Jordan Geist tried to throw his inbound pass into Carter's groin area. Carter's hands were quick enough to catch the pass, and he took the basketball in for a layup to begin a flurry that ended with the Mountaineers scoring 29 of the game's final 42 points.
Carter had four steals during that span and now shows 249 for his career, three shy of surpassing Greg Jones' school-record 251 steals accomplished in 1983. With most of the season remaining, Carter could easily eclipse 300 for his career.
The Maywood, Illinois, resident also continues his climb up the career scoring list and is now two spots shy of cracking West Virginia's top 25 with 1,245 points. He needs 15 to match Juwan Staten's 1,260 for 26th place and 17 to equal Steve Berger's 1,262 for 25th.
Teammate Daxter Miles Jr. is 42 points away from becoming the 52nd player in school history to reach 1,000 for his career, and based on his current scoring rate of 16 points per game, he should reach it during next Saturday's Backyard Brawl revival in Pittsburgh.
If Miles continues to play the way he did against Missouri, West Virginia could have one of the strongest backcourts in the country with its two seniors.
At the very least, it's the most experienced with Carter leading all returning players with 114 career games under his belt heading into Thursday night's game against New Jersey Tech.
Yet Miles has more career starts than Carter, 98 to 82, making this the most experienced starting backcourt of any Power 5 team.
And now, on to this weekend's overstuffed WVU sports notebook …
* I am working on something for next Saturday's revival of basketball's version of the Backyard Brawl that will include a look back at the recent history of the series as well as a podcast with Pitt historian Sam Sciullo Jr. that will be made available on SoundCloud next Wednesday morning.
In the meantime, some of the leftovers …
Probably the biggest reason why the West Virginia-Pitt games were so volatile in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, and once again in the late 1990s and continuing until the two schools parted ways in 2012, was because both were basically recruiting the same players.
Pitt badly wanted Uniontown's Wil Robinson and couldn't get him. West Virginia badly wanted Braddock's Billy Knight and couldn't get him.
Albert Gallatin's Stan Boskovich was the nephew of Pitt coach Buzz Ridl and was a prime recruiting target of the Panthers, but he chose West Virginia instead.
Pitt coach Tim Grgurich never spoke to the late Joe Fryz again after the Moon star picked WVU over the Panthers.
The two school's recruiting battles even expanded beyond the tri-state area. Buffalo was a place where West Virginia used to slug it out with Pitt for top prospects.
The Mountaineers landed high-flying forward Lester Rowe and thought they were going to get high-scoring guard Curtis Aiken, too, until Pitt assistant coach Seth Greenberg came in at the last minute and stole him away.
"I can remember two buses full of Buffalo people coming down to watch one of our games with Pitt," Rowe recalled. "That's how big the game became back home for us."
Later, when the two schools were members of the Big East, New York City became another area where West Virginia and Pitt fought for players.
Pitt was successful in landing Big Apple center Eric Mobley and also had great success signing top NYC area players who were not really interested in West Virginia although West Virginia was interested in them.
Two that were, forward Kevin Jones and guard Truck Bryant, ended up going to WVU instead of Pitt.
Here is a non-inclusive list of some of the guys both schools recruited:
Pitt
Billy Knight, Curtis Aiken, Darrelle Porter, Gilbert Brown, Eric Mobley, DeJuan Blair, Talib Zanna, Mike Young, Dante Taylor, Ashton Gibbs and James Robinson
West Virginia
Wil Robinson, Stan Boskovich, Joe Fryz, Lester Rowe, Kevin Pittsnogle, Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant, Danny Jennings, Elijah Macon, Esa Ahmad and Sagaba Konate
* Dust off the trademark insignia to "Press Virginia" because the press is back. This week the Mountaineers are once again leading the country in forced turnovers and turnover margin, and are second in steals.
* Junior wide receiver David Sills V, who continues to lead the country with 18 touchdown receptions, will be in Atlanta on Thursday, Dec. 6, for the ESPN College Football Awards Show. Sills is one of three finalists for this year's Biletnikoff Award, presented to college football's top wide receiver.
* With the regular season now completed, here were some of West Virginia's strongest areas, based on this week's NCAA stats:
4th Down Offense: 5th (.750)
First Down Offense: 6th (295)
Tackles for loss allowed: 10th (4.17)
And here were some areas that will need to be addressed during the offseason leading into spring ball:
4th Down Defense: 126th (.727)
Net Punting: 113th (35.5)
Possession Time: 110th (27:44)
Total Defense: 110th (452.5)
* Keeping in mind West Virginia's defensive difficulties this year, I would have to say Oklahoma's offense this year ranks among the best I've ever seen, right there with those great Miami offenses in the early 1990s and then in the early 2000s, and Baylor of a couple years ago.
The Sooners have the entire field covered, with the best playmaker in college football in quarterback Baker Mayfield and a tough, physical, nasty offensive line in front of him. Slowing these guys down is going to take one heck of an effort.
* Mike Carey's 11th-ranked West Virginia University women's basketball team earned a rare victory over Virginia Tech in its recent Paradise Jam title in Melbourne, Florida.
The Mountaineers' 79-61 win over the Hokies was just their second since 1995 and first since Feb. 10, 2004, when both programs were still members of the Big East Conference. Tech has an 11-6 overall edge in the series dating back to 1978.
Speaking of Carey, he was recently recognized by his native Clarksburg with a sign that reads, "Thanks for Visiting Clarksburg, Home of Mike Carey, WVU Women's Basketball's Winningest Head Coach."
Carey's sign sits opposite his good buddy Jimbo Fisher, 2013 national championship coach at Florida State.
I am told Jimbo's sign sits facing those entering town while Carey's is on the way out of Clarksburg.
Congratulations coach!
* Last week, West Virginia made its 100th appearance in the Associated Press Top 25 women's poll. Of the school's current 101 appearances, 93 have come during Carey's watch.
* The Mountaineers are about to get a big boost on Dec. 16 when 6-foot-6-inch junior center Theresa Ekhelar becomes eligible for West Virginia's game against Radford at the Charleston Civic Center. The Ohio State transfer will add another player to Carey's very limited bench and enable 6-1 senior Teana Muldrow to step out on the wing where she normally plays.
Muldrow ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring this week with a 23.8 points-per-game average; Baylor's Kalani Brown leads the conference with an average of 24.2 points per game.
* The WVU women will revive their version of the Backyard Brawl against Pitt on Thursday, Dec. 7 at the Coliseum. The two teams last played in 2012 when both were members of the Big East Conference.
West Virginia holds a 26-19 edge in the series and had won the last three before the two parted ways.
* Randy Mazey has parlayed the success his team enjoyed last season by reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years into the strongest early signing class in school history.
The website PerfectGame.com rated Mazey's most recent 15-player haul 28th-best in the country. One of his signees is Cabell-Midland right-hander Madison Jeffrey, the state's top-rated prospect.
In prior years, West Virginia has struggled to keep some of its top in-state prospects home.
As for Mazey's 2018 squad, he expects to be strong once again with the entire middle of his defense returning – shortstop Jimmy Galusky, second baseman Kyle Gray, speedy centerfielder Brandon White and catchers Ivan Gonzalez and Chase Illig.
* I continue to be impressed with what Reed Sunahara has done with West Virginia University's volleyball program. Things were not in very good shape when Sunahara took over a cherry-picked roster that was coming off a six-win season in 2015.
But he doubled West Virginia's victory total in one year in 2016, and this season he has West Virginia in a postseason national tournament for the first time in 26 years.
Volleyball's only other national postseason trip happened in 1991 when it also made the NIT. WVU (19-12) is just one victory shy of reaching 20 wins, which it can achieve with a victory tonight over Temple.
Incidentally, Temple is coached by former Mountaineer assistant Bakeer Ganesharatnam, known simply as Bakeer Ganes when he worked at WVU.
The WVU athletic communication/marketing staff is swept in the excitement Sunahara is generating, the department's student and graduate assistants taking part in a for-fun volleyball NIT bracket, which I am told Joe Mitchin is leading with a 6-0 mark so far.
Old Joe clearly knows his volleyball!
* Off topic, as far as complimentary hotel pens go, I would have to rate Renaissance No. 1, followed by Westin and Marriott with Hilton and Embassy Suites coming in at a distant fourth.
The Embassy Suites pens are far too small for most adult hands and the ink coming out is about as predictable as Punxsutawney Phil, for those of you interested in hotel pens.
And finally, I am beginning to wonder if Tennessee is using the same search firm to locate its next football coach that is still out there looking for Amelia Earhart.
Or Jimmy Hoffa!
Have a great week!
Darryl Prue was probably the most versatile, the 6-foot-7-inch, 245-pound forward capable of guarding any position on the floor from one to five with his tremendous hands and great instincts.
Damian Owens was in the same class as Prue, his ability to diagnose plays in the open court and his great toughness making him the Big East defensive player of the year in 1998 – the first player in school history to earn a major Big East honor.
And then there is JC, whose prowess on the defensive end has made him one of the most impactful guards in the country over the last two seasons.
We saw first-hand what Carter is capable of during a seven-minute stretch in last Sunday's remarkable 16-point, come-from-behind win over Missouri to help WVU capture the AdvoCare Invitational, West Virginia's third in-season tournament title since 2014.
The Missouri game turned when a frustrated Jordan Geist tried to throw his inbound pass into Carter's groin area. Carter's hands were quick enough to catch the pass, and he took the basketball in for a layup to begin a flurry that ended with the Mountaineers scoring 29 of the game's final 42 points.
Carter had four steals during that span and now shows 249 for his career, three shy of surpassing Greg Jones' school-record 251 steals accomplished in 1983. With most of the season remaining, Carter could easily eclipse 300 for his career.
The Maywood, Illinois, resident also continues his climb up the career scoring list and is now two spots shy of cracking West Virginia's top 25 with 1,245 points. He needs 15 to match Juwan Staten's 1,260 for 26th place and 17 to equal Steve Berger's 1,262 for 25th.
Teammate Daxter Miles Jr. is 42 points away from becoming the 52nd player in school history to reach 1,000 for his career, and based on his current scoring rate of 16 points per game, he should reach it during next Saturday's Backyard Brawl revival in Pittsburgh.
If Miles continues to play the way he did against Missouri, West Virginia could have one of the strongest backcourts in the country with its two seniors.
At the very least, it's the most experienced with Carter leading all returning players with 114 career games under his belt heading into Thursday night's game against New Jersey Tech.
Yet Miles has more career starts than Carter, 98 to 82, making this the most experienced starting backcourt of any Power 5 team.
And now, on to this weekend's overstuffed WVU sports notebook …
* I am working on something for next Saturday's revival of basketball's version of the Backyard Brawl that will include a look back at the recent history of the series as well as a podcast with Pitt historian Sam Sciullo Jr. that will be made available on SoundCloud next Wednesday morning.
In the meantime, some of the leftovers …
Probably the biggest reason why the West Virginia-Pitt games were so volatile in the mid-1970s to early 1980s, and once again in the late 1990s and continuing until the two schools parted ways in 2012, was because both were basically recruiting the same players.
Pitt badly wanted Uniontown's Wil Robinson and couldn't get him. West Virginia badly wanted Braddock's Billy Knight and couldn't get him.
Albert Gallatin's Stan Boskovich was the nephew of Pitt coach Buzz Ridl and was a prime recruiting target of the Panthers, but he chose West Virginia instead.
Pitt coach Tim Grgurich never spoke to the late Joe Fryz again after the Moon star picked WVU over the Panthers.
The two school's recruiting battles even expanded beyond the tri-state area. Buffalo was a place where West Virginia used to slug it out with Pitt for top prospects.
The Mountaineers landed high-flying forward Lester Rowe and thought they were going to get high-scoring guard Curtis Aiken, too, until Pitt assistant coach Seth Greenberg came in at the last minute and stole him away.
"I can remember two buses full of Buffalo people coming down to watch one of our games with Pitt," Rowe recalled. "That's how big the game became back home for us."
Later, when the two schools were members of the Big East, New York City became another area where West Virginia and Pitt fought for players.
Pitt was successful in landing Big Apple center Eric Mobley and also had great success signing top NYC area players who were not really interested in West Virginia although West Virginia was interested in them.
Two that were, forward Kevin Jones and guard Truck Bryant, ended up going to WVU instead of Pitt.
Here is a non-inclusive list of some of the guys both schools recruited:
Pitt
Billy Knight, Curtis Aiken, Darrelle Porter, Gilbert Brown, Eric Mobley, DeJuan Blair, Talib Zanna, Mike Young, Dante Taylor, Ashton Gibbs and James Robinson
West Virginia
Wil Robinson, Stan Boskovich, Joe Fryz, Lester Rowe, Kevin Pittsnogle, Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant, Danny Jennings, Elijah Macon, Esa Ahmad and Sagaba Konate
* Dust off the trademark insignia to "Press Virginia" because the press is back. This week the Mountaineers are once again leading the country in forced turnovers and turnover margin, and are second in steals.
* Junior wide receiver David Sills V, who continues to lead the country with 18 touchdown receptions, will be in Atlanta on Thursday, Dec. 6, for the ESPN College Football Awards Show. Sills is one of three finalists for this year's Biletnikoff Award, presented to college football's top wide receiver.
* With the regular season now completed, here were some of West Virginia's strongest areas, based on this week's NCAA stats:
4th Down Offense: 5th (.750)
First Down Offense: 6th (295)
Tackles for loss allowed: 10th (4.17)
And here were some areas that will need to be addressed during the offseason leading into spring ball:
4th Down Defense: 126th (.727)
Net Punting: 113th (35.5)
Possession Time: 110th (27:44)
Total Defense: 110th (452.5)
* Keeping in mind West Virginia's defensive difficulties this year, I would have to say Oklahoma's offense this year ranks among the best I've ever seen, right there with those great Miami offenses in the early 1990s and then in the early 2000s, and Baylor of a couple years ago.
The Sooners have the entire field covered, with the best playmaker in college football in quarterback Baker Mayfield and a tough, physical, nasty offensive line in front of him. Slowing these guys down is going to take one heck of an effort.
* Mike Carey's 11th-ranked West Virginia University women's basketball team earned a rare victory over Virginia Tech in its recent Paradise Jam title in Melbourne, Florida.
The Mountaineers' 79-61 win over the Hokies was just their second since 1995 and first since Feb. 10, 2004, when both programs were still members of the Big East Conference. Tech has an 11-6 overall edge in the series dating back to 1978.
Speaking of Carey, he was recently recognized by his native Clarksburg with a sign that reads, "Thanks for Visiting Clarksburg, Home of Mike Carey, WVU Women's Basketball's Winningest Head Coach."
Carey's sign sits opposite his good buddy Jimbo Fisher, 2013 national championship coach at Florida State.
I am told Jimbo's sign sits facing those entering town while Carey's is on the way out of Clarksburg.
Congratulations coach!
* Last week, West Virginia made its 100th appearance in the Associated Press Top 25 women's poll. Of the school's current 101 appearances, 93 have come during Carey's watch.
* The Mountaineers are about to get a big boost on Dec. 16 when 6-foot-6-inch junior center Theresa Ekhelar becomes eligible for West Virginia's game against Radford at the Charleston Civic Center. The Ohio State transfer will add another player to Carey's very limited bench and enable 6-1 senior Teana Muldrow to step out on the wing where she normally plays.
Muldrow ranks second in the Big 12 in scoring this week with a 23.8 points-per-game average; Baylor's Kalani Brown leads the conference with an average of 24.2 points per game.
* The WVU women will revive their version of the Backyard Brawl against Pitt on Thursday, Dec. 7 at the Coliseum. The two teams last played in 2012 when both were members of the Big East Conference.
West Virginia holds a 26-19 edge in the series and had won the last three before the two parted ways.
* Randy Mazey has parlayed the success his team enjoyed last season by reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years into the strongest early signing class in school history.
The website PerfectGame.com rated Mazey's most recent 15-player haul 28th-best in the country. One of his signees is Cabell-Midland right-hander Madison Jeffrey, the state's top-rated prospect.
In prior years, West Virginia has struggled to keep some of its top in-state prospects home.
As for Mazey's 2018 squad, he expects to be strong once again with the entire middle of his defense returning – shortstop Jimmy Galusky, second baseman Kyle Gray, speedy centerfielder Brandon White and catchers Ivan Gonzalez and Chase Illig.
* I continue to be impressed with what Reed Sunahara has done with West Virginia University's volleyball program. Things were not in very good shape when Sunahara took over a cherry-picked roster that was coming off a six-win season in 2015.
But he doubled West Virginia's victory total in one year in 2016, and this season he has West Virginia in a postseason national tournament for the first time in 26 years.
Volleyball's only other national postseason trip happened in 1991 when it also made the NIT. WVU (19-12) is just one victory shy of reaching 20 wins, which it can achieve with a victory tonight over Temple.
Incidentally, Temple is coached by former Mountaineer assistant Bakeer Ganesharatnam, known simply as Bakeer Ganes when he worked at WVU.
The WVU athletic communication/marketing staff is swept in the excitement Sunahara is generating, the department's student and graduate assistants taking part in a for-fun volleyball NIT bracket, which I am told Joe Mitchin is leading with a 6-0 mark so far.
Old Joe clearly knows his volleyball!
* Off topic, as far as complimentary hotel pens go, I would have to rate Renaissance No. 1, followed by Westin and Marriott with Hilton and Embassy Suites coming in at a distant fourth.
The Embassy Suites pens are far too small for most adult hands and the ink coming out is about as predictable as Punxsutawney Phil, for those of you interested in hotel pens.
And finally, I am beginning to wonder if Tennessee is using the same search firm to locate its next football coach that is still out there looking for Amelia Earhart.
Or Jimmy Hoffa!
Have a great week!
Players Mentioned
G
/ Men's Basketball
F
/ Men's Basketball
G
/ Men's Basketball2026 Mountaineer Invitational Preview
Thursday, April 09
Nate Gabriel | April 8
Thursday, April 09
Coach Rich Rodriguez | April 8
Thursday, April 09
Coach Rod West | April 8
Thursday, April 09
