Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Campus Connection – Weekend WVU Sports Notes
April 12, 2019 07:43 AM | Baseball, Football, Men's Basketball, Golf, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Jevon Carter really needed those 32 points he scored Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors in the regular season finale – a Memphis Grizzlies rookie record for points coming off the bench.
That performance will put him in a much better mindset heading into an offseason when he will try and secure a spot on Memphis' roster behind starter Mike Conley, provided Conley isn't traded away before the start of fall camp.
Until recently, Carter was having a difficult year shooting the basketball with his shooting percentage in the mid-20s range. But he recently produced his first double-digit performance against the Dallas Mavericks on April 5 and repeated it two nights later against the same Mavericks.
Then, in his final four games of the regular season, Carter scored 61 points and shot 16-of-25 from 3-point distance to end the year with a 4.4 points-per-game average in 39 contests.
He shot 59.2 percent over his remaining three regular season games to bring his shooting average above 30 percent for the season. By the way, Carter's career-high 32 points against Golden State matched Rod Thorn's career-high 32 points scored against the St. Louis Hawks on Feb. 1, 1968 as the fifth highest career-best scoring performance ever by a Mountaineer player in the NBA.
Jerry West's career-high 63 points against the New York Knicks on Jan. 17, 1962 is tops, followed by the 34 Ron "Fritz" Williams got against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 27, 1971.
Fred Schaus scored a career-high 33 against the Tri-Cities Blackhawks on Dec. 31, 1950 and Hot Rod Hundley matched Schaus' total with a career-high 33 against the Philadelphia Warriors on Feb. 28, 1961.
Incidentally, Hundley once combined with Elgin Baylor to score 73 points in a 123-108 Laker victory over the Knicks on Nov. 15, 1960, but Baylor did most of the work that night by getting 71 of the 73, as the late Hundley used to joke many times.
Sticking with the NBA, veteran WVU men's basketball sports information director Bryan Messerly will now be able to add another name to the media guide listing of former Mountaineer players in the NBA.
Guard Tarik Phillip's contract was purchased by the Washington Wizards on the final day of the regular season, and he was actually on Washington's 15-man roster for its season-ending loss to Boston on Tuesday night, although he didn't get into the game.
After playing professionally in Hungary and Spain, Phillip caught on with the Memphis Grizzlies G-League affiliate Memphis Hustle this year and averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, including a career-high 48 points in late February against the Long Island Nets.
Phillip's contract with the Wizards is not guaranteed, which means he is going to have to prove himself this summer and later this fall when training camp begins, but getting signed at least raises his profile for the other teams in the market for guards next season.
More Mountaineer Sports Notes …
* If Randy Mazey's diamondmen get into the NCAA Tournament this year for only the second time since 1996, the players might want to tip their caps to the work junior lefthanded pitcher Nick Snyder is doing on the hill.
The Marlton, New Jersey, resident is not one of the team's weekend starters, which means he's not considered one of its top three pitchers, but he's 3A at the very least on a very good starting staff, and what he's done so far this year during midweek games could wind up putting the Mountaineers on the right side of the tournament bubble.
In 2014 and 2016, West Virginia was right on the cusp of receiving NCAA bids if not for some midweek stumbles, most notably three years ago when WVU was swept by Canisius and also lost midweek games to Pitt and Penn State.
This year, West Virginia is 16-7 outside of Big 12 play and has taken care of business so far on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, thanks to Snyder's strong mound work. His 5-1 record is tops on the staff following Wednesday afternoon's 8-1 victory at Maryland when he allowed just one earned run over five innings of work.
Snyder's other wins this year have come against Towson, Morehead State, Youngstown State and Marshall and he should actually have a sixth victory following another strong outing against Pitt, but the bullpen lost the lead before WVU rallied for a late-inning triumph.
WVU's victory in College Park was just its 14thin 47 tries there, and the Mountaineers have now claimed four straight and five of their last six over the Terps. Wednesday's meeting with Maryland was the only one scheduled for this year.
West Virginia's remaining non-conference midweek games are at Penn State on April 17, at home against the Nittany Lions on April 23, at home against Marshall on April 30, at Virginia Tech on May 8 and versus Pitt at PNC Park on May 14.
WVU will conclude the regular season at home with a three-game series against George Washington before the Big 12 tournament.
* West Virginia's 20-12 record heading into this weekend includes series victories over nationally ranked Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and a non-conference road win at defending national champion Oregon State.
WVU has just one bad loss so far, that to RPI No. 225 Kennesaw State on opening day. West Virginia's other 11 defeats have come against No. 22 Georgia Tech, No. 64 Georgia Southern, No. 3 Oregon State (twice), No. 109 Morehead State, No. 87 William & Mary, No. 24 Baylor (three) and No. 30 Oklahoma State – all on the road.
That's why West Virginia's RPI is 18 heading into this weekend's play.
On deck for the Mountaineers is a big three-game series against RPI No. 9 Texas Tech, now 22-9 following Tuesday's 10-5 win against New Mexico State.
WVU is expecting a big crowd for Saturday's 4 p.m. matchup against the Red Raiders that immediately follows the Gold-Blue Game. As of Thursday morning, there were less than 500 tickets remaining for Saturday's sandwich game, with less than 900 available for Friday's series opener and a little more than 1,000 left for getaway day on Sunday.
* WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley is expecting a big turnout of former Mountaineer football players for the Gold-Blue Game as part of Alumni Weekend. In fact, the turnout is so large that the dinner and reception on Friday night had to be moved inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.
Registration for former players returning to WVU begins at 10 a.m. in the team room lobby area today.
The Hoss Foundation's Family Resource Center VIP Party will also take place in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility on Friday night and his annual Walk The Talk in support of the Hostetler Family Resource Center at WVU Medicine Children's Hospital will occur Saturday morning before the Gold-Blue Spring Game.
The Hoss Foundation's mission is to ensure families are armed with the needed resources while receiving care and services so that their sole focus can be on their child during their stay at WVU Medicine Children's, according to the Hoss Foundation website.
* Speaking of former Mountaineer football players, thanks to Facebook I learned that standout safety Bo Orlando was recently named athletic director at his alma mater, Berwick High. Orlando was a key member of West Virginia's undefeated team that lost to Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. Orlando also spent 10 seasons playing in the NFL.
* The NFL Draft is now just a few weeks away and USA Today writer Nate Davis recently published his list of the 100 biggest draft busts. Former Mountaineer quarterback Pat White made his listing at No. 88, Davis writing, "He was supposed to take the Wildcat to the next level. He never completed an NFL pass" – which is not what a Wildcat quarterback is supposed to do, by the way.
Two former WVU players that could have made it were first-rounders Dick Leftridge and Brian Jozwiak. Leftridge was the fourth player selected in the 1966 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and his pro career lasted just four games before he was out of the league.
Jozwiak, the seventh player chosen by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1986, lasted a little longer - three years - appearing in 28 games before injuries forced him to retire prematurely.
* Has there ever been a bad Mountaineer? The short answer is no, just degrees of good, but outgoing Mountaineer Trevor Kiess' passion for everything West Virginia puts him near the top of the list of the best, in my opinion.
Congratulations, Trevor, for a job well done!
* Associate director of athletics communications Ashley Bailey passed along some interesting notes on the WVU golf team, which could be in line for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1947. Golf, of course, was discontinued as a varsity sport at West Virginia from 1982 to 2015 until former director of athletics Oliver Luck revived it.
The Mountaineers will be the host of this year's Big 12 Men's Golf Championship at The Greenbrier on April 26-28 at the historic Old White Course. The PGA TOUR has granted the Big 12 medalist an exemption into the Greenbrier's PGA event this fall, which WVU coach Sean Covich was instrumental in helping arrange.
Oklahoma State's Viktor Hovland is currently the world's No. 1-ranked amateur golfer and he is playing in The Masters underway this week. Texas golfer Doug Ghim was the low amateur at last year's Masters and both will be at The Greenbrier on the final weekend of April.
Oklahoma State is the defending national champion and Oklahoma claimed the 2017 NCAA title while Texas was last year's runner-up.
As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers are currently ranked 47thin this week's Golfstat team rankings, which puts them in good position to claim a spot in this year's NCAA Tournament because the top 55 programs typically earn bids.
WVU sophomore Matthew Sharpstene is currently 69thin the NCAA rankings with an average score of 73.49 heading into the Rutherford Intercollegiate in State College, Pennsylvania, this weekend.
The Big 12 has five of the nation's top 20 golfers, including top-ranked Matthew Wolf. Hovland is the NCAA's third-ranked golfer this week.
* And finally, we received the very sad news of a couple of recent deaths.
Brandon McClung, a WVU Sport Management Alum and a great Mountaineer supporter who was working as a research associate for Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal, died on Sunday, April 7 in Charlotte.
Brandon, the brother of former Mountaineer player Brad McClung, worked briefly on WVU's stat crew and was also a statistician for the Carolina Panthers, minor league baseball's Charlotte Knights and the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.
The Rainelle, West Virginia, native wore his West Virginia gear with great pride wherever he went. He wasn't dealt a good hand in life but he never complained and his gift to those who knew him was (and is) to always count your blessings.
Also, John Veasey, former longtime Fairmont Times-West Virginian editor, died earlier this week in Bluffton, South Carolina, following a stroke. Up until last season, Veasey attended all of the WVU home football games in his usual seat that he once occupied as Fairmont's sports editor.
Veasey, 82, first covered Mountaineer sports in the mid-1950s as a WVU student writer for the Daily Athenaeum before embarking on a 58-year career in journalism, all spent in nearby Fairmont.
His popular "Taking It Easy" columns in the Times were widely read for years, and he continued to contribute a Sunday column up until the time of his death.
John was the recipient of the Adam R. Kelly Premier Journalist Award presented by the West Virginia Press Association in 2006, and the Gene Morehouse Memorial Award for Sports Journalism presented by the Marshall University and West Virginia Sports Writers Association in 1993.
He was named Distinguished West Virginian by then-Gov. Joe Manchin on Oct. 3, 2008 and in 2009 Fairmont State inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
We'll see you this weekend at Milan Puskar Stadium for the Gold-Blue Game, and also Monongalia County Ballpark for West Virginia's three-game baseball series against Texas Tech.
That performance will put him in a much better mindset heading into an offseason when he will try and secure a spot on Memphis' roster behind starter Mike Conley, provided Conley isn't traded away before the start of fall camp.
Until recently, Carter was having a difficult year shooting the basketball with his shooting percentage in the mid-20s range. But he recently produced his first double-digit performance against the Dallas Mavericks on April 5 and repeated it two nights later against the same Mavericks.
Then, in his final four games of the regular season, Carter scored 61 points and shot 16-of-25 from 3-point distance to end the year with a 4.4 points-per-game average in 39 contests.
He shot 59.2 percent over his remaining three regular season games to bring his shooting average above 30 percent for the season. By the way, Carter's career-high 32 points against Golden State matched Rod Thorn's career-high 32 points scored against the St. Louis Hawks on Feb. 1, 1968 as the fifth highest career-best scoring performance ever by a Mountaineer player in the NBA.
Jerry West's career-high 63 points against the New York Knicks on Jan. 17, 1962 is tops, followed by the 34 Ron "Fritz" Williams got against the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 27, 1971.
Fred Schaus scored a career-high 33 against the Tri-Cities Blackhawks on Dec. 31, 1950 and Hot Rod Hundley matched Schaus' total with a career-high 33 against the Philadelphia Warriors on Feb. 28, 1961.
Incidentally, Hundley once combined with Elgin Baylor to score 73 points in a 123-108 Laker victory over the Knicks on Nov. 15, 1960, but Baylor did most of the work that night by getting 71 of the 73, as the late Hundley used to joke many times.
Sticking with the NBA, veteran WVU men's basketball sports information director Bryan Messerly will now be able to add another name to the media guide listing of former Mountaineer players in the NBA.Guard Tarik Phillip's contract was purchased by the Washington Wizards on the final day of the regular season, and he was actually on Washington's 15-man roster for its season-ending loss to Boston on Tuesday night, although he didn't get into the game.
After playing professionally in Hungary and Spain, Phillip caught on with the Memphis Grizzlies G-League affiliate Memphis Hustle this year and averaged 13.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, including a career-high 48 points in late February against the Long Island Nets.
Phillip's contract with the Wizards is not guaranteed, which means he is going to have to prove himself this summer and later this fall when training camp begins, but getting signed at least raises his profile for the other teams in the market for guards next season.
More Mountaineer Sports Notes …
* If Randy Mazey's diamondmen get into the NCAA Tournament this year for only the second time since 1996, the players might want to tip their caps to the work junior lefthanded pitcher Nick Snyder is doing on the hill.The Marlton, New Jersey, resident is not one of the team's weekend starters, which means he's not considered one of its top three pitchers, but he's 3A at the very least on a very good starting staff, and what he's done so far this year during midweek games could wind up putting the Mountaineers on the right side of the tournament bubble.
In 2014 and 2016, West Virginia was right on the cusp of receiving NCAA bids if not for some midweek stumbles, most notably three years ago when WVU was swept by Canisius and also lost midweek games to Pitt and Penn State.
This year, West Virginia is 16-7 outside of Big 12 play and has taken care of business so far on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, thanks to Snyder's strong mound work. His 5-1 record is tops on the staff following Wednesday afternoon's 8-1 victory at Maryland when he allowed just one earned run over five innings of work.
Snyder's other wins this year have come against Towson, Morehead State, Youngstown State and Marshall and he should actually have a sixth victory following another strong outing against Pitt, but the bullpen lost the lead before WVU rallied for a late-inning triumph.
WVU's victory in College Park was just its 14thin 47 tries there, and the Mountaineers have now claimed four straight and five of their last six over the Terps. Wednesday's meeting with Maryland was the only one scheduled for this year.
West Virginia's remaining non-conference midweek games are at Penn State on April 17, at home against the Nittany Lions on April 23, at home against Marshall on April 30, at Virginia Tech on May 8 and versus Pitt at PNC Park on May 14.
WVU will conclude the regular season at home with a three-game series against George Washington before the Big 12 tournament.
* West Virginia's 20-12 record heading into this weekend includes series victories over nationally ranked Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, and a non-conference road win at defending national champion Oregon State.
WVU has just one bad loss so far, that to RPI No. 225 Kennesaw State on opening day. West Virginia's other 11 defeats have come against No. 22 Georgia Tech, No. 64 Georgia Southern, No. 3 Oregon State (twice), No. 109 Morehead State, No. 87 William & Mary, No. 24 Baylor (three) and No. 30 Oklahoma State – all on the road.
That's why West Virginia's RPI is 18 heading into this weekend's play.
On deck for the Mountaineers is a big three-game series against RPI No. 9 Texas Tech, now 22-9 following Tuesday's 10-5 win against New Mexico State.
WVU is expecting a big crowd for Saturday's 4 p.m. matchup against the Red Raiders that immediately follows the Gold-Blue Game. As of Thursday morning, there were less than 500 tickets remaining for Saturday's sandwich game, with less than 900 available for Friday's series opener and a little more than 1,000 left for getaway day on Sunday.
* WVU Varsity Club Director Dale Wolfley is expecting a big turnout of former Mountaineer football players for the Gold-Blue Game as part of Alumni Weekend. In fact, the turnout is so large that the dinner and reception on Friday night had to be moved inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility.Registration for former players returning to WVU begins at 10 a.m. in the team room lobby area today.
The Hoss Foundation's Family Resource Center VIP Party will also take place in the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility on Friday night and his annual Walk The Talk in support of the Hostetler Family Resource Center at WVU Medicine Children's Hospital will occur Saturday morning before the Gold-Blue Spring Game.
The Hoss Foundation's mission is to ensure families are armed with the needed resources while receiving care and services so that their sole focus can be on their child during their stay at WVU Medicine Children's, according to the Hoss Foundation website.
* Speaking of former Mountaineer football players, thanks to Facebook I learned that standout safety Bo Orlando was recently named athletic director at his alma mater, Berwick High. Orlando was a key member of West Virginia's undefeated team that lost to Notre Dame in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl for the national championship. Orlando also spent 10 seasons playing in the NFL.
* The NFL Draft is now just a few weeks away and USA Today writer Nate Davis recently published his list of the 100 biggest draft busts. Former Mountaineer quarterback Pat White made his listing at No. 88, Davis writing, "He was supposed to take the Wildcat to the next level. He never completed an NFL pass" – which is not what a Wildcat quarterback is supposed to do, by the way.
Two former WVU players that could have made it were first-rounders Dick Leftridge and Brian Jozwiak. Leftridge was the fourth player selected in the 1966 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers and his pro career lasted just four games before he was out of the league.
Jozwiak, the seventh player chosen by the Kansas City Chiefs in 1986, lasted a little longer - three years - appearing in 28 games before injuries forced him to retire prematurely.
* Has there ever been a bad Mountaineer? The short answer is no, just degrees of good, but outgoing Mountaineer Trevor Kiess' passion for everything West Virginia puts him near the top of the list of the best, in my opinion.
Congratulations, Trevor, for a job well done!
* Associate director of athletics communications Ashley Bailey passed along some interesting notes on the WVU golf team, which could be in line for its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1947. Golf, of course, was discontinued as a varsity sport at West Virginia from 1982 to 2015 until former director of athletics Oliver Luck revived it.The Mountaineers will be the host of this year's Big 12 Men's Golf Championship at The Greenbrier on April 26-28 at the historic Old White Course. The PGA TOUR has granted the Big 12 medalist an exemption into the Greenbrier's PGA event this fall, which WVU coach Sean Covich was instrumental in helping arrange.
Oklahoma State's Viktor Hovland is currently the world's No. 1-ranked amateur golfer and he is playing in The Masters underway this week. Texas golfer Doug Ghim was the low amateur at last year's Masters and both will be at The Greenbrier on the final weekend of April.
Oklahoma State is the defending national champion and Oklahoma claimed the 2017 NCAA title while Texas was last year's runner-up.
As for West Virginia, the Mountaineers are currently ranked 47thin this week's Golfstat team rankings, which puts them in good position to claim a spot in this year's NCAA Tournament because the top 55 programs typically earn bids.
WVU sophomore Matthew Sharpstene is currently 69thin the NCAA rankings with an average score of 73.49 heading into the Rutherford Intercollegiate in State College, Pennsylvania, this weekend.
The Big 12 has five of the nation's top 20 golfers, including top-ranked Matthew Wolf. Hovland is the NCAA's third-ranked golfer this week.
* And finally, we received the very sad news of a couple of recent deaths.
Brandon McClung, a WVU Sport Management Alum and a great Mountaineer supporter who was working as a research associate for Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal, died on Sunday, April 7 in Charlotte.
Brandon, the brother of former Mountaineer player Brad McClung, worked briefly on WVU's stat crew and was also a statistician for the Carolina Panthers, minor league baseball's Charlotte Knights and the Atlantic Coast Conference men's basketball tournament.
The Rainelle, West Virginia, native wore his West Virginia gear with great pride wherever he went. He wasn't dealt a good hand in life but he never complained and his gift to those who knew him was (and is) to always count your blessings.
Also, John Veasey, former longtime Fairmont Times-West Virginian editor, died earlier this week in Bluffton, South Carolina, following a stroke. Up until last season, Veasey attended all of the WVU home football games in his usual seat that he once occupied as Fairmont's sports editor.
Veasey, 82, first covered Mountaineer sports in the mid-1950s as a WVU student writer for the Daily Athenaeum before embarking on a 58-year career in journalism, all spent in nearby Fairmont.
His popular "Taking It Easy" columns in the Times were widely read for years, and he continued to contribute a Sunday column up until the time of his death.
John was the recipient of the Adam R. Kelly Premier Journalist Award presented by the West Virginia Press Association in 2006, and the Gene Morehouse Memorial Award for Sports Journalism presented by the Marshall University and West Virginia Sports Writers Association in 1993.
He was named Distinguished West Virginian by then-Gov. Joe Manchin on Oct. 3, 2008 and in 2009 Fairmont State inducted him into its Athletic Hall of Fame.
We'll see you this weekend at Milan Puskar Stadium for the Gold-Blue Game, and also Monongalia County Ballpark for West Virginia's three-game baseball series against Texas Tech.
Players Mentioned
College Basketball Crown Recap
Thursday, April 16
Ross Hodge, Honor Huff & Brenen Lorient | Oklahoma Postgame
Sunday, April 05
Ross Hodge, Treysen Eaglestaff & Brenen Lorient | Creighton Postgame
Saturday, April 04
Ross Hodge & Honor Huff | Stanford Postgame
Thursday, April 02
