Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Campus Connection: Midweek Notes
May 07, 2019 11:44 AM | Baseball, Football, Men's Basketball, Golf, Rifle, Women's Soccer, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – How hard is it to get Alabama to leave the comforts of the south?
Well, how about this? Donald Trump has made more nice tweets about Joe Biden than the Crimson Tide has played road games near or above the Mason-Dixon Line – that's how difficult it is.
Since Nick Saban took over the Alabama program in 2007, it has played just one non-conference road game against a northern Power 5 opponent.
That was at Penn State in 2011.
That's it.
In fact, the only other time Alabama has faced a Power 5 foe on the road in regular-season play under Saban was at Duke in 2010.
Alabama's next Power 5 non-conference road game will be at Texas in 2022, and the next one after that will be in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 2026, which is a pretty nice little feather in fourth-year AD Shane Lyons' cap!
"I think my relationship down there helped," Lyons said Monday. "Having coach Saban from West Virginia helped, and I think West Virginia performing well against Alabama down in Atlanta a few years ago helped as well."
Do you remember the days when it was impossible for WVU to schedule programs like Alabama on such equal terms?
I do.
When West Virginia wanted to expand its profile after leaving the Southern Conference in the late 1960s by playing more intersectional games, it was usually just one game away from Morgantown with no return.
That's how the Mountaineers got to play Stanford in 1972. It was the same deal with SMU in 1975 and Arizona State in 1979.
Cal was a two-for-one with West Virginia traveling to Berkeley in 1971 and 1975 before the Bears finally returned the trip to Morgantown in 1978.
Oklahoma was two-for-nothing in 1978 and 1982.
Even when West Virginia got better under Don Nehlen in the early 1980s, it took Ohio State 11 years to return the game WVU played in Columbus in 1987 (a miserable affair that saw quarterbacks Major Harris and Mike Timko complete more passes to Buckeyes than to Mountaineers).
Or, how about the two-for-one deal Eddie Pastilong swung with Notre Dame's Dick Rosenthal on the Lakeview Golf Course the year after the two teams played for the national championship in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl? Rosenthal agreed to bring the Irish to Morgantown for a game in 2000 three years after WVU played in South Bend in 1997, and one year before the Mountaineers had to go back out to South Bend again in 2001.
In ensuing years, as West Virginia's national brand continued to improve, home-and-home meetings were secured with Wisconsin, Auburn and LSU - but even those don't quite equal what Lyons accomplished by scheduling Alabama.
Getting the Crimson Tide to come to your place to play a football game is about like hitting an inside straight three times in a row in Vegas.
"I think (the two-game series) speaks volumes for our program," Lyons said.
It sure does.
The one criticism nit-picking Tide fans have had with Saban, according to a recent article published in The Sporting News, is his reluctance to take his teams on the road to play high profile, non-conference opponents.
But since Greg Byrne has become Alabama's AD in 2017, the Tide has added marquee home-and-home games with Texas (2022-2023), West Virginia (2026-2027), Notre Dame (2028-2029) and Oklahoma (2032-33).
Interestingly enough, in all four instances, Alabama is going on the road first.
"In our case, when Greg called and said they could come here first in 2026 it fit our schedule," Lyons said.
By the way, if Saban is still coaching when Alabama makes the trek near his old Monongah stomping grounds he will be 75 – which is about the same number of years it's been since Route 19 from Morgantown to Monongah has seen a fresh coat of asphalt!
"I did the math before I did the deal, and I realized that coach Saban is going to be 75 when we play them. There's a chance he could be retired by then … hopefully," Lyons joked.
My good buddy at Boston College, Jason Baum, passed along this note to me the other day. There are only two Power 5 football programs with 11 Power 5 opponents and only six home dates on their 2019 schedule – West Virginia and Boston College.
Yes, Neal Brown's first schedule at West Virginia is definitely going to be challenging!
Baseball coach Randy Mazey brought up an interesting topic following his team's 2-0 victory over state foe Marshall last week: West Virginia's recent record against its regional rivals.
Since 2016, one year after WVU first began playing at Monongalia County Ballpark, West Virginia's record against Marshall, Pitt, Penn State, Virginia Tech and Maryland is a sparkling 21-4, including a 9-0 mark the last two years heading into Wednesday night's game against the Hokies.
WVU is 7-0 against Marshall, 3-0 against Virginia Tech, 5-1 against Pitt and 3-1 against Maryland over the last four seasons. Penn State is the only program with a .500 record against West Virginia; the Nittany Lions are 2-2 against the Mountaineers with both games this season being rained out.
"We've been really good in the region, and we've done it with great recruiting, great fan support, great community support, and we're in an area where it's hard to have a letdown in the type of midweek games we get to play," Mazey explained.
Since he took over in 2013, Mazey's record against those schools, plus Ohio State, is an outstanding 31-15, which includes a 10-11 record during his first three years leading the program.
I had an enjoyable time catching up with some of the former Mountaineer baseball players in town taking in last Saturday's TCU game at Monongalia County Ballpark. Among the alums I got to spend some time with were Mark Landers, Andy Srebroski, Tony Myers, Tom Perry, Mike Marz, Ryan Dickerson, Todd Neff, Justin Fox and Marty Fagler.
Former WVU standout third baseman Kevin Olkowski has been instrumental in arranging these recent baseball get-togethers.
Speaking of Landers, the Charleston native still shares with Jedd Gyorko the school record for home runs with 19 that Landers first established in 1994 and Gyorko matched in 2010. Mark played on the WVU club in 1994 that won a school-record 40 games, which was also legendary coach Dale Ramsburg's final team at West Virginia before he succumbed to cancer.
Tomorrow night at Virginia Tech, senior right fielder Darius Hill will break the school record for career starts and games played with 221. He currently shares the record with shortstop Tyler Kuhn (2005-08).
West Virginia is ranked 21stin this week's Baseball America top 25 poll – the fourth straight week Mazey's Mountaineers have been in that poll. Think about that for a minute! When I used to cover baseball two decades ago, it was nearly impossible to get anyone from Baseball America to take a phone call from somebody from West Virginia!
West Virginia's athletics marketing department recently earned high praise from Shooting Sports USA for the excitement and enthusiasm it generated during the 2019 NCAA Rifle Championships at the WVU Coliseum last March. A record crowd of 2,215 fans watched the two-day event, easily surpassing the prior high by more than 1,000 spectators.
The magazine characterized the Coliseum environment as "nothing short of electric" and added, "in a move akin to ISSF championships, popular music was playing at a manageable volume from the building's sound system that helped to set a really good mood.
"Ranging from AC/DC to Bruce Springsteen to Van Morrison – both the shooters and spectators alike were enjoying themselves!"
Kudos to Nathaniel Zinn and his outstanding staff for putting on a tremendous show!
The guess here is the NCAA will be looking to bring this event back to Morgantown in the not-too-distant future!
Another rifle note: Former Mountaineer Will Anti was recently named manager of the USA Shooting Paralympic Team. The former NCAA and Junior Olympic champion and the son of WVU great Mike Anti, now coaching at Navy, graduates this month with degrees in finance and accounting.
"I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity to positively impact the Paralympic program at USA Shooting," Anti said in a prepared statement. "I have immense respect for these athletes and look forward to being a part of their journey toward the Paralympics and beyond."
It was pretty gracious on the part of WVU golf coach Sean Covich to credit the work put forth by assistant coach Jay Woodward in helping the Mountaineers earn their first NCAA regional bid since the program's reintroduction in 2015. The Bridgeport, West Virginia, native is well known in West Virginia golfing circles as a former standout player at Penn State.
Woodward was the 2006 West Virginia junior amateur champion and would have likely attended WVU if the Mountaineers had a golf program when he played.
I saw where former Mountaineer men's basketball player Vic Herbert recently stepped down as boys basketball coach at South Charleston. Herbert won 177 games in 10 seasons at South Charleston and his teams made the AAA state tournament his first five seasons there with a number of Division I players, including WVU guard Brandon Knapper.
As a WVU player, the Logan native scored a career-high 16 points against Purdue in the 1981 NIT consolation game at Madison Square Garden, but he's best remembered for hitting the shot from the corner at the buzzer to send the Temple game into overtime.
WVU outlasted the Owls by one point in the extra session to advance to the third round of the NIT that season.
Herbert told the Charleston Gazette-Mail his decision to resign was a matter of wanting to spend more time with his family. He said he wouldn't rule out coaching again if another opportunity comes up.
The West Virginia men's basketball team will be making its third summer tour under veteran coach Bob Huggins in August. This year the Mountaineers will be touring Spain, and the team is permitted 10 valuable practices before departing.
The last time WVU made a foreign summer tour was in 2015 when it played in the Bahamas. If you recall, that was the year Huggins introduced "Press Virginia" and it resulted in the team's surprising 26-9 record and NCAA Tournament "Sweet 16" appearance.
Hopefully, something similar happens this year.
This could be one of Nikki Izzo-Brown's more challenging seasons at West Virginia. The ultra-successful coach is working on a streak of 19 straight NCAA Tournament appearances heading into 2019, but her current team must find replacements for nine seniors from last year's 15-4-4 squad that lost a penalty-kick shootout to Wake Forest in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Compounding matters is a brutal schedule that features four teams from last year's Elite Eight (Georgetown, Stanford, Penn State and Baylor) and a fifth that made the Sweet 16 (Virginia).
All but one of those matches are on the road this year.
In terms of personnel losses, this is probably the most Izzo-Brown has had to deal with since 2013 when she was able to steer her young and inexperienced team to a Big 12 championship and a second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Virginia Tech.
She does have a very strong recruiting class coming in this year led by Canadian star Julianne Vallerand. Since 2010, Izzo-Brown had at least one conference regular season or tournament title each year with the exception of one.
Dr. William "Chip" Zimmer, a West Virginia University graduate and a longtime athletic administrator, was in town late last month conducting some interviews for a research project he's doing on the West Virginia-Maryland football series.
Zimmer, who spent 15 years in sports administration with the Washington Capitals, University of Maryland and George Washington University, where he was athletic director there for three years, is a member of the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Visiting Committee.
Most recently, he served as the chair of the MBA program at Shepherd University.
Now retired and living in Williamsburg, Virginia, Zimmer writes frequent columns for the Martinsburg Journal.
Keep an eye out for some of the changes taking place as West Virginia begins to adopt its new athletics' brand initiative with Nike this summer. Among the many changes will be the introduction of a new official type font and a numbering style that will be consistent across the board in all sports.
WVU officially unveiled the new branding campaign during the Gold-Blue Spring Game last month which includes a website: https://wvuni_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/nike/index.html
I believe this is the first time the department has ever done a branding initiative this comprehensive, at least since the creation of the Flying WV.
Shane Lyons and senior associate athletics director Matt Wells were the on-campus catalysts for the rebranding plan with Nike, which took two years to develop.
The Mountaineer Athletic Club Caravan continues its tour of the state with tomorrow's dinner in Parkersburg. Earlier this week, the MAC was in Wheeling on Monday and today the crew is in Martinsburg.
Later this month, visits are scheduled for Princeton on Tuesday, May 21, and in Beckley on Wednesday, May 22.
You can log on to www.MountaineerAthleticClub.com for more information on Mountaineer Athletic Club events, or call toll-free 1-800-433-2072.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Well, how about this? Donald Trump has made more nice tweets about Joe Biden than the Crimson Tide has played road games near or above the Mason-Dixon Line – that's how difficult it is.
Since Nick Saban took over the Alabama program in 2007, it has played just one non-conference road game against a northern Power 5 opponent.
That was at Penn State in 2011.
That's it.
In fact, the only other time Alabama has faced a Power 5 foe on the road in regular-season play under Saban was at Duke in 2010.
Alabama's next Power 5 non-conference road game will be at Texas in 2022, and the next one after that will be in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 2026, which is a pretty nice little feather in fourth-year AD Shane Lyons' cap!
"I think my relationship down there helped," Lyons said Monday. "Having coach Saban from West Virginia helped, and I think West Virginia performing well against Alabama down in Atlanta a few years ago helped as well."Do you remember the days when it was impossible for WVU to schedule programs like Alabama on such equal terms?
I do.
When West Virginia wanted to expand its profile after leaving the Southern Conference in the late 1960s by playing more intersectional games, it was usually just one game away from Morgantown with no return.
That's how the Mountaineers got to play Stanford in 1972. It was the same deal with SMU in 1975 and Arizona State in 1979.
Cal was a two-for-one with West Virginia traveling to Berkeley in 1971 and 1975 before the Bears finally returned the trip to Morgantown in 1978.
Oklahoma was two-for-nothing in 1978 and 1982.
Even when West Virginia got better under Don Nehlen in the early 1980s, it took Ohio State 11 years to return the game WVU played in Columbus in 1987 (a miserable affair that saw quarterbacks Major Harris and Mike Timko complete more passes to Buckeyes than to Mountaineers).
Or, how about the two-for-one deal Eddie Pastilong swung with Notre Dame's Dick Rosenthal on the Lakeview Golf Course the year after the two teams played for the national championship in the 1989 Fiesta Bowl? Rosenthal agreed to bring the Irish to Morgantown for a game in 2000 three years after WVU played in South Bend in 1997, and one year before the Mountaineers had to go back out to South Bend again in 2001.
In ensuing years, as West Virginia's national brand continued to improve, home-and-home meetings were secured with Wisconsin, Auburn and LSU - but even those don't quite equal what Lyons accomplished by scheduling Alabama.
Getting the Crimson Tide to come to your place to play a football game is about like hitting an inside straight three times in a row in Vegas.
"I think (the two-game series) speaks volumes for our program," Lyons said.
It sure does.
The one criticism nit-picking Tide fans have had with Saban, according to a recent article published in The Sporting News, is his reluctance to take his teams on the road to play high profile, non-conference opponents.
But since Greg Byrne has become Alabama's AD in 2017, the Tide has added marquee home-and-home games with Texas (2022-2023), West Virginia (2026-2027), Notre Dame (2028-2029) and Oklahoma (2032-33).
Interestingly enough, in all four instances, Alabama is going on the road first.
"In our case, when Greg called and said they could come here first in 2026 it fit our schedule," Lyons said.
By the way, if Saban is still coaching when Alabama makes the trek near his old Monongah stomping grounds he will be 75 – which is about the same number of years it's been since Route 19 from Morgantown to Monongah has seen a fresh coat of asphalt!
"I did the math before I did the deal, and I realized that coach Saban is going to be 75 when we play them. There's a chance he could be retired by then … hopefully," Lyons joked.
***
My good buddy at Boston College, Jason Baum, passed along this note to me the other day. There are only two Power 5 football programs with 11 Power 5 opponents and only six home dates on their 2019 schedule – West Virginia and Boston College.Yes, Neal Brown's first schedule at West Virginia is definitely going to be challenging!
***
Baseball coach Randy Mazey brought up an interesting topic following his team's 2-0 victory over state foe Marshall last week: West Virginia's recent record against its regional rivals.
Since 2016, one year after WVU first began playing at Monongalia County Ballpark, West Virginia's record against Marshall, Pitt, Penn State, Virginia Tech and Maryland is a sparkling 21-4, including a 9-0 mark the last two years heading into Wednesday night's game against the Hokies.
WVU is 7-0 against Marshall, 3-0 against Virginia Tech, 5-1 against Pitt and 3-1 against Maryland over the last four seasons. Penn State is the only program with a .500 record against West Virginia; the Nittany Lions are 2-2 against the Mountaineers with both games this season being rained out.
"We've been really good in the region, and we've done it with great recruiting, great fan support, great community support, and we're in an area where it's hard to have a letdown in the type of midweek games we get to play," Mazey explained.
Since he took over in 2013, Mazey's record against those schools, plus Ohio State, is an outstanding 31-15, which includes a 10-11 record during his first three years leading the program.
***
I had an enjoyable time catching up with some of the former Mountaineer baseball players in town taking in last Saturday's TCU game at Monongalia County Ballpark. Among the alums I got to spend some time with were Mark Landers, Andy Srebroski, Tony Myers, Tom Perry, Mike Marz, Ryan Dickerson, Todd Neff, Justin Fox and Marty Fagler.
Former WVU standout third baseman Kevin Olkowski has been instrumental in arranging these recent baseball get-togethers.
Speaking of Landers, the Charleston native still shares with Jedd Gyorko the school record for home runs with 19 that Landers first established in 1994 and Gyorko matched in 2010. Mark played on the WVU club in 1994 that won a school-record 40 games, which was also legendary coach Dale Ramsburg's final team at West Virginia before he succumbed to cancer.
***
Tomorrow night at Virginia Tech, senior right fielder Darius Hill will break the school record for career starts and games played with 221. He currently shares the record with shortstop Tyler Kuhn (2005-08).***
West Virginia is ranked 21stin this week's Baseball America top 25 poll – the fourth straight week Mazey's Mountaineers have been in that poll. Think about that for a minute! When I used to cover baseball two decades ago, it was nearly impossible to get anyone from Baseball America to take a phone call from somebody from West Virginia!
***
West Virginia's athletics marketing department recently earned high praise from Shooting Sports USA for the excitement and enthusiasm it generated during the 2019 NCAA Rifle Championships at the WVU Coliseum last March. A record crowd of 2,215 fans watched the two-day event, easily surpassing the prior high by more than 1,000 spectators.The magazine characterized the Coliseum environment as "nothing short of electric" and added, "in a move akin to ISSF championships, popular music was playing at a manageable volume from the building's sound system that helped to set a really good mood.
"Ranging from AC/DC to Bruce Springsteen to Van Morrison – both the shooters and spectators alike were enjoying themselves!"
Kudos to Nathaniel Zinn and his outstanding staff for putting on a tremendous show!
The guess here is the NCAA will be looking to bring this event back to Morgantown in the not-too-distant future!
***
Another rifle note: Former Mountaineer Will Anti was recently named manager of the USA Shooting Paralympic Team. The former NCAA and Junior Olympic champion and the son of WVU great Mike Anti, now coaching at Navy, graduates this month with degrees in finance and accounting.
"I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity to positively impact the Paralympic program at USA Shooting," Anti said in a prepared statement. "I have immense respect for these athletes and look forward to being a part of their journey toward the Paralympics and beyond."
***
It was pretty gracious on the part of WVU golf coach Sean Covich to credit the work put forth by assistant coach Jay Woodward in helping the Mountaineers earn their first NCAA regional bid since the program's reintroduction in 2015. The Bridgeport, West Virginia, native is well known in West Virginia golfing circles as a former standout player at Penn State.
???? @JayWoodward22 pic.twitter.com/Xfoa4vrdcI
— Coach Sean Covich (@SeanCovich) May 2, 2019
Woodward was the 2006 West Virginia junior amateur champion and would have likely attended WVU if the Mountaineers had a golf program when he played.
***
I saw where former Mountaineer men's basketball player Vic Herbert recently stepped down as boys basketball coach at South Charleston. Herbert won 177 games in 10 seasons at South Charleston and his teams made the AAA state tournament his first five seasons there with a number of Division I players, including WVU guard Brandon Knapper.
As a WVU player, the Logan native scored a career-high 16 points against Purdue in the 1981 NIT consolation game at Madison Square Garden, but he's best remembered for hitting the shot from the corner at the buzzer to send the Temple game into overtime.
WVU outlasted the Owls by one point in the extra session to advance to the third round of the NIT that season.
Herbert told the Charleston Gazette-Mail his decision to resign was a matter of wanting to spend more time with his family. He said he wouldn't rule out coaching again if another opportunity comes up.
***
The West Virginia men's basketball team will be making its third summer tour under veteran coach Bob Huggins in August. This year the Mountaineers will be touring Spain, and the team is permitted 10 valuable practices before departing.
The last time WVU made a foreign summer tour was in 2015 when it played in the Bahamas. If you recall, that was the year Huggins introduced "Press Virginia" and it resulted in the team's surprising 26-9 record and NCAA Tournament "Sweet 16" appearance.
Hopefully, something similar happens this year.
***
This could be one of Nikki Izzo-Brown's more challenging seasons at West Virginia. The ultra-successful coach is working on a streak of 19 straight NCAA Tournament appearances heading into 2019, but her current team must find replacements for nine seniors from last year's 15-4-4 squad that lost a penalty-kick shootout to Wake Forest in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Compounding matters is a brutal schedule that features four teams from last year's Elite Eight (Georgetown, Stanford, Penn State and Baylor) and a fifth that made the Sweet 16 (Virginia).
All but one of those matches are on the road this year.
In terms of personnel losses, this is probably the most Izzo-Brown has had to deal with since 2013 when she was able to steer her young and inexperienced team to a Big 12 championship and a second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Virginia Tech.
She does have a very strong recruiting class coming in this year led by Canadian star Julianne Vallerand. Since 2010, Izzo-Brown had at least one conference regular season or tournament title each year with the exception of one.
***
Dr. William "Chip" Zimmer, a West Virginia University graduate and a longtime athletic administrator, was in town late last month conducting some interviews for a research project he's doing on the West Virginia-Maryland football series.
Zimmer, who spent 15 years in sports administration with the Washington Capitals, University of Maryland and George Washington University, where he was athletic director there for three years, is a member of the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Visiting Committee.
Most recently, he served as the chair of the MBA program at Shepherd University.
Now retired and living in Williamsburg, Virginia, Zimmer writes frequent columns for the Martinsburg Journal.
***
Keep an eye out for some of the changes taking place as West Virginia begins to adopt its new athletics' brand initiative with Nike this summer. Among the many changes will be the introduction of a new official type font and a numbering style that will be consistent across the board in all sports.WVU officially unveiled the new branding campaign during the Gold-Blue Spring Game last month which includes a website: https://wvuni_ftp.sidearmsports.com/custompages/nike/index.html
I believe this is the first time the department has ever done a branding initiative this comprehensive, at least since the creation of the Flying WV.
Shane Lyons and senior associate athletics director Matt Wells were the on-campus catalysts for the rebranding plan with Nike, which took two years to develop.
***
The Mountaineer Athletic Club Caravan continues its tour of the state with tomorrow's dinner in Parkersburg. Earlier this week, the MAC was in Wheeling on Monday and today the crew is in Martinsburg.
Later this month, visits are scheduled for Princeton on Tuesday, May 21, and in Beckley on Wednesday, May 22.
You can log on to www.MountaineerAthleticClub.com for more information on Mountaineer Athletic Club events, or call toll-free 1-800-433-2072.
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Players Mentioned
Steve Sabins | Oct. 29
Wednesday, October 29
Kentucky TV Highlights (NCAA Clemson Regional Final) | June 1
Monday, June 02
Clemson TV Highlights (NCAA Clemson Regional) | May 31
Saturday, May 31
BSB: Clemson Regional Game 1 Recap (vs. Kentucky)
Saturday, May 31
