Memories of Great Mountaineer Comeback Road Victories

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A flurry of texts and tweets came my way last night shortly after Rondel Walker's game-tying 3-point try ended up in Taz Sherman's hands as the clock wound down to zero.

"Hey John, when was the last time …?"

First of all, my 52-and-3/4's-year-old memory no longer works on demand like that. It operates more like my father's old Plymouth Volare sold to him by Ricardo Montalban - with lots of coaxing!

So, now that my brain has warmed up sufficiently, I can finally dig deeper into the last time West Virginia overcame a 19-point second half deficit to win a college basketball game on the road as it did Monday night at Oklahoma State.

The first game that popped into my helmet was West Virginia's 95-92 win against St. Joseph's in the second round of the 1959 NCAA Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Mountaineers trailed the Hawks by 18 points with 13 minutes to go when they finally came alive. Coach Fred Schaus went to his small lineup of Bucky Bolyard, Ronnie Retton, Lee Patrone, Bobby Joe Smith and Jerry West to carve away at St. Joe's big lead.

West finally put West Virginia ahead 91-90 on a follow-up basket with 26 seconds left, and then Retton stole the inbounds pass and went in for a game-sealing layup for his only basket of the game.

And yes, that's the same Ronnie Retton who is the father of Mary Lou Retton!

Bucky Waters once had a great comeback win over top-ranked Duke at the old Charleston Civic Center. The Blue Devils had a 19-point advantage in the first half before WVU's John Lesher caught fire, finishing with a game-high 28 points. But the big difference was forward Bill Ryczaj's unexpected 19 points coming off the bench in West Virginia's unforgettable 94-90 win over the Blue Devils.

Jeffrey Stratton and J Alan Field reminded me on Twitter about Warren Baker's and Maurice Robinson's great games in West Virginia's big comeback win against Syracuse at Manley Field House on Feb. 8, 1975.

That was the night before my eighth birthday, so I must be excused for forgetting that one!

They are correct, though. West Virginia trailed the Orangemen by 21 with two minutes left in the first half before Wonderful Warren finally found his shooting stroke.

Bake finished with a game-high 28 points and Robinson, a poor free throw shooter, made two big foul shots with 15 seconds left to give the Mountaineers an 84-81 victory.

There are two things I know for sure about Manley Field House, as pointed out to me by former West Virginia coach Sonny Moran, who got whacked by the administration the year prior.

One, the presence of sawdust in the arena, which gave Moran year-long sinus infections and, two, those big, burly Syracuse football players always shaking the baskets whenever opposing teams attempted free throws.

"And those gutless officials wouldn't do a damned thing about it!" the late Moran once recalled many years later.

S.J. Easterling, in his Sunday morning commentary in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, took issue with announcer Marv Albert's geographical ignorance during the regional telecast on TVS.

Albert consistently referred to West Virginia players Baker, Robinson and Ross Scaggs as being from Virginia instead of West Virginia, and that "jackass" analyst Bucky Waters letting him do it!

Bucky, of course, knew better having coached at West Virginia for four years before high-tailing it off to Duke.

Another, gli sport, reminded me about the 2005 Pitt game at the Pete when Kevin Pittsnogle went off for 22 points, all but two of them coming in the second half. The Panthers had the Mountaineers down by 14 with nine minutes to go before getting Pittsnogled.

Honey Roy Palmer correctly pointed out West Virginia's big comeback victory at Villanova in 2006 when the Wildcats were leading John Beilein's Mountaineers by 15 points early in the second half.

Johannes Herber (23), Pittsnogle (22) and Mike Gansey (21) were the big stars for WVU that night, which may help answer Brad Williams' question about three 20-point scorers in the same game.

GYEOJohnson and Ashley Musick noted the big comeback win against Missouri to capture the 2017 Advocare Invitational Championship.

West Virginia trailed by 16 with eight minutes to go when All-America guard Jevon Carter took over. He finished with a game-high 29 points.

But perhaps my favorite West Virginia comeback road victory happened at the Palestra in Philadelphia on Jan. 8, 1958 – Jerry West's sophomore year.

The Mountaineers trailed the Wildcats by 16 points with 10 minutes to go when West came alive. I may be confusing my stories, but I believe this was the game when West grew impatient with Schaus calling timeouts and diagramming plays to get West Virginia baskets.

Finally, after another Schaus strategy session, West, who barely said five words up to that point in his career, told Schaus: "Just give me the damned ball!"

And "just give me the damned ball!" became Fred Schaus' No. 1 play for the next two seasons!

I do know this story to be accurate because the late Jack Fleming told it to me.

All game long, Fleming was getting abused by rowdy Villanova fans while he tried to broadcast the game. After center Lloyd Sharrar completed the improbable Mountaineer comeback by sinking a layup with two seconds left, Fleming turned around to his hecklers while still on the air and yelled, "Take that and shove it up your #$%!"

I love it!

Just as I loved watching last night's big, 87-84 come-from-behind win at Oklahoma State.

Schedule

Players Mentioned

Taz Sherman

Footer

Upcoming Events