Wayback machine

The Philly Daily News reminds us of a famous ending to a WVU-St. Joe's clash from 1985 ...

"There were 3 seconds left in the game, but it was far from over. In fact, it was 48 hours far from over.

Trailing Saint Joseph's, 50-49, with 3 seconds remaining and inbounding under its own basket, West Virginia's Renardo Brown tossed it downcourt to the foul line, where Lester Rowe caught it and quickly flipped to Vernon Odom, who shot from 18 feet out. Rowe then went right to the basket and, after Odom's shot grazed the right side of the rim, stuffed the ball into the hoop in one motion - either just before or just after the final buzzer.

Referee Dutch Shample signaled that the basket was good, but the other officials - Stan Rote and Ernie Cage - told Shample that the Rowe shot might have been after the buzzer. An announcement was made that the game was not official and the referees went to their locker room to discuss it."

Find out the ending ... here

Don't worry, WVU, at least one columnist still loves you

That's Bobby Cremins, the former Ga. Tech coach who is now ace columnist for the Hilton Head Island (S.C.) Packet !

Says the columnist, "I fell in love with West Virginia last year, and my feelings haven't changed. There's still plenty of basketball to be played before the madness of selecting 65 teams out of 330 begins."

Will Bobby's affection last through the St. John's game? We'll find out this afternoon.

This can't be good for the Big East ...

12-game win streak? How about losing 2 in a row to the mighty Herd?

Shameful.

Mon dieu! Goree!

NBALive.org and Euro League have a new video game out featuring some of the European-based superstars .. including Marcus Goree (above).

Steve Berger's Links of the Day

WVU is in the AP Top 10 for the first time since 1982. Ninth in the AP and 13th in the coaches poll, where nimrods like Doc Sadler continue to shortchange the Eers.

SI on Campus has plenty of praise for the Mountaineers. "The hottest team in college basketball" declared CBS announcer Kevin Harlan seconds after the 12th-ranked Mountaineers finished off UCLA, 60-56, for their 12th consecutive win. Last year's Cinderella darlings will be everyone-and-their-mother's Final Four pick come March Madness, but the reality is that the Sons of Jerry West are humming and actually a legitimate title contender. "

The UCLA Daily Bruin has leftover praise for Gansey and the Mountaineers.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram calls WVU a "legitimate Final Four contender."

TED TALKINGTON WATCH: The LA Daily News interviewed TED in a column that addressed WVU basketball team's role in helping W.Va. heal from the mining disasters.

The Atlanta Journal-Constituition on the growing nationwide phenomenon of Pittsnogle.

The praise is raining down on Gansey. Fox Sports calls him the new Wizard of Westwood. The Philly Daily News says he's a first-team All-American. The pic above comes from Gansey's senior year of high school, where his local paper named him its area player of the year and said,

"The SWC has belonged to Olmsted Falls with Gansey in the lineup. The 'Dogs have won four straight conference titles and this smooth 6-foot-4 forward was named the league's most valuable player three times. He averaged 28 points and 11 rebounds this season in advancing to the Division II regional semifinals and scored more than 1,900 points in four years, finishing with 21.1 scoring and 8.0 rebounding career averages. Gansey is headed for St. Bonaventure University. Wonder if the Atlantic 10 will feel the same way four years from now."

Another upset was Bruin ...

... and it's another great night to be a Mountaineer after a thrilling 60-56 win over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, the 12th win in a row. We say it's WVU's most significant non-conference victory in the regular season since the 1983 win over UNLV.

Hickman says Mike Gansey's clinching steal came on a play recently renamed "Texas."

And, if you can get through Mitchiepoo's blatherings, you'll see why Gansey is our favorite quote.

The L.A. Times reports UCLA coach Ben Howland says WVU should be a Top 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Andy Katz says Gansey is making a strong case to be the Big East player of the year.

And if you really want to be like Mike, here's where you can buy a Scooby-Doo blanket.

Sandro Varejao's Links of the Day

Today's links hatched from a dolphin net ...

Grant Wahl's bald head like the Mountaineers.

He picks WVU as one of his eight teams that can win the national title.

"The Mountaineers have already proven their toughness in road wins at Villanova and Oklahoma (in Oklahoma City). Mike Gansey is turning into a Jeff Hornacek clone, and Kevin Pittsnogle is, well, Kevin Pittsnogle. Plus, their 1-3-1 zone and quirky offense are extremely hard to prepare for."

He also tosses in this blurb:

"West Virginia actually has plays called "Double Quickie Potato," "Dirty Harry" and (my personal favorite) "Best Play Ever." Imagine the terror a defender must feel when he hears Mountaineers coach John Beilein call out "Best Play Ever.""

Perhaps a feature on the Mountaineers in the upcoming issue of SI ?

WVU heads to UCLA Saturday ... a rare opponent but an old face on the bench in Ben Howland. Beilein tells the Mick it will be a hard game. Thanks, Mick.

All the Mountaineer home games remaining have sold out. This was the best link I could find ... from the Grand Forks Herald in South Dakota.

And WVU still has to play Cincinnati twice. The Bearcats are gearing up for Xavier, the Mounties and the Wyoming State East University of Making Chairs.

That's 11 in a row, baby, 11 in a row ...

We've tweaked Don Nehlen's famous post-BC 1993 quote for the WVU basketball team, which won its 11th straight game, 64-48 over Providence by holding the Friars to a season-low point total.

But Hickman reports Kevin Pittsnogle might miss the UCLA or Marshall games if his wife goes into labor with his first child. We wonder if the infant will be born with mommy's eyes or daddy's tattoos.

Around the world of college sports:

-- The P-G's Paul Zeise is impressed by Mike Gansey's eight 3-pointers against Marquette, but says the star guard is still way behind a (gasp) Herdie in the chase for the NCAA single-game record.

-- The Detroit News picks WVU to return to the Elite Eight.

-- Wendell Barnhouse of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says a certain 6-foot-11 shooting center is spawning the creation of a new sports dictionary.

-- And, during an Insider chat (no link), ESPN.com's Ivan Maisel became the latest to predict a Top Five start for WVU's football team, and called for Louisville and another Big East team (South Florida?) to emerge and create a new rivalry.

Calhoun is a maroon

UConn coach Jim Calhoun is running his yap again, and, as usual, has no earthly idea of what he speaks.

In this New Haven Register story, Calhoun calls out the perceived unfair scheduling practices for the behemoth Big East.

Calhoun said he had determined that conference officials had roughly divided the Big East into four tiers of four teams apiece. Tier I, Calhoun said, includes the conference’s heavyweights: UConn, Villanova, Syracuse and Louisville. UConn has to play each of those teams twice and 10 of the conference’s 12 remaining teams once. And that, Calhoun said, creates imbalances.

"I mean, West Virginia is in Tier III, if you figure it out," Calhoun said. "They brought back every single player on their team." {ed. note: Simply not true ... Sally and Fischer gone.}

Over the weekend, Calhoun also argued that the Mountaineers had been paired with three teams in their tier that had yet to win a conference game, meaning West Virginia has a distinct advantage in the race for the regular-season title. The Mountaineers, Calhoun suggested, will play three weaker teams twice while UConn has to double up against Villanova, Syracuse and Louisville.

{Again, wildly untrue. WVU's Cincinnati, Pitt and Georgetown trio have almost an identical overall and conference record as Syracuse, Nova and L'ville ... both UConn and WVU avoid Rutgers and DePaul, neither of which will finish in the upper half of the Big East.}

"I understand it’s all driven by TV," Calhoun said. "But from a competitive standpoint, West Virginia should be in the top four. They just have to be. They’re too good of a basketball team not to be. "

We'd say "sour grapes" from Jimmy, but given that bulbous nose, we think he prefers his grapes fermented and often.

Cyrus Jones' pre-Providence linkfest

WVU puts its 10-game winning streak on the line tonight against Providence. The winless-in-the-Big East Friars might need Melinda Kanakaredes and the Farrelly brothers to slow the Mountaineers, though they gave nationally ranked Louisville and Memphis trouble.

Hickman tells us way more than we ever wanted to know about Mike Gansey's wardrobe (but since Mike G. sleeps with blankets of Oscar the Grouch and Scooby-Doo, maybe we should call him Linus Van Pelt).

(Then again, he can wear Spider-Man Underoos and we wouldn't care as long as he keeps scoring 33 a game.)

Hicky also says the Fry Guys are young but talented.

From the Friars' camp, the ProJo (registration required) says guard Sharaud Curry is one of the Big East's most productive freshmen.

WVU is up to 12th in the AP poll and 17th in the coaches' poll -- but we question the validity of the coaches' rankings. Only two of the 31 voters (Syracuse's Jim Boeheim and Creighton's Dana Altman) have faced the Mountaineers in the past two seasons. Does anybody really trust Coppin State's Fang Mitchell and Montana State's Mick Durham to pick the 25 best teams? Didn't think so.

ESPN's Andy Katz shows Gansey some love, calling him "a favorite here at ESPN.com" because of his all-out approach to the game.

CBS Sportsline.com says WVU is ranked 58th in its version of the RPI -- behind five teams from the Missouri Valley Conference. We get it -- the MVC is an underrated league. We learned that from Creighton in last year's NCAA tourney.

Nenad Grmusa's Links of the Day

West Virginia hosts Marquette today at 2 p.m. Expect some possible in-game and post-game reaction from Chez.

The Mountaineers have one of the most efficient offenses in the country, second in the Big East behind Villanova, which has the nation's most efficient according to a statistical model reviewed in this story.

Today's game features good-shooting big men with Kevin Pittsnogle going against Steve Novak.

West Liberty coach makes sure WVU's 'Eaton' healthy

Who is this man at right and why does he matter? Why, that's former West Liberty coach Bob Eaton, and he deserves some credit for WVU's Sugar Bowl championship and the Mountaineers' promising future.

Five years ago, Eaton recruited a little-known running back-wide receiver out of tiny Daphne, Ala., named Bo White. From 2001-2004, White fought through injuries and blossomed into a big-play threat for an otherwise woeful Hilltoppers team despite being stuck on the depth chart behind Derrick Stickles.

Bo White's presence 100 miles away at West Liberty made it much easier for kid brother Patrick to spurn scholarship offers from Alabama, LSU and other $EC schools and pick West Virginia on Signing Day 2004. After Bo White graduated from West Liberty, he took a job as one of RichRod's graduate assistants while his baby brother made himself into a Mountaineer legend.

Vick's apologists missing the point

The only people enjoying the end of Jerome Bettis's career more than him are his parents. Maybe Marcus Vick could have used a good set instead of Gene's excuses.

ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski pens a love letter to Marcus Vick and Maurice Clarett making excuses for their colossal screw-ups. Well, maybe that's a little harsh. Gene spends most of his time rationalizing their errors as a symptom of hard childhoods. Credit Gene for doing some research and fleshing out an important story ... but he didn't really go far enough.

Gene tiptoes around the central point of the problem with Vick and Clarett and many others: they had no father figure or otherwise strong male family role model. It's an all too often occurrence in the American black community and one that continually gets glossed over. I think to all the shots of Donovan McNabb's or Jerome Bettis' mother and father celebrating together in the stands ... strong family units, strong men of character. And yet a guy like McNabb can get condemned from within his own ethnic group for basically not being "black enough" compared to thugs like Terrell Owens. It's a common problem also in education systems, where academic achievers that happen to be black get castigated by their friends as acting white or betraying their upbringing. Talk to a person of wisdom like Tony Dungy and you know that's utter bullshit ... being black and being smart aren't mutually exclusive concepts, and the people who insinuate that they are should be shamed and silenced, not the other way around.

We need more McNabbs, Bettises, Quincy Wilsons, Steve Slatons (son of Carl and Juanita Tiggett-Slaton), Pat Whites (so of Bo and Vonametris White) and less Vicks, Claretts and their excuse trains. Gene also doesn't bother to explain why Michael Vick's character has never been called into question (excluding his sex life, which you can argue is a private matter and doesn't involve the underaged, guns, stomping or public displays of obscene gestures) while his brother is thug No. 1. We have a black popular culture that centers around tough-guy delinquents who either play sports or rap, and there's no middle ground. It's time to face these issues and discuss them intelligently no matter your skin color and make this country a better place for all kids until there are no more Marcus Vicks.

By the way, here's Gene's excerpt about the Mountaineer Field incident:

Vick was suspended for the 2004 season (for possession of marijuana and a conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor by allowing underaged girls to have alcohol; he was found innocent of having sex with a 15 year old). And this season at West Virginia, he was disciplined for a middle-finger salute at Mountaineers fans. Never mind that some of the fans called him a rapist, a pedophile, a child molester. Or that the Hokies' team bus drove by a building that featured a sign hanging from one of the windows: "Hide Your Children. Marcus Is In Town."

Hey Gene: They do much worse at every basketball game at Duke and it's called creative. In Morgantown it's seen as a negative. I say, Keep up the non-projectile intimidation, Mountaineer fans !

It's a Mountaineer world and we're just living in it

Let the predictions begin ... The Austin American-Statesman slates WVU as its prediction for 2006 national champion ... excerpted ...

And who better to climb college football's highest mountain in 2006?
The Mountaineers, of course.
Bear with us here. Every team we looked at has warts, but remember that Oklahoma was ranked 19th in the preseason when it won the title in 2000.
In a tight decision, we settled on West Virginia just ahead of 2003 BCS champion Louisiana State and resurgent Notre Dame. Filling out our top five are Ohio State and Florida.
There's not much not to like about the Mountaineers, whose bowl performance made them look like the strongest team in college football that didn't play in the Rose Bowl or the Fiesta Bowl, in which the Buckeyes beat the Fighting Irish. West Virginia put up a 28-0 lead on eighth-ranked Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and held on for a riveting 38-35 victory in the second-most exciting postseason game.
West Virginia has everything a team needs to stake its claim to No. 1:
Good head coach. Rich Rodriguez is quietly building a monster in Morgantown. Did you see his gutsy fake punt call to seal the win over Georgia?
Solid quarterback. Pat White turned down a baseball offer from the Angels and a football scholarship from LSU and quickly took over the reins of the offense. He's part of the new generation of mobile quarterbacks.
Sensational running back. Like White, Steve Slaton burst upon the scene as a freshman, showed a quick burst through the hole and broke Tony Dorsett's Sugar Bowl record with 204 yards rushing. This guy's a star.
Top receivers. The team's three best are back.
Winnable schedule. The Mountaineers trade in Virginia Tech for Mississippi State and will sleepwalk through Marshall, Buffalo and Maryland. Only possible potholes come at Louisville and Pittsburgh.
Less competition. West Virginia is easily the class of the Big East, and with the talent losses at Texas and Southern California, no dynasty remains intact.

Elsewhere, former WVU assistant and Poca native Bill Legg, now at Purdue, is in talks with Al Groh for either a coordinator spot or position job at UVGay.

And Slaton gets some hometown paper love.

More ink than Pittsnogle's tats

The national media are finally figuring it out -- it's a great time to be a Mountaineer.

The Sporting News says WVU could be a major player in the '06 race to the desert, listing the Mountaineers as one of five teams (excluding USC) with the best chance of reaching the Fiesta Bowl.

TSN also has the Mountaineers ranked 3rd in its "Way Too Early Top 10," and lists Patrick White as a Heisman contender.

And Tom Dienhart says RichRod, among others, would have been a better pick than JoePa for coach of the year.

This week's Sports Illustrated print edition (no links) has a few Mountaineer mentions, too. There's a small photo of Pittsnogle on Page 5 and the adjacent copy reads "For anyone who thought that West Virginia's trip to the regional finals last March was a fluke, note that Kevin Pittsnogle & Co. have won by 24 at No. 7 Oklahoma and by four at No. 3 Villanova, and lost by one to No. 2 Texas."

Luke Winn's Inside College Basketball spread on pages 68-69 also has some Mountaineer love, with a photo of Pittsy defending Nova's Randy Foye. In a story lauding the Big East as the best league in the nation, Winn asserts that West Virginia "is in the mix for conference supremacy."

Rick Dolly's Links of the Day

SI.com has the Mountaineers eighth in their weekly ratings. An excerpt:

Can we issue a national "passé" warning on the use of "Pittsnogled" in all telecasts and stories? Cult hero Kevin Pittsnogle put himself back into the national spotlight by scoring 22 points in last Sunday's upset of Villanova, and his verb will enjoy a renaissance come tournament time. But does everyone realize the extent to which this craze has already spread? I recall a scene from November, at the Guardian's Classic in Kansas City, where I watched an inattentive older fan -- of a very grandfatherly age -- nearly get run over by the Big Kev and Mountaineers as they jogged out of the tunnel for warmups. The man, who didn't appear to be a WVU supporter, turned to a companion and said, "Whoa, I almost got Pittsnogled." Next three: 1/14 vs. Marquette; 1/17 vs. Providence; 1/21 at UCLA.

If you swim upstream, get your very own "I Douby Lieve" t-shirt ...

First column I've seen that refers to the new Big East as "tricked out" ... leads with WVU mentions ...

Mountaineers are even getting attention in Syracuse ...

Jay and Tony's running commentary

WVU comes back at home to beat Georgetown, 68-61 ... here's some of what Tony and Jay had to say, chronologically ...

"The shots just are not falling for West Virginia." -- TC

Jay calls for Pittsnogle to shoot; in the next second, he makes one.

"Hold your breath if he's hitting, baby" -- Jacobs on JD Collins

TC on Hibbert: "When he's out there it's like playing Nerf ball against a kid"

Jay calls another shot (Frank Young) before it goes in.

"Bad decision by Pat Beilein" -- TC (falling back 3-pointers, typified the shot selection)

"We have not seen Pittsnogle demonstrate such physical and determined presence in the post in his career." -- TC

"This one's not over folks..."

"Oh my gosh, Kevin Pittsnogle has turned into Kareem Abdul Jabbar here ... he's got 20 pts, and he's having a field day in the lane !" -- TC

"This game's far from over" -- Jay

"You're exactly right Jay ... it has come right back into form for Georgetown."

"57 will not win the game, Tony ... "

"Guard the 3," Jay says, but they don't listen.

Jay's sign-off:
"I like this one. Boy, I'll tell you what. They worked their butts off tonight. And this crowd recognizes it: they beat a heck of a basketball team. And don't kid yourself: Georgetown is going to win a heck of a lot of basketball games."

Boris Graham's Links of the Day

Georgetown has won 9 of 10 from WVU ... the Mountaineers have their highest rankings since February 1998 ... forces collide tomorrow night.

The Canadian betting services like WVU.

MICKEY puts his stamp of approval on it: Georgia win is biggest in school history.

Pot, meet kettle

What's left to do after your seemingly superior football powerhouse has been undressed in its backyard by a bunch of perceived lower class? Well, of course ... trot out some lame, hypocritical stereotypes and pretend that you won't get immediately assailed by the thousands of WVU fans who are always waiting to crack the heads of bigots everywhere.

Presenting case No. 42,495: Lauren Morgan of redandblack.com, Georgia's independent online student newspaper. Her thesis: All WVU fans fit into the hillbilly stereotype and menaced the genteel, well-dressed and well-apportioned Georgia southerners.

Juanita Cousins (jcousins@randb.com) is apparently the person with whom to file your complaints.

And, Lauren, we've seen better touches of reality from your boy Greg Blue ...

The Sugar Bowl was disappointing for players, students, alumni and just about the whole state of Georgia.
But watching the game wasn’t the worst part of the Sugar Bowl. It was having to deal with West Virginia fans.
Normally I’m pretty polite and cordial to visiting fans. But this was a different ball game.
I had never met more rude, uncouth and toothless individuals than on Jan. 2 in the Georgia Dome.
Compare and contrast Georgia and West Virginia fans.
Yes, we both tailgate pretty hard, but we take ours to a level hard to attain. I didn’t see any Green Eggs or plasma screen satellite TVs at a Mountaineer tailgate. I did see a lot of hibachi grills on the back of beat-up trucks and Ford Pintos.
The attire is easy to contrast, not just for a color scheme but for the lack of class.
Georgia ladies have pearls. West Virginia girls have blue and gold Mardi Gras beads.
Georgia gents wear red or black golf shirts. West Virginia fans kept their clothes on from the night before and added some face paint or a WVU coozie.
“Wow, y’all sure are pretty. Wanna watch the game with me?” said one WVU fan in a Davy-Crocket style coon cap.
Um…thanks, but no thanks.
In order to sit with my family, we were stuck up in the third tier of the Dome between two rows of WVU fans.
I knew we were in for trouble when a girl, decked out in blue and gold, sat down behind us and immediately apologized for her boyfriend.
She was pretty drunk herself since she told me, “I love your shirt” about five different times, shaking my hand each time she said it.
I can tolerate drunken people, since sober people tolerate me on frequent occasions. I can even appreciate the fact that she and her boyfriend probably had been tailgating awhile.
But how bad can a couple of drunken WVU fans really be?
Pretty intolerable.
Sure enough, a scruffy looking guy as big as a house sat down next to the girl and said “What? We have to sit next to these [explicit]s.”
And the a-word was mild compared to the strings of four letter words the student used in an attempt to form complete sentences.
Granted I won’t repeat such words and it typically wouldn’t have bothered me, except he said them to my mother.
My dad is usually a pretty level-headed man, but when the Mountain Man said “The SEC is a bunch of [p-word]s,” Dad almost went ballistic.
Being a gentleman, he didn’t fight the guy, but I had never really seen my dad that angry.
Well, when my mother and another Bulldog fan went to the bathroom, the drunken idiot’s girlfriend was in there as well. They gave her a lesson in southern hospitality.
“You need to remember that you’re in the South. And down here, we don’t use that type of language in front of women and children,” the Scarlett O’Hara accented Bulldog fan said.
“Your boyfriend needs to watch his mouth or else my husband is about to have him evicted.”
Unfortunately, bad language isn’t enough to get a fan tossed out of the Dome.
We asked the security guard.
Ironically, when West Virginia was up 21-0, the drunk guy shut up. At least until Georgia started making a comeback.
Then it was another spewing of f-words, s-words and the Lord’s name in vain.
When Georgia scored, I saw another drunk WVU fan across the aisle throw his popcorn and beer all over the Georgia fans sitting behind him.
I know that the University has considered making a requirement for students to take ethics or morality courses.
I think that West Virginia’s administration might want to consider etiquette classes as part of their required curriculum as well.
— Lauren Morgan is a staff writer for The Red & Black.

Perspective, please

There are some things a writer should learn quickly in journalism. You don't miss deadlines. You don't plagiarize. And you never, ever compare a ball game to a real-world disaster.

Matt Keller of the Blue and Gold News apparently skipped that day.

In a story apparently meant to praise WVU running back Steve Slaton's performance in the Sugar Bowl, Keller draws a ridiculous and wholly inappropriate parallel to the Upshur County mining tragedy:

From Page 9 of the Jan. 14, 2006, edition of the Blue and Gold News:

Mountaineers leave Georgia in the dust
By Matt Keller
On a day when 13 miners were trapped 250 feet underground, Steve Slaton’s dash through the Dan Mozes-parted red sea 640 miles south in the Sugar Bowl was worth its emotional investment in returns.
The Mountaineer frosh’s 204-yard outing will provide a flickering of positive memories on a day when 12 of 13 miracles were extinguished. We won’t wax poetic about how Slaton’s totes could begin to compare to the outcome the state’s salt of the earth hoped for. But as time wanes on, Slaton’s astronomical effort will be recalled with Paul Bunyan-like exaggeration.

A plea for perspective: It's completely ludicrous, and downright offensive, to think anyone in West Virginia feels better about the mining tragedy because Slaton ran for 204 yards and three touchdowns.

Any writer who attempts to connect the Siro Mine tragedy and the Sugar Bowl -- or any other sporting event, for that matter -- should be ashamed of himself.

It's a great week to be a Mountaineer, where ever you may be

WVU hands Villanova its first loss of the year, winning 91-87 in the Pavilion. Pittsnogle scored 22, was 5 of 8 inside the arc, made a couple of huge hooks in the paint, grabbed a game-high-tying 5 boards and generally made Doyel look like the ass he is. The German led with 23, Gansey had 21 and WVU forced 22 Wildcat turnovers to overcome their ridiculous 10 of 13 3-point first-half that included nobody on the team missing a shot except Randy Foye.

Update: Here's a link to an AP story with quotes.

This victory is WVU's first ever on the road (in the home gym) against a team ranked in the top 3. Last such big of a win was in 1983 in the Coliseum over No. 1 UNLV. The only other top-3 victories: in 1966 over No. 1 Duke in Charleston; in 1964 over No. 3 Davidson in Charleston; and in 1957 over No. 1 North Carolina in Lexington, Ky.

Also, Vince Young announced he's turning pro, which is huge for the football team. They're even more likely to start in the top-5 next year ... do we hear top 3???

Andy Katz gives the Mountaineers some love ...

Gregg Doyel = Ignorant Douchebag

CBS Sportsline.com's Gregg Doyel (right) might be the most ignorant tool working for a national media outlet.

He rips WVU and Kevin Pittsnogle by blindly saying the Mountaineers won't beat Villanova because their "biggest player wants to play 30 feet from the basket," without backing that jab with any stats.

We crunched the numbers and came to a different conclusion. Last season, Pittsnogle was more of a mad bomber from 3-point range -- 45 percent of his shots came from beyond the arc. This season, Pittsnogle has refined his inside game, has more confidence in it and isn't shooting as often from 3-point range -- 60 percent of his 158 shots have come inside the arc.

Fact is, Pittsnogle is taking better shots this season, and his improved shooting percentages across the board reflect that.

He's shooting 53 percent overall, 56 percent from 2-point range and 46 percent from 3, as opposed to last year when he was a 46 percent overall shooter, and made 49 percent from 2-point range and 42 percent from 3.

The Sporting News' Mike DeCourcy offers better insight in this week's print edition. He writes that Pittsnogle "is scoring more than ever because he's no longer a 3-point novelty act. Pittsnogle has added a terrific midpost game, and playing inside helps him draw more fouls. Slightly more than a third of his points have been scored on 3s -- down from half as a sophomore."

Doyel, meanwhile, is content to offer knee-jerk opinions without bothering to pay attention to any of WVU's games.

A Vick-tory for justice

Marcus Vick, what do you think of being kicked off the team at Virginia Tech? "It’s not a big deal. I’ll just move on to the next level, baby," he tells the Virginian-Pilot. And so the thug who cheap-shotted Tony Gibson and flipped off WVU's fans will enter the draft. Good riddance.

In hoops, Sportsline.com says No. 24 WVU's Sunday game at third-ranked Villanova is one of the weekend's 10 best matchups. But Gregg Doyel, a notorious Mountaineer hater, doesn't give Papa John's boys much of a chance. "Someone's going to beat Villanova and make the Wildcats pay for their insufferably small lineup. But that someone isn't going to be a team whose biggest player wants to play 30 feet from the basket." We think Beilein's boys are out to avenge that 38-point beatdown in their last visit to the Philly burbs.

The Philly Daily News wonders if the Big East will receive 9 or 10 berths in the NCAA tournament. So do we.

Armin Mahrt's Links of the Day

Poor little Maryland ... the Terps need to ease their non-conference load, AD Debbie Yow says, and they're ditching the Mountaineers in 2008 and 2009 in favor of Cal. "Playing West Virginia and Cal in the same year - in addition to the greatly improved ACC - overloaded our team, and Coach [Ralph] Friedgen and I agreed in 2008-09 to play Cal instead of West Virginia." The Terps lost to West Virginia, 31-19, last fall en route to their second consecutive 5-6 season. It was the second straight season Maryland lost to West Virginia. We think the Fat Man's preference for cream puffs and cupcakes isn't limited to bakeries.

Mike Tranghese, of all people, says it's time to talk some smack about WVU's bowl victory.

"And when you have an event like West Virginia's win, that was an important game for us, to get out there and gloat about it is the absolute wrong way to approach it. The best thing is to talk about what a great team West Virginia was and what a great call (West Virginia coach) Rich Rodriguez made (with a fourth-quarter fake punt)."

The State Journal steps outside politics to do a little chest thumping about the Sugar Bowl. And some CPA from Newport News, Va., is also touting the Mounties now.

The Cincinnati Post calls WVU's basketball team the biggest letdown in the Big East.

Knight Ridder wire: Slaton the latest in long line of great WVU backs. "I feel it's a miracle season for me and a big statement for me to come out for next year and hopefully the next few years I'll be better and improve," Slaton said.

Adios, Lil' Mexico

Marcus Vick is kicked off Virginia Tech's football team for good. School president Charles Steger previously said that if Vick faced additional off-field troubles, "his Virginia Tech career is effectively ended." Justice finally prevails for a thug whose rap sheet includes providing alcohol to underage girls, flipping off WVU's fans, elbowing Mountaineer assistant Tony Gibson, stomping Louisville defensive lineman Elvis Dumervil and, now, charges of misdemeanor driving on a suspended or revoked driver's license.

More news and notes:

-- Houston Nutt didn't make the same mistake twice. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is reporting Nutt voted West Virginia at No. 5 in the final USA Today coaches' poll. Nutt infamously left the Mountaineers off his pre-bowl ballot. The final ballots are confidential, but Nutt made his Top 5 available to the newspaper at its request. The Mountaineers finished sixth in the coaches' poll.

Flying higher in '06

The first poll of the 2006 preseason is in, and ESPN.com's Pat Forde says West Virginia should start next season ranked 3rd because "Quarterback Pat White and running back Steve Slaton were amazingly productive as freshmen, and they have plenty of other offensive weapons to rely on." On the other hand, "the secondary must be rebuilt, and we all remember how the Mountaineers underachieved in 2004 with top 10 expectations." Forde has Texas at No. 1 and Ohio State at No. 2 -- and remember, the 'Horns and Buckeyes play in Austin in '06.

Stewart Mandel of SI.com also has the Mountaineers in his early '06 poll -- at No. 6, behind Texas, Notre Dame, USC, LSU and Ohio State.

Also, lots of Sugar love from Rich Cirminiello of Collegefootballnews.com. He named Steve Slaton's breakout performance against Jawja as the fifth-best story of the postseason and made the entire Mountaineers team as the No. 6 story, saying "Texas aside, no school was a bigger winner than West Virginia this bowl season." He also slotted the Sugar Bowl itself at No. 19 and said of it: "The displaced Sugar Bowl had more than 1,000 yards of offense, a ton of great individual efforts and a Mountie celebration that probably still hasn't ceased."

More from Cirminiello, who ranked Patrick (don't call him Pat anymore) White at No. 63, adding: "C'mon. There's no way this kid is a freshman."

Gimme Five

West Virginia's landmark Sugar Bowl victory helped the Mountaineers match their best finish in the national rankings. WVU was ranked 5th in the final Associated Press poll -- equaling a feat first accomplished by the 1988 team which lost in the Fiesta Bowl. The coaches slotted WVU at No. 6 -- barely behind LSU, which was routed by the same Georgia team (and on the same Jawja Dome field where) the Mountaineers dominated the Bulldogs.

Notables in the AP poll -- 1. Texas, 2. USC, 3. Penn St, 4. Ohio St, 5. WVU, 6. LSU, 7. VT, 8. Alabama, 9. ND, 10. Georgia ... 19. Louisville.

This picture wasn't PhotoShopped, honest

No joke. It's real, Mountaineers fans.

Only 242 days until Marshall.

Mark Johnson's Links of the Day

Randy Coleman, an UGA grad and a former AP reporter in Charleston, W.Va., has a very good piece on the Mountaineer fan base.

New York Times: Georgia' defeat benefits Big East.

Times-Picayune: Big East earned credibility.

Daily Mail: Rodriguez says WVU still has a long way to go.

Rodriguez: legend

Rich Rodriguez woke up a legend today.

How much more succinctly can you describe the impact of last night's Sugar Bowl victory over Georgia?

Rodriguez has become to Don Nehlen what John Beilein is to Gale Catlett -- the guy who replaced a long-serving coach and elevated the program to unthinkable heights that his predecessor never could.

In one swoop, Rodriguez authored the undisputed biggest victory in program history, and his fake-punt call will go down as the single most memorable play the Mountaineers ever have run.

Amos Zereoue's first carry against Pitt, Curlin Beck's draw against Oklahoma, Major Harris' magical run against Penn State ... none produced the kind of dividend that WVU should reap.

What will be interesting to follow is whether Rodriguez uses this victory to ratchet up recruiting ... Nehlen was never able to parlay his two undefeated seasons into sustained blue-chip success.

We've long held plenty of reservations about Rodriguez -- his short temper and foul mouth can make him look like a fool on the sidelines, he can be predictable and vanilla in his play calling, and he doesn't seem to be able to recruit very many impact receivers who can actually get open.

But you can't argue at all with the fact that Rodriguez just created the mold for his own statue in Morgantown with that win last night.

And he's helped changed the culture around WVU football -- we no longer expect to blow it in the end or choke up the joint. We have a bowl winning streak and a string of top-25 victories in the past few years.

Now Rodriguez has WVU poised for a top-5 or -6 finish and a start high enough next year that if things work out could land the Mountaineers in the national championship game.

Rodriguez even made Phil Brady the most famous punter in school history ... even surpassing -- dare we say it? -- The Fazz !

Sugar Bowl champions !

Links, links and more links:

WVU hopes to get a boost heading into the '06 season.

Georgia didn't expect it. The Big East was supposed to be the Big Easy, the LA Times says.

The Mountaineers certainly made a statement for the Big East.

The Big East got the last laugh. No Miami, BC or VT? No problem.

The victory salvaged some respect for the conference.

The Georgia media certainly didn't see this one coming.

There's even Mountaineer coverage at forbes.com.

Where was that SEC speed? Nobody's quicker than White and Slaton.

Slaton's old high school moved up the tip time of its boys basketball game on Monday so fans could get home in time to watch him play.

A Georgia notebook. Former Dominion Post writer Mike Lough called this one "epic."

Reynaud in the Times-Picayune: "We shocked them tonight."

Most hilarious typo, also from the New Orleans paper: ATLANTA -- And to think, Darius Reynaud still is learning the nuisances of the wide receiver position.

Slaton and White provided the accelerants for the metaphorical couch fire.

Wildest Sugar Bowl ever?

Georgia joined GA Tech, Ga. Southern and the Falcons with disappointing final games.

Mountaineers teach Dogs new tricks.

Georgia media can't figure out what took White and Slaton so long to get in the starting lineup. Let's not get back into discussing the Superguard again ...

There were actually some WVU fans living in Georgia.

WVU played with a chip on its shoulder.

Will this game have any kind of recruiting impact for either school?

Some Dawg faithful couldn't stomach being waxed by a couple of freshmen. They also need to can the lame stereotype jokes.

Last time somebody was burning up Atlanta so badly? Sherman instead of Slaton.

And finally, your requisite example of Mitch Vingle resorting to one-word sentences in a WVU big-game column:

ATLANTA — As a sports writer you’re supposed to call ’em as you see ’em.

On Monday night, at the Sugar Bowl in Atlanta, there was only one word to describe West Virginia’s 38-35 victory over Georgia.

Incredible.

Chez wears a fez

Time to celebrate and tailgate. Sugar Bowl gameday is here.

WVU needs to save face for the Big East. United National bank bought some billboard space in Atlanta. And Finder continues to struggle with Latin. (Nee is French for birthname or born as, not renamed, Chuckles.)

Also, Jack B. checks in from Hotlanta. Richie received an extra $150k for winning the league and going to the BCS. WVU's staff has come a long way from the days of Phil #$#$!@% Elmassian.

Meanwhile, Mitchiepoo writes about grackles. And Hickman reflects on how far WVU has come, and where it still needs to go. No school has won more games (642) without a national title.

"They've almost perfected their running game."

The Sugar is the only bowl other than the Rose to feature two 10-win teams.

Gameday is here ...

... and Spot The Blog is in Atlanta. The team is, too, though we're not sure to where they've relocated after RichRod pulled the travel team from the Hyatt Regency and placed them in an undisclosed hotel apparently somewhere in the Atlanta suburbs.

Will the tactic work? Leave us a comment and let us know ...

Theron Ellis' New Year's Day Links

The AJC produces its best work of the pre-Sugar Bowl coverage. Steve Hummer's "West Virginia's burning football passion" gives a fair shake to the Mountain State, but could have delved a little deeper. Still, it mentions the requisite couches, pepperoni rolls and Nehlen. Viva la Nehlen ! Here's the beginning:

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — The sometimes-fiery passion that envelops West Virginia University football has a playful side, too. It might not swell civic pride when a few Mountaineers fans take to the streets after a watershed victory and set fire to their old couches (because they burn so much brighter than settees, don't you know). Still, that has tickled the marketplace.

At the Mountaineer Corner store near the WVU campus, they can barely keep in stock the scented couch-shaped candles — cinnamon, vanilla, lilac — produced by a local wick-worker. Same with the T-shirt bearing the slogan: "Morgantown — Where Greatness is Learned and Couches Are Burned."

You can find the rest by clicking here. In another story, the AJC recycles a bunch of quotes. This one, from Bill Bratzke-like Greg Blue, is the best: "When you see the words 'freshman' and 'quarterback' together, your eyes light up," Blue said. "We will have to introduce them to how we play in the Southeastern Conference."

UGA is a little beat-up at linebacker.

Ray Fittipaldo checks in from Planet Obvious and says the Mountaineers could use a big-time bowl victory.

Ernest Hunter and Jason Colson are expected to be ready to play in the game. Jeremy Bruce won't.

Other Sugar Bowl previews:
San Francisco Chronicle
The Buffalo News predicts Georgia 49-21, and says, "West Virginia will find out immediately after kickoff that watered down Big East competition is not a good way to prepare for an SEC team like Georgia."