masthead.jpg

switchconcepts.com, U3dpdGNo-a25, DIRECT rubiconproject.com, 14766, RESELLER pubmatic.com, 30666, RESELLER, 5d62403b186f2ace appnexus.com, 1117, RESELLER thetradedesk.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER taboola.com, switchconceptopenrtb, RESELLER bidswitch.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER contextweb.com, 560031, RESELLER amazon-adsystem.com, 3160, RESELLER crimtan.com, switch, RESELLER quantcast.com, switchconcepts , RESELLER rhythmone.com, 1934627955, RESELLER ssphwy.com, switchconcepts, RESELLER emxdgt.com, 59, RESELLER appnexus.com, 1356, RESELLER sovrn.com, 96786, RESELLER, fafdf38b16bf6b2b indexexchange.com, 180008, RESELLER nativeads.com, 52853, RESELLER theagency.com, 1058, RESELLER google.com, pub-3515913239267445, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0
March 9, 2011

No Homer Like a Hoopie Homer

Filed under: Basketball,General Stupidity — Chas @ 11:40 am

As you know, I felt like a bit of a homer picking Coach Jamie Dixon as the Big East Coach of the Year. Yes it is a defensible choice, and plenty of good reason to make the call. Still when you are a Pitt partisan picking the Pitt coach in a wide open field there is a twinge.

That said, you have to love West Virginia partisans trying to explain both why Bob Huggins was deserving of consideration, and why he wasn’t.

Why deserving?

Not only did the Mountaineers lose DaSean Butler and Wellington Smith to graduation, but Devin Ebanks’ decision to forego his senior season and test the NBA’s waters left the Mountaineers with a talent void.

As if those weren’t big enough losses, incoming freshman Noah Cottrill was suspended for violating team rules and later withdrew from school while ‘Mr. Basketball’ in the state of Minnesota, Kevin Noreen, was lost to the team after suffering a leg injury that required season-ending surgery.

It didn’t stop there for Huggins, who captured his 100th victory as head coach at his alma mater when the Mountaineers scored five points in the final 8.3 seconds to beat No. 11 Louisville (72-70) on Saturday. There was sophomore Dan Jennings walking off the court during a contest and being placed on indefinite suspension while leading scorer Casey Mitchell has been in Huggins’ doghouse so much his nickname could be easily be Spot.

Even with all of that, the Mountaineers were able to post 20 wins-six against teams ranked in the Top 25-and 11 victories in a conference that could easily send 11 teams into the NCAA tournament when the field of 68 is announced on Sunday.

So it’s because the team won while having players fail in school, quit or continually getting suspended. Players Huggins recruited, no less. That’s enough?

WVU finished tied for 6th in the conference. The Hoopies were picked to finish 5th in the Big East. The only ones believing in the lack of talent were WVU writers and fans who swallowed everything from Huggins when he bemoaned how bad his team was midway through the Big East season.

And why not considered?

No doubt Lavin and Brey have done good jobs at St. John’s and Notre Dame, respectively — as has Jamie Dixon at Pitt, another seeming frontrunner for the award. The question here is, have they done a better job than Huggins?

We say no.

That leads to the question, if these other guys are rightfully deserving, and they are, why isn’t Huggins’ name even being mentioned?

Could it be something as simple as Huggins is expected to win every year, so when he does even under challenging circumstances, it isn’t big news?

Or could it be, as more than a few Mountaineer fans suspect, that WVU often gets the short-shrift from the Big East office and the Big East media.

God-bless the delusionally paranoid. They provide great entertainment.





Huggins should get an award for staying sober for as long as he has.

Comment by TX Panther 03.09.11 @ 11:56 am

LOL agree w you TX.

Also love the subtlety at the top–

Filed Under: Basketball, General Stupidity

Comment by Joe 03.09.11 @ 12:39 pm

This is a bit O/T, but nearly done with the first half, UConn is leading Georgetown by 15. This isn’t a big surprise, but it looks like Connecticut will be our first opponent in the BE Tourney. Any thoughts how that will go the second time around?

Comment by Lou 03.09.11 @ 12:45 pm

Could it be something as simple as Huggins is expected to win every year, so when he does even under challenging circumstances, it isn’t big news?

BREAKING NEWS: Big East basketball coach expected to win. When reached for comment, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Jamie Dixon, Jay Wright, Rick Pitino, John Thompson III, and Mike Brey replied “Well, I never!”

Comment by 85 03.09.11 @ 12:47 pm

Lou – I actually like the matchup with UConn. On offense, they can become very one dimensional (although that one dimension can be awfully good), and they are not consistently good on defense or on the boards, despite their athleticism and size. I would also hope that Pitt would be able to wear down a team playing a third game in three days.

While you can’t count out a team that has the best player on the court at any given time, I think Pitt is smarter and tougher.

Comment by Pantherman13 03.09.11 @ 1:34 pm

UConn is awful inside. We should be able to take advantage there, getting multiple shots on offense and limiting them to one shot on defense.

Walker will get his points, so the key will be making him work early so he fades late and limiting the other guys like Lamb and Napier. If Pitt does that, they win going away like the first time.

Comment by TampaT 03.09.11 @ 1:51 pm

Speaking of Big East coaches, one current and one former are getting some interesting coverage these days:

link to nytimes.com

link to espn.go.com

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 03.09.11 @ 2:41 pm

I swear, Gonzalez must be the Charlie Sheen of college hoops coaches…

Comment by Pantherman13 03.09.11 @ 4:05 pm

wow, anyone else see Higgins and Burr botch the last 5 seconds of that Rutgers game!? Wow, confirming what I have known all along…they are brutal.

Comment by tray 03.09.11 @ 4:43 pm

Agree with Gottlieb in the studio postmortem- those officials should not do another game in the BET and in the post-season the rest of the way. That was a disgrace not to review those final seconds.

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 03.09.11 @ 4:51 pm

Amazing. And Higgins and Burr are always lauded as being among the best. Frankly, I thought they sucked 25 years ago, and they haven’t gotten better with age.

I had just posted about officiating in the prior thread…then this…

Comment by Pantherman13 03.09.11 @ 5:14 pm

Talk about getting jobbed. Rutgers just lost to St. Johns on two horendous non-calls by the officials. The first with 12 seconds left Rutgers is fouled driving to hoop and no call is made. Then after St. Johns misses a foul shot and an over the back is not called, which knocks a Rutgers player down and and the out of bounds giving St. Johns the ball. Terrible officating! I guess they don’t want to make calls at the end of a game in Madison Square Garden. Much like the Pitt-St. Johns game, when the official didn’t make the out of bounds call before the shot. As Jay Bilas replied, “All I can say is that official was in position to make the call.”

Comment by Justinian 03.09.11 @ 5:15 pm

Those two officials have been at it for too long. They both probably are on Medicare. There should be an age limit, after a full game they are sucking wind so bad they can not think straight.
St. John’s probably wins in any event, but Rutgers deserved the chance to give it a shot.
Surely someone from the Big East could have called for a review of the clock at the end.

Comment by Jimbo 03.09.11 @ 5:32 pm

I hope we get the opportunity to slaughter St. John’s. Take away the chance for the officials to cheat for them yet again

Comment by Tony Cancilla 03.09.11 @ 5:36 pm

Wish I had a dollar for every time I have cursed Higgins and Burr….individually they are awful…together, completely inept. They are both from the “look at me” school of officiating.
I pray that Pitt does not get either or both…

Comment by Dan 72 03.09.11 @ 5:36 pm

Correct me if I am wrong but…once the St Johns player throws the ball in the stands with 1.7 on the clock, it should be a technical foul resulting in Rutgers free throws and possession? Big East officiating is a disgrace.

Comment by outlaw 03.09.11 @ 6:41 pm

It’s covered here-http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=6198753 .

Comment by SilverPanther in NYC 03.09.11 @ 6:43 pm

there are three games that I witnessed in my life where I will believe to the day I die that the fix was in:

1) a state semi-final game in the late 90s at the Field House bewteen New Castle and Erie Prep where despite having to come back from a 20 pt 3rd quarter lead, Prep had 10 less fouls called on them .. Prep won in OT

2) the 13-9 game where Pitt overcame the calls .. so biased that SI NFL writer Peter King, who watched the game on TV, felt compelled to write about the officiating

3) today’s game .. only saw the last few minutes but 3 very obviou fould by St John’s weren’t called in the final minute in addition to the final play

Comment by wbb 03.09.11 @ 7:00 pm

Rice must be beside himself. They make a terrific comeback, put themselves in position to win and lose because of poor officiating on two non-calls.

Comment by Justinian 03.09.11 @ 7:11 pm

Rice was very diplomatic in post-game presser although I’m sure he didn’t believe half of the things he said. I have no doubt that he will build Rutgers into a pretty good program which could be scary with all the local recruits available to him

Comment by wbb 03.09.11 @ 7:24 pm

good story in Bryan Bennett’s ESPN blog on Todd Graham in pre-spring interview. A few interesting notes:
1) Brandon Lindsay is perfect standup hybrid LB in 3-4 defense, but won’t participate in spring drills due to injuer
2) LB Dan Mason also is still out
3) Graham is excited to see QB derby among Tino, Myers and Gonzales. Thinks Tino being a coaches’ son should pick up no-huddle quickly

Comment by wbb 03.09.11 @ 7:30 pm

Barry Rohrssen cut loose by Manhattan today, after going 58-95 in five seasons (33-64 in conference). Maybe he’s a great recruiter but a crappy coach: “come home, Barry — all is forgiven”?

Comment by kentropic 03.09.11 @ 8:04 pm

Pitt an early 4 point favorite over UConn tomorrow.

Comment by Dan 72 03.09.11 @ 9:14 pm

I think Burr ran off because Rice was losing it over the non-call at the end. If Rice keeps his composure he would have been complaining about there still being time on the clock and Burr doesn’t run off because he wants to avoid Rice. That doesn’t happen to Dixon…Rice needs to better control himself in the heat of the moment.

Comment by FG 03.09.11 @ 9:34 pm

kentropic, who would we drop to add Barry? Knight? Skerry? Sandle? I liked Barry when he was here, but I think we’ve moved on. That’s the risk these guys take when they chase bigger dreams. He’ll wind up somewhere (like Herrion did at Pitt for a couple of years).

Comment by Hollow Panther 03.09.11 @ 9:37 pm

Nothing like watching Marquette beat WVU….can’t say I didn’t call it : link to bit.ly

Comment by merlin 03.09.11 @ 11:42 pm

Driving home from work I heard on the radio that there was some questionable calls at the end of the game…Honestly, my first thought was which one was it (you all know which two I am talking about)? Get home, turn of the TV and the highlights….funny thing is that it was both of them on the same freakin’ crew! Unreal! I mean I have been confused forever as to why Burr and Higgins get such a break/pass from evaluations that I know are done. No matter what game they officiate, they are always at the center of some controversy or critical call that changes the pace or context of the game. I can’t tell you how many times you hear from someone or get a text, “did you see the call (insert: Higgins or Burr) that guy just made?” I mean, I get sick when I see that one of those meatballs are going to be working a Pitt game.

Hail to Pitt

Comment by Jason 03.09.11 @ 11:59 pm

wbb, I would add the ’01 Duke/Maryland final four game. The refs handed that game to Duke on a platter and I’ve hated Duke ever since.

Comment by Carmen 03.10.11 @ 8:22 am

You got to feel for Mike Rice. I will admit that he does occasionally loose it on the sidelines and he should have been petitioning for a check of the clock at the end of the game instead of complaining of the obvious missed calls. But he handled himself and represented the school with class at the post game presser. Kudos to him for rising above.

Comment by virgil 03.10.11 @ 9:33 am

Powered by WordPress © PittBlather.com

Site Meter