WEST VIRGINIA MOUNTAINEERS
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New River Bridge is a highlight of any trip to West Virginia. Driven across it a couple of times.
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Regarding playing the Mountaineers, they are a conundrum. At one point I thought they might be the second best team in the league. But damn…they can really stink up the place. They’ve lost their five league games by 2, 27, 19, 18, & 20. That’s an average margin of defeat of 17.2 points. Imagine how bad it would be without that 2-point loss to ISU. Of their seven conference wins, four are against TCU & Texas Tech. Two of their other wins are of the narrow variety against KSU. That’s six of seven against the bottom three teams in the league. Their other win, and to this point their marquee win, is over OU by 21.
So…are they the good team that handled OU, the middling team that can beat the league bottom feeders, or a below average team that has been drastically out-classed numerous times they’ve stepped foot on the court?
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@icthawkfan316 good question! Ugly ball! Besides patience we need to make our throws, like sat. Rough bunch!
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Much like KSU, WVU’s schedule is back loaded with the better conference teams. At one time KSU was second in the Conference and getting top 25 votes and then…reality happened. Hard to believe that KSU swept OU; some times it is more about match ups and less about overall talent; KSU appears to be a bad match up for OU.
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There’s 2 ways of looking at this game. One is that West Virginia isn’t very good right now and the good teams in the conference have killed them.
The other is "the But. Its Kansas, it’s Big Monday, its 2 days after a tough home game. And that means we will see their best effort.
Like a lot of people have said West Virginia last week, a few weeks ago was a likely loss. Now I’m looking at this game as a must win. We should win, we need to win. Why? Because we have 1 good road win all season and we need another signature statement game. This game gives us that ability. If we can’t do what Baylor, Oklahoma, Texas, Iowa St have done to them what does that say about us? It would also be great to get rid of the stigma that this team can’t handle press. Hopefully they are focused and prepared for what’s coming. How hard can it be, Iowa St just drubbed them by 20.
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As of this morning from CBS Sports.
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From Bleacher Report.
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Huggy think’s that people have solved the full court press.
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Bleacher Report.
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West Virginia is on my list of prospecting vacations… not gold, but wild ginseng!
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“Huggy think’s that people have solved the full court press.”
I think there are several things involved here.
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WVU is wearing down. I’ve watched several of their games this year and they don’t have the intensity they had a month ago.
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Teams are playing better as the season goes along. That has to help against pressure.
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Many of the teams are now seeing WVU for the second time. It’s really tough to beat a team twice with this strategy.
I still think we will be in for a big test. The crowd will be amped up, giving their guys more juice, and we rely on a couple of freshmen and several sophomores. We had no time to prepare for this and we are fresh off a game where we had to run our main guns the entire game.
Plus… I see this as one of Self’s learning experiences.
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@drgnslayr did anyone see the ksu game at wv? The crowd is obnoxious too! One fan, guessing a student, yelled “Nigel” all game(ksu player) in a real annoying tone! I know it got on my nerves just listening to the game. I didn’t see the beginning so don’t know if it was ever discussed by the announcers. Then… That damn gun!
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Yes… I’ve caught several of their home games. Very obnoxious fan base which is also encouraged to be obnoxious from their obnoxious coach.
Not exactly a choir boy. He calls it “motivational profanity.”
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@Crimsonorblue22 My oldest son was in WV last summer on a power plant refurb for about a month in the Southwestern area near Kentucky Showed me videos of zip lining, white water rafting & said during off hours was a lot of fun, outdoor stuff to do. But also said that there were rather strange inhabitants in that part of the state where the old Hatfield & McCoys’ ancestries are still apparent. He says moonshiners, fur hunters, & backwoods dwellers were really kinda spooky & he said that outsiders or strangers were encouraged not to be too talkative to locals as the forests & hills were isolated from larger populated areas & stories of disappearances were not uncommon. He almost made it sound like @JRyman signature used to read… “If you hear banjos, paddle faster!!”
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@drgnslayr I let one slip every now and then, but I’ve always believed that people that use profanity every other word usually aren’t smart enough to come up with anything else.
That’s one reason I like the comedian Brian Regan so much, he can make me laugh until I cry and he rarely uses any profanity.
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@nuleafjhawk as long as we exclude KU bb games, I’m w/you!
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@wrwlumpy: I got my degree at WVU back in 1971. I had not heard that factoid about snake handling Pentecostal churches in WV. I always assumed that Tennessee was the capitol. The issue of snake handling was, in fact, the first question I had when I first attended a Pentecostal church in Pennsylvania. Knowing that so few of them do that, I feel a bit embarrassed by it now. But it does not stop me from having a joke at my own expense.
As for opposition to slavery, I was told at my first football game in 1966, that that was the reason for the cheer, “WEST – BY GOD! – VIRGINIA!”
I have not been back there for a while, so I don’t know if they still use that cheer. In the mid-60s, boys wore sport coats to the games (with boutonnieres on their left lapel) and gave their dates a corsage. A quaint tradition that had pretty much gone away by the end of the decade.
WVU had their protests against the Vietnam conflict back then, but it was still a campus where the leaders of the SDS were on civil terms with the Army and AF officers who ran the ROTC. I rather liked that the VP of Student Affairs could engage a student leader outside of the student union (the Mountain Lair) to ask if his parents had seen him on TV in the midst of a protest rally. I happened to overhear that exchange, and in the jaggedness of the 60s, it gave me a good feeling to think that regardless of what was happening across America, things weren’t going to blow up too badly in Morgantown.
The last time that WVU went to a Final Four, they knocked off Kentucky. They’ve beaten Duke in the tournament, as well. I think they are a good replacement for Mizzou, although their depth of talent in football is still getting to where it needs to be for the Big XII.
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I didn’t realize that Mangino had made a recruiting trip to Morgan town.
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Different Strokes for Different Folks.
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One of my nieces lives in WV… working for the VA. She always has lots of crazy stories to tell about the inhabitants. Many of these areas are mostly reliant on public assistance. She told me the inhabitants show true creativity when it comes to soaking up public assistance.
So I guess they don’t want feds or State officials snooping around their territory, but don’t mind cashing their checks.
The nature must be really something. And if you can visit with an open mind, there must be some unique cultural experiences available.
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Will need Mason and Graham on their A-game to beat the Mountaineers.
Frank to unleash his inner Bulldog!
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You must have a big photo album!
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@FarSideHawk eeeewwww scary frank!! Just what we need tonight!!!
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Mason only played 31 minutes vs. Baylor. That is actually kind of a rest for him. It seemed like Devonte brought the ball up a lot especially in the first half. And even Green and Selden chipped in with the most basic of point guard duties since Baylor wasn’t pressing. I think Frank will be ready for this game.
I want this one bad! Let’s get it!
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@benshawks08 me too! Hope they don’t injure us w/all the hacking they do!
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Think we will start graham? I think we have to start strong. BG dribbling scares me for this game, except he could get a lot of throws!
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I don’t think Self changes his starting lineup. But to your point…the style of play will likely change the substitution patterns and which guys play more minutes. You just scared me with the thought of BG handling the ball against their press.
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@Hawk8086 sorry!!!
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Greene will be in if we have a lead at the end for free throw shooting.
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Just read that there could be a big snowstorm in wv, could effect the crowd, and our guys getting out of there!! Scary hillbillies!!!
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Getting a win would make it easier to endure getting home at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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“I don’t think Self changes his starting lineup.”
We already have his starting lineup:
Frank, Wayne, Kelly, Perry, Cliff.
I believe he will be ready with Devonte if things start off badly for us.
