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Vested Interest
Posted by John Antonik on Thursday, October 15, 2009
(4:29 pm)
Like many of us, Bill Stewart is a creature of habit. Two weeks ago for West Virginia’s Gold Rush against Colorado, Stewart was compelled to wear something gold for the game just like the rest of us.
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Coach Stew is sporting a spiffy new sweater vest look.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo
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So he pulled out a gold oxford shirt and threw a blue sweater vest over top of it.
“I didn’t want us to look like mustard seeds on the sideline,” Stewart said. “I thought if I had the shirt people would think I was just wearing an oxford, so I put on the Nike sweater vest over top of it.”
The look has caught the eye of fashion conscious Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter Colin Dunlap, who asked Coach Stew about his new look during Tuesday afternoon’s news conference.
“I felt like if we asked our fans, why not me?” Stewart said.
After West Virginia defeated Colorado 35-24, Stewart thought it might not be a bad idea to wear it again against Syracuse. Since the Mountaineers defeated Syracuse 34-13, it’s a safe bet Stewart will be wearing it again this weekend against Marshall.
“I don’t want to break moxie,” Stewart laughed. “Every Friday when we have the study with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes guys, (receivers coach) Lonnie Galloway makes us all sit in the exact seats and that is moxie. I guess I will wear the sweater vest for a while, hopefully for a long, long time.”
Weekly Word
Coach Bob Huggins touched on several topics concerning his basketball team Wednesday afternoon, including the reason he was wearing a ball cap to his press conference.
“There was no water in Suncrest this morning,” Huggins said, “so I didn’t get a chance to take a shower.”
Huggins also hit on some other points:
On getting his team’s work in the weight room this summer … “We have been outmatched physically the past couple of years and that’s getting ready to change.”
On the decline of the Big East Conference in 2010 … “We’ve got two teams ranked in everybody’s Top 10 in the preseason. Nobody else has more than that. Most conferences, if you have two teams ranked in the Top 10, they’re pretty happy.
“We’re not what we were a year ago because a year ago was the best conference in the history of college basketball – and you can’t just do that every year. If it’s not the best league in the country, it’s tied for it.
“If you can win our league, you can win the national championship.”
On Joe Mazzulla’s injured shoulder … “He seems to be (healthy). He’s actually making some shots so it’s probably not right.”
On national junior college player of the year Casey Mitchell … “In all honesty, I think there are going to be days when people say, ‘He’s the best scoring guard here since Wil Robinson.’ And then there are other days when they will walk out and say, ‘What the hell did they recruit him for.’”
Before the poor weather arrived in Morgantown, the men’s soccer team was fourth in the Big East in average attendance drawing more than 1,500 per match. The men had a season-high 2,938 for the UC-Santa Barbara match to open the season.
The WVU women have also had strong crowds this fall, pulling in 1,382 to watch the Mountaineers face nationally ranked Notre Dame. The women are presently third in the Big East in average attendance this year.
The web site nbadraft.net has two West Virginia players on its top 100 big board: forward Devin Ebanks has moved up four spots to No. 5 overall and Da’Sean Butler has moved up 10 spots to No. 70 overall.
According to this web site, the top five players for this year’s draft are Kentucky point guard John Wall, North Carolina power forward Ed Davis, Italian center Donatas Motiejunas and Georgia Tech power forward Derrick Favors.
Devin Ebanks is one of three players pictured at the top of the basketball section on ESPN.com today.
How can a guy who ranks eighth on the team in tackles and has only one tackle for loss be considered West Virginia’s most valuable defensive player so far this year? Well, you can be if you are Chris Neild.
Neild is the nose tackle in Jeff Casteel’s 3-3-5 stack defense and he spends his entire afternoon with at least two guys on him. Stewart said Neild is having a banner season.
“I can only tell you Chris Neild is playing like you should play the game,” Stewart said. “He is having fun, he is leading and he is playing hard.”
Sometimes, teams are resulting to less than legal methods to keep Neild from penetrating into the backfield.
“Against East Carolina he almost had his jersey ripped off,” said Stewart. “He is relentless in his effort. Ask the players what makes No. 90 tick. We are so blessed to have Chris Neild on our team.”
Neild has had to pick up more of the slack with defensive tackle Scooter Berry sidelined with a shoulder injury sustained against those jersey-tugging Pirates.
Stewart said Berry is progressing after playing a limited number of snaps last weekend at Syracuse.
West Virginia’s defense blanked Syracuse on third down last week, the ‘Cuse going 0 for 11 on its third-down tries. Ironically, the last time West Virginia’s defense put up an 0-for was against Syracuse on Sept. 4, 2005.
Jeff Casteel’s defenders must like playing in the Dome.
If you haven’t already noticed, we are now approving your comments on stories as long as there are no personal attacks on players or coaches (you can take me to the woodshed as much as you like). Also, remember that this is a PG operation here so no profanity will be tolerated.
A little follow up on last week’s note about West Virginia being left out of Jeff Sagarin’s program rankings for the 1950s. Following an email from sports information director Bryan Messerly, Sagarin replied that the Mountaineers were 43rd in his power rankings for the 1950s behind Sanford and ahead of North Carolina.
Two important criteria Sagarin used for his power rankings were wins and losses and margin of victory. Since it involves math, this naturally eliminates me from attempting to understand this.
And finally, the West Virginia University athletic department lost a dear friend with the passing of Dr. Carl Bahneman earlier this week. Bahneman was a long-time instructor in the school of Physical Education and an avid Mountaineer supporter.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the Bahneman family.
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