Everyone Has Homework Tonight

Don't get mad.  It is a fun assignment...

Help me root the Mountaineers to a Sweet Sixteen win tonight against Villanova.  It figures in a year where top seeds are falling left and right that the East region has went chalk for the most part.  Nevertheless in order to be the best you have to usually beat the best. So crack a cold one and root for the good guys!

Proving My Loyalty

My day started at 430am in Orlando. I was in Houston by late morning and Pittsburgh by late afternoon.  Why such a roundabout root to get home? Well, I wanted to make the 7pm tipoff between WVU and Kansas. My mother in law had already booked Southwest so they had to be our carrier. Unfortunately flights into Pittsburgh were all evening arrivals.  That wasn't going to cut it hence the roundabout root through Houston.

Was that a lot of hassle just for a basketball game.....yeah it was, but it worked out!

Huge props to my mother in law for playing along. She was a good sport.  Eat it Jayhawks!

This is why I was in Orlando.  I'm not a big theme park guy, but my daughter seemed to enjoy it. It was fun watching her reactions when she made eye contact with one of the characters.  She really lost her shit around Goofy and Little Mermaid. Good stuff!

Its good to be home and looking forward to catching up with my mail!

Thanks for reading.

Storming the Court

It was fun to get to witness a #1 team go down in Morgantown for the second year in a row (Kansas and now Baylor).  This really can't even be considered an upset though as most oddsmakers had the Mountaineers as a slight favorite. Winning on the road is hard in college basketball. Either way Baylor came in having arguably the most impressive resume so far in basketball and WVU handled them with relative ease. I'm hoping the Mountaineers can crack the top 5 soon.

Back to cards tomorrow.....

The Beauty of Living in a College Town

Believe me some minor annoyances exist, but for the most part Morgantown is a great place to live if you are a sports fan.  The Pirates will always be my number one love, but WVU sports always keeps me busy until Spring Training.

While WVU is not a powerhouse in any of the major sports they've been consistent over the years. The football team historically has the most wins of any other power conference program not to win a national championship.  Without researching I think it was somewhere in the 12-15 range all time.

The basketball team has been trending up the last couple of years.  This year marks the highest preseason ranking in the Big 12 (2) since joining the conference.  This is probably the deepest pool of talent the team has had since its Final Four appearance in 2010.

Tonight the Mountaineers tip off their season against Mount St. Mary's. In honor of that here are some basketball cards of former WVU players.

 Ebanks is the WVU guy, but Whiteside also went to school within the state where he attended Marshall.

Have a great weekend.

That Was Fun

Yesterday was quite the adventure in Morgantown. Around 330pm a strong weather front moved into the area producing crazy winds and heavy snow.

Normally this is not too big of a deal as my area is accustomed to snow.  The issue was that it was right at the time when kids were getting off school and the three biggest employers in town have shift change. Plus, that evening a sell out crowd was expected for the showdown between #1 Kansas and WVU that evening.

I heard lots of crazy stories of taking 5 hours to commute 5 miles, road closures and car abandonment. Fortunately I work close to my home and the WVU coliseum. So I trekked on foot to the coliseum and witnessed one of the better wins in recent memory for the basketball program.

I've witnessed some good court storming before, but this was by far the best.

The Mountaineers don't get much of a rest as they have to face #2 Oklahoma on Saturday.  It is the first time since the mid 90's that a team has played 1 and 2 consecutively.

Thanks for reading!

My Spike Lee Experience

Last night I got to experience WVU's thrilling victory over Kansas courtside! My wife and I are season ticket holders, but we are normally on the second level. The crappy weather stopped a lot of people from going so a friend of a friend offered us the great tickets.

A few takeaways...

• I was expecting more trash talking.  The refs do a really good job of stepping in when the situation looks to be getting out of control.  
• College basketball coaches are never happy. Bob Huggins and Bill Self looked pissed the entire game and scream at the refs constantly. That was enjoyable to hear that dialogue. 
• Kansas has a crazy amount of athletes, but their young guards struggled with our press in the first half. 
• The refs interact a good bit with the fans if you ask them legitimate questions. 
• I need to win the lottery and get seats courtside.

Here are some pictures my wife took.