WVU Sports
WVU to play in Puerto Rico
MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University men’s basketball team will be a participant in the 12-game Puerto Rico Tip-Off next year, a tournament that will feature eight schools, including five-time NCAA champion North Carolina.
The games will be played the week before Thanksgiving weekend at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico on Nov. 18-20, 2010.
Joining West Virginia and North Carolina will be Davidson, Hofstra, Minnesota, Nebraska, Vanderbilt and Western Kentucky as eight different conferences will be represented.
The field combined for a 189-80 record in 2008-09 and had six post-season teams.
There will be four games each day, with the two undefeated teams competing in the championship game on one of the ESPN “family” of network outlets on the final day.
This year West Virginia is taking part in the exempt 76 Classic in Anaheim, Calif., over Thanksgiving weekend.
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There was no change in star forward Devin Ebanks’ status with the Mountaineer basketball team as of Friday. Coach Bob Huggins offered no explanation for his absence, still calling it a personal issue, and said he was unsure when he might return.
Ebanks missed the opening game of the season.
WVU plays The Citadel at Charleston on Tuesday night.
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West Virginia middle blocker Lauren Evans has been named to the All-Big East volleyball second team.
“We are happy for Lauren and that she was chosen,” said coach Veronica Hammersmith. “She had an impact on our team and was a major part of why we had the success we did this year.”
Evans led the Mountaineers in kills with 270, service aces with 37 and blocks with 171.
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The WVU wrestling team will split its squad this week as half the team travels to Annapolis, Md., for the Navy Classic while the other half goes to Vestal, N.Y., to take part in the Sprawl and Brawl dual meet at Binghamton University.
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Part of West Virginia’s No. 7 ranked cross-country team will compete in the 2009 ECAC championships this weekend in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y., on Saturday. The Mountaineers finished seventh at the event last year.
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West Virginia’s defending national champion and No. 1-ranked rifle team hosts the No. 2 University of Kentucky Wildcats today in an 8 a.m. battle at the Rifle Range. The match is expected to carry over into the afternoon and is open to the public.
“This is definitely the big match we’ve looking for,” said WVU coach Jonathan Hammond. “Kentucky is a tough team and matches up well against us.”
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New York State of mind
Da’Sean Butler was in a New York state of mind.
Seems like he usually is.
Or should that read a New York State of mind?
His home may be in New Jersey but he’s New York through and through, which is good, considering West Virginia is in the midst of what it hopes will be seven games in New York State.
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FURFARI COLUMN: Huggs’ dad excited about WVU success
No one could be happier about West Virginia University men’s basketball success than Charlie Huggins of New Philadelphia, Ohio.
He happens to be a retired high school basketball coach and the father of Bob Huggins, WVU’s third-year head coach.
“We were really excited for him when the Mountaineers won the Big East championship,” the elder Huggins said from his home earlier in the week.
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HERTZEL COLUMN: Overcoming history
For the most part, West Virginia has been a school which ought to give out degrees in athletic disappointment.
Think about it for a minute, for all the wonderful memories the school’s athletic teams have given you, it is countered it with moments of utter exasperation.
• West Virginia went to an NCAA basketball final with the world’s greatest player running the show in Jerry West, yet came out with nothing more than a silver medal.
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Beilein influence still there
It is chic, these days with West Virginia University cutting a bold path toward the upper echelons of college basketball, to disavow all ties to John Beilein, the former coach who pioneered the trail that leads from Morgantown to Ann Arbor, Mich.
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Late game struggles
It has been lost in the glow of a Big East championship, lost in the heroics Da’Sean Butler has brought over and over and over.
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HERTZEL COLUMN - Always be prepared
What Da’Sean Butler did last week in the Big East Tournament was, no doubt, an amazing feat. Some players play and entire career without hitting a game-winning basket, let alone to drop two in within the space of three days on a stage no less than Madison Square Garden itself.
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Marching forward
March, they say, comes in like a lion.
So, too, does Joe Mazzulla.
If baseball had its “Mr. October” in Reggie Jackson, Joe Mazzulla is college basketball’s Mr. March.
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Carey not pleased with team’s bracket
Mike Carey has had enough and he doesn’t care who knows it.
His team has worked too hard and come too far for him to sit quietly any more about the way his team is being treated, both in the Big East and in the NCAA.
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FURFARI COLUMN - Huggins: Decision is ‘totally’ up to Ebanks
Speculation continues to circulate on whether West Virginia sophomore Devin Ebanks will return next season or turn professional.
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WVU opens with Morgan State
If West Virginia was looking for some new incentive it got it out of the NCAA draw that took place on Sunday, one day after they rode on Da’Sean Butler’s shoulders to the Big East Tournament championship.
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New York State of mind
