MORGANTOWN - Odds and ends and a few things I think I think while enjoying more than you can imagine being able to drive from Point A to Point B almost anywhere in Morgantown without the misery of 28,000 students trying to do the same thing. At the same time:
MORGANTOWN - Odds and ends and a few things I think I think while enjoying more than you can imagine being able to drive from Point A to Point B almost anywhere in Morgantown without the misery of 28,000 students trying to do the same thing. At the same time:
That's right, final exams ended at West Virginia last week, which means the population here dropped by roughly half. It's the beginning of three months of bliss in which the infrastructure of the city can actually handle the population. Need a frame of reference? Imagine if the Regatta and the Charleston Distance Run were held continuously for nine months. Oh, and maybe the state basketball tournament was going on and the Legislature was in session.
That's what it's like in Morgantown between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. every single day.
I bring that up not because it has anything to do with sports, but because the end of classes also begets the beginning of the speculation season about how many Mountaineer football players might be in an academic bind. According to Bill Stewart, the answer is none. "There are always a few who are going to need to do some work in summer school,'' Stewart said Monday. "But as far as I know there are none who have any problems out of the ordinary."
In fact, Stewart said a handful of players might be dismissed from the team because of poor schoolwork, but amazingly they are walk-ons.
"I just don't get it,'' he said. "We sit down and talk to their parents and give them the opportunity to do this and they just waste it. I told [one of those walk-ons], 'We're not talking about your football career here. We're talking about getting a job.' He had a 1.6 [grade-point average]. He's messing up his life."
As for the incoming recruiting class, Stewart is still a few weeks away - at least - from knowing about their eligibility for this fall. In most cases there's no concern, but no longer is it just a matter of getting a test score for those who are on the border. That's because the NCAA's sliding scale, which has been in effect for several years, means that what a player needs to score on the ACT or the SAT depends upon what his GPA is in his high school core classes. The higher the GPA, the lower the required test score.
While that creates a little bit of margin for error on the tests, it also means that no longer can one simply assume that if a player has the old minimum test score he's eligible as long as he just passes his core classes.
Stewart can't talk about individuals, but word is the two in this year's class that seem most borderline are prep school running back Terence Kerns and high school cornerback Jerome Swinton. Swinton, whom Stewart once called perhaps the best player in the class, is apparently well off a test score that would make him eligible, although he'll have other chances. Kerns, who is on his second round of trying after signing last year and failing to qualify, is much closer. In fact, he's in that group that might have a test score that's good enough if he surprises with his GPA by the end of the semester. If his GPA falls short, he still has two more chances to improve his test score.
If either, both or anyone else fails to qualify, of course, enrolling anyway is not an option because the Big East no longer allows schools to take non- or partial qualifiers.
Waiting on the Big East's composite basketball schedule? Well, you're probably going to have to wait a while longer. Like until July. The league released its women's basketball schedule earlier this month, but here's how different men's basketball is: The NBA draft matters.
Well, at least the cutoff for early entrants withdrawing their names matters.
It boils down to the same thing everything in the game comes down to - TV. West Virginia's situation is a perfect example.
If Joe Alexander pulls his name out of the NBA draft ring and returns to school, it will affect not only how many games the Mountaineers have on the tube but also who WVU's three repeat league opponents will be. If Alexander goes, Bob Huggins' team won't have quite the oomph it would have had, so the Mountaineers won't get as many marquee dates and opponents.
The Big East, because of its presence in pro markets, also deals more than any other conference with sharing NBA and NHL arenas, so those schedules have to be worked around.
By the way, last year's Big East schedule wasn't released until July.
And finally, I walked into the Coliseum about 10 days ago when Huggins was given his new contract, and something very large was missing. The scoreboard.
The old one has been lowered, dismantled and presumably sent to its final resting place to make way for a new one to be installed before next season, one with video boards on all sides.
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickm...@aol.com.
MORGANTOWN - Odds and ends and a few things I think I think while enjoying more than you can imagine being able to drive from Point A to Point B almost anywhere in Morgantown without the misery of 28,000 students trying to do the same thing. At the same time:
That's right, final exams ended at West Virginia last week, which means the population here dropped by roughly half. It's the beginning of three months of bliss in which the infrastructure of the city can actually handle the population.
Need a frame of reference? Imagine if the Regatta and the Charleston Distance Run were held continuously for nine months. Oh, and maybe the state basketball tournament was going on and the Legislature was in session.
That's what it's like in Morgantown between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. every single day.
I bring that up not because it has anything to do with sports, but because the end of classes also begets the beginning of the speculation season about how many Mountaineer football players might be in an academic bind. According to Bill Stewart, the answer is none.
"There are always a few who are going to need to do some work in summer school,'' Stewart said Monday. "But as far as I know there are none who have any problems out of the ordinary."
In fact, Stewart said a handful of players might be dismissed from the team because of poor schoolwork, but amazingly they are walk-ons.
"I just don't get it,'' he said. "We sit down and talk to their parents and give them the opportunity to do this and they just waste it. I told [one of those walk-ons], 'We're not talking about your football career here. We're talking about getting a job.' He had a 1.6 [grade-point average]. He's messing up his life."
As for the incoming recruiting class, Stewart is still a few weeks away - at least - from knowing about their eligibility for this fall. In most cases there's no concern, but no longer is it just a matter of getting a test score for those who are on the border.
That's because the NCAA's sliding scale, which has been in effect for several years, means that what a player needs to score on the ACT or the SAT depends upon what his GPA is in his high school core classes. The higher the GPA, the lower the required test score.
While that creates a little bit of margin for error on the tests, it also means that no longer can one simply assume that if a player has the old minimum test score he's eligible as long as he just passes his core classes.
Stewart can't talk about individuals, but word is the two in this year's class that seem most borderline are prep school running back Terence Kerns and high school cornerback Jerome Swinton.
Swinton, whom Stewart once called perhaps the best player in the class, is apparently well off a test score that would make him eligible, although he'll have other chances. Kerns, who is on his second round of trying after signing last year and failing to qualify, is much closer. In fact, he's in that group that might have a test score that's good enough if he surprises with his GPA by the end of the semester. If his GPA falls short, he still has two more chances to improve his test score.
If either, both or anyone else fails to qualify, of course, enrolling anyway is not an option because the Big East no longer allows schools to take non- or partial qualifiers.
Waiting on the Big East's composite basketball schedule? Well, you're probably going to have to wait a while longer. Like until July.
The league released its women's basketball schedule earlier this month, but here's how different men's basketball is: The NBA draft matters.
Well, at least the cutoff for early entrants withdrawing their names matters.
It boils down to the same thing everything in the game comes down to - TV. West Virginia's situation is a perfect example.
If Joe Alexander pulls his name out of the NBA draft ring and returns to school, it will affect not only how many games the Mountaineers have on the tube but also who WVU's three repeat league opponents will be. If Alexander goes, Bob Huggins' team won't have quite the oomph it would have had, so the Mountaineers won't get as many marquee dates and opponents.
The Big East, because of its presence in pro markets, also deals more than any other conference with sharing NBA and NHL arenas, so those schedules have to be worked around.
By the way, last year's Big East schedule wasn't released until July.
And finally, I walked into the Coliseum about 10 days ago when Huggins was given his new contract, and something very large was missing.
The scoreboard.
The old one has been lowered, dismantled and presumably sent to its final resting place to make way for a new one to be installed before next season, one with video boards on all sides.
To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickm...@aol.com.
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