FanHouse West Virginia Mountaineers

Quarterback Pat White was a second-round pick by the Miami Dolphins in April's NFL Draft. But he wasn't done being drafted. To White's surprise, he was selected in the 48th round of last week's baseball amateur draft by the New York Yankees.

White hasn't played baseball since high school, but he was pretty good back then -- good enough to get drafted in the fourth round of the 2004 MLB draft by Anaheim. He turned down the Angels and went on to have a stellar college career at West Virginia, presumably leaving baseball behind for good. But the Yankees like him enough as an athlete that they took a low-risk chance.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is dropping some hints that his team may want to inject a little wildcat into its offense in the upcoming season. From Todd Archer of the Dallas Morning News:

"We may want to do some things in our offense this year with a third quarterback," Jones said. "That's something other than be there as a backup to the second quarterback and be there in case you lose all the quarterbacks. ... We could hopefully find a quarterback with a set of skills that we could put some packages in for."

You have to admire and respect what the Orange are doing. Not content with playing 30 extra minutes Thursday, they decided that for an encore they would do one more overtime before knocking off West Virginia. Now all Syracuse has to do is face a Louisville team that has had a much easier path to the Big East Tournament championship game.

The big question for Syracuse after the Thursday night/Friday morning game was, "How much will Syracuse have left when they play West Virginia?" They had enough, but the question is no longer "how much," but "what."

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Pitt had been in the Big East championship game seven times in the past eight years. So, it almost seemed automatic to assume Pitt would be there once more.

Of course the one time the Panthers didn't make it, they lost in their first game to go home early.

It's feast or famine for Pitt. And this time the Panthers didn't so much as sniff a salad.

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Chalk ruled the day. The teams having a bye all advanced. Sandwiched between some reasonably competitive games were a couple games that never had the outcome in doubt.

DePaul spent most of the game looking like they were going to take care of any bubble talk in the Big East by putting Providence out of the Big East Tournament (BET). Ultimately, Providence managed to play some defense while DePaul maintained their stance on no defense if at all possible.

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Louisville survived in Morgantown to win its first Big East regular season title. What it means immediately is that the Cardinals will be the No. 1 seed in the Big East Tournament and will not have to worry about the possibility of facing UConn or Pitt until the Big East Championship game. It also keeps alive the possibility of Louisville stealing a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament -- most likely from UConn.

West Virginia nearly got the win, despite a no-show from Da'Sean Butler and Alex Ruoff. Louisville completely locked down those two, but freshmen Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones picked up the slack. The player WVU could not contain, though, was Terrance Williams. The Louisville forward did everything with 20 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 6 steals. He was the best player on the court and carried the Cardinals.

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Cincinnati fans still have great affection for their Huggy Bear. The man who brought the Bearcats back to national prominence is still greatly loved in the Queen City. When West Virginia hired Bob Huggins in 2007, the Big East just happened to produce a schedule that only had Cincinnati visit West Virginia in the 2007-08 season, with no return trip. So tonight was his first trip to the Fifth Third Arena as the coach of the Mountaineers.

And Cincinnati responded in a way that made the coach a little misty.

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This is awkward. I don't particularly like Bob Huggins, but I don't like distorted history either.

Aside from K-State fans, there is not an overwhelming outrage over Bob Huggins departing after only one season at Kansas State. What national outrage there is seems to be of the opinion that Huggins owed more to the Wildcats because the "rescued him from the scrap-heap," after his dismissal from Cinci and a year out of college basketball.

This is convenient revisionism. From the time of Huggins "resignation" in August 2005, he was working towards a return to college basketball. As an unemployed coach, he was unbound by NCAA recruiting restrictions. He was openly visiting players like Bill Walker, Michael Beasley and Herb Pope. Everyone knew that whoever hired him would have a great potential recruiting class coming in for the 2007 season. It was just a question of how big or high profile a program would come for Huggins and a fast winning record.

He wasn't a blackballed coach out for years, or banned by the NCAA. He had been fired from Cinci in a power struggle with the school's President. He wasn't fired for the DUI. That took place in 2004. The DUI certainly played a part, but so did the poor graduation rates and reputation for having players who had issues with the law.

Kansas State didn't care, because they were desperate for the other part of the equation. Huggins is a very good coach who produces results on the court and recruits very effectively.

The defense of Huggins going to West Virginia has been equally backhanded and distorted.

[Kansas State Athletic Director Tim] Weiser and [President John] Wefald didn't inherit any surprises with Huggins. They knew they were hiring a master of deception. They knew Huggins would cut corners whenever he could. If they didn't, they didn't do any homework before they hired him.

Somehow his past is treated as "Huggins the Job-Jumping Deceiver." Before Huggins came to K-State, he had 2 Division I jobs. Five years at Akron and sixteen years at Cinci. Apparently the fact that Huggins had used interest from other schools, including WVU in 2002, to negotiate bigger money from Cinci is a sign of his duplicitous and disloyal behavior. You know, the same thing that every other successful coach in college does.

He also left behind a top-20 if not potentially top-10 team in Kansas State to do it. Kansas State may have panicked and shown that the inmates run the asylum by hiring Frank Martin to keep the 1-year wonder recruiting class intact, but that kind of points to the flaws and desperation of K-State.

I'm willing to give Huggins a bit of a pass because going to WVU is going back to his alma mater and his natural recruiting turf. Not to mention a job that is more attractive long-term then Kansas State. It's simply the way in college basketball (and football).

Previously at Fanhouse:
New Kansas State Coach Frank Martin's Unethical History
The Dalonte Hill Factor in Michael Beasley's Decision
Bob Huggins Leaves Kansas State for West Virginia
The Big East Just Became a Lot More Fun with Huggins
K-State Fans Are Not Taking It Well

I feel for you, gentleman. Your basketball program was barren for so long, Bob Huggins breathed life into it, and now he's abandoning you ... it hurts, I know. But if it's not too much trouble, could you send those lighters to Morgantown when you're done? They're going to need them to burn couches. Thanks.

(Also, sorry about the editing ... there were some naughty words and gestures at the beginning that had to be cut. For the full, uncut version of "Bob Huggins the Abandoning Douchebag," click here.)

Michael Beasley did not decide to attend Kansas State because he was excited about spending time in the thriving metropolis of Manhattan, Kansas. He decided to attend Kansas State because Bob Huggins is, somehow, an amazing recruiter. With Huggins gone now, what happens to Beasley?

Well, according to K-State Athletic Director Tim Weiser, nothing happens to Michael Beasley, and Michael Beasley will damn well like it. From NBADraft.net, Beasley signed a letter of intent at Kansas State, and they don't seem real eager to let him out of it.

"Our policy as a department is that we don't grant releases. We invest a lot in recruitment, training, scholarshiping and boarding of our student athletes, and for us to grant releases is something that we would have to be convinced is in the best interest of both the university and the student athlete."

I'm thinking that some kind of a "I refuse to play for Kansas State, so let me go," letter might do the trick. I understand that Kansas State's upset about Huggins leaving, but it would be pretty spiteful and petty to not let an 18-year-old play where he wanted to play next year.

As for Beasley, would he want to leave? Well, he's not ruling it out. Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline tracked him down and asked him.

"As of now I'm still signed with Kansas State," Beasley said. "But I don't know what the future holds."

"It's his hometown and I'm pretty sure he loves the town and loves the area. It's a little bit of a shock for me. But life is a shock."

Asked if he wanted to follow Huggins, Beasley replied, "No comment." He added he had yet to speak with Huggins, but said "If my phone rings I'll answer it."

So what's the big deal about Michael Beasley?



That's the big deal about Michael Beasley.