This could be good news for us. Karlo Zovko, Pitt’s recruiting coordinator resigned 2 weeks ago. I’d hire that guy in a heartbeat. Yeah, forgive me, for I have sinned, but he’s very well known in western Pennsylvania…that is all…

According to Jon Rothstein, The field for the 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis is set.


Arizona
Gonzaga
Indiana
Louisville
Creighton
West Virginia
Oklahoma
Davidson

--Athletic Director Wren Baker said it's been an eventful summer for the athletic department here at West Virginia and the Big 12. Baker said that he's had a great summer and got his girls moved here and everybody is healthy and happy. He is excited for the fall, he has been to men's soccer and women's soccer and is excited to attend a football game and go through the tailgates.

--Staff structure they are looking at that at the senior leadership level. He wants more efficient and timely decision-making. They will announce in a few weeks a little different staffing structure and how they initiate that. They want to look at more consistency in the way things are done. They want to lay out a four-five year plan on how they will address those.

--Baker said they want to assess facilities. Fan passion and loyalty is the biggest strength, they are always at or near that top grouping in the Big 12 but they want to monetize that loyalty in a big way. They're looking at things like that in terms of facilities to expand suites.

--Baker said that commissioner Brett Yormark is an excellent communicator and he has meetings throughout that process with expansion. Everything gets quiet when you get to the goal line though because you need to ensure confidentiality. He was with the media in not knowing what was happening because Yormark was transparent about that. When you look at where they were at two years ago in the Big 12 the league was on the verge of extinction. The Big 12 is in the top three of most stable, best conferences moving forward. It's a remarkable job of the leadership in the league and that started with Bob Bowlsby and Yormark has been aggressive and making sure everybody was on the same page. They wanted to get the four corner schools and they are a big winner in this round of realignment. If you look at what's happening in the TV markets and shrinking resources they are positioned well.

--Baker said they've got to find a way to bring in more revenue. They don't have a spending problem and are efficient with the dollars they have but they need to eat, breathe, sleep and think how they can bring in more revenue. When teams have been most successful they've been at the top in terms of budget and they have to find a way to do that. There are a lot of buckets, not all big, but they all add up with outside revenue or licensing or premium space opportunities. All of those things are additions but his job is to find the best ways to be successful.

--Baker said that he and Ray Anderson had a great conversation, the athletic director at Arizona State. He didn't mean it the way it was taken but it hit a sore spot on people that are proud of West Virginia. It is a beautiful place full of wonderful people. He said it was an attempt to be funny but was sorry. He said it didn't land how he thought it would. He was in Dallas and doubled down on the graciousness. He knows that if he could go back he wouldn't say that. All West Virginians want is for people to give them a chance.

--Contingent with 9 conference games. Five home games and four from conference schedule. Have six home games or minimum and one FCS game. Power five regional rival is important and they would prefer that to be Pitt and it's an important game to the fan base and the region and if it's not another regional rival. Then can they get a meaningful group of five with a regional meaningness. They aren't willing or eager to go to Huntington but they wouldn't. Schools that don't charter in football they'd like to cut down on travel with the Big 12 schedule but those CFP spots will be meaningful that if you lock into divisions or pods you can put yourself in a disadvantage. Baker seems to prefer the top two teams playing in the league for football but other sports in the Big 12 it would be more regionally based schedule if he had his pick. Students should have a voice and that's something they need to look at. There are subcommittees looking at different scheduling models.

--Financial people are looking at travel and different scenarios and they will know pretty quick what those schedules need to look like. There is a chance in certain sports they could reduce costs when it comes to travel.

--Baker is exploring naming rights for all the venues and what that could bring. The juice needs to be worth the squeeze because people get attached to certain names on venues but they also get attached to winning and that takes money. They're looking at venues that could have corporate naming and what it could bring in for them.

--Football, Baker has been impressed with coach Neal Brown and the coaches here. He is excited and he feels good about where they are at and the team and their resolve. The prognosticators not having high expectations have helped to motivate them and they want to prove people wrong and there are a lot of things that are done right in this program. You have to value the person over the player and if you do you'll get the full abilities. This staff does a great job of helping people grow and plan for the rest of their lives. They know they have to win games. Brown knows where he is at and that's an expectation to win but he is proud of the way this team has come together and there is a great camaraderie between that group.

--Coach Josh Eilert has done everything he has been asked to do. There was always going to be some roster attrition no matter what they did or how they did it when Bob Huggins resigned. They tried to move as quickly as they could to make the best decisions they could. They have tried to give coach Eilert everything he needed to do to be successful. He is proud of the work they've been able to do. Baker isn't opening up for job applications yet because the job isn't open right now.

--Baker said you have to address the transfer portal in one way, shape or form when a coach resigns because it creates a difficult situation. They had players that wanted to stay here but they want to be somewhere they can make the tournament and have success so it becomes a snow ball rolling down the hill.

--Baker is excited about where the Big 12 is positioned but he is sad for the Pac-12. There seems to be some kind of consolidation around schools there are going to be in power conferences and how many there will be and West Virginia is positioned well. When you talk about student athlete, health, welfare, their experience you have to think about that, too. There is a way to come together as a conference to look at scheduling and not send all the teams to Utah every year. There's a lot of creative things they can do with scheduling and it's their obligation to explore it. This expansion does not have to mean that they have to travel further, they can travel less and more teams to afford not to play everybody round robin.

--Baker and Eilert have had a lot of discussions about expectations and the integrity of what they're looking for. They are not a big you have to win 'x' number of games. They're all very supportive of coach Eilert and they hope he has a great year and gives them something to think about. Baker hopes he does a great job and he's part of the search for the next head coach. But there is no set criteria.

--Baker said that he can't say a lot on Bob Huggins on the back and forth but he said he has a lot of admiration for coach Huggins and what he accomplished here. He wishes the transition would have happened differently and Baker guesses he does as well. Sometimes there are disagreements and hard feelings and his hope is at some point they can look back on it and get past it. The appreciation has not changed for what Huggins did. Nobody has sent him anything to say it's fully resolved, but hasn't seen anything to suggest it isn't either.

--There is appetite to sell suites. He doesn't buy into that they don't have anything to say that can't happen. It's about availability and he gets asked a lot about the opportunity to buy suites. You can get cash flow from the suite rental and pay your mortgage and still have money to contribute. There is a variety of places you can spend the money but right now every metric you can look at they're behind their peers in terms of spending. You have a budget 9th out of 10 and you remove debt service and travel they're 10th. All of it is dominoes and connected so if you spend more somewhere, you have to spend less somewhere else. He wants to invest back into the programs and the support staff. The explosion of video and graphic design and coaches want to do one for everything now but there is a return because fans and recruits engage in that. The player development area needs to be improved and the digital and creative areas that they need to spend more in all sports.

--Baker has known Pitt AD Heather Lyke for eight year and he said they want to play for as much and as long as they want to play. They expressed interest in extending the basketball series. There is willingness on their part to extend and he believes that is the case on their end. They need to follow back up and circle back and see what that looks like.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The West Virginia University men's basketball team will host a charity exhibition game against George Mason inside the WVU Coliseum on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. Proceeds will benefit WVU Medicine Children's.

This will be the sixth time that WVU has played in a charity exhibition basketball game to begin the season.

Tickets for the WVU-George Mason game are included as part of the men's basketball season ticket package. Information on single-game ticket sales and admission for WVU students will be announced at a later date. To order 2023-24 men's basketball season tickets, visit WVUGAME.com or call 1-800-WVU GAME.

So sick, so sad.

The Cult

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 23, 2023) – West Virginia University women’s basketball head coach Mark Kellogg has announced the addition of Ainhoa Holzer to a grant-in-aid for the 2023-24 academic year.



“Ainhoa is a skilled point guard that has nice vision, a high IQ and can score at different levels,” Kellogg said. “We needed to add more ball handling and depth to the roster.



“She has valuable international experience playing with the Switzerland National Team and the Swiss Basketball League. We are excited to welcome Ainhoa to Almost Heaven and know that our fans will enjoy watching her compete.”



The 5-foot-9 guard comes to Morgantown with four years of eligibility after redshirting last season at Purdue.



Holzer holds extensive European experience at the junior and national levels in Switzerland. The native of Martingy, Switzerland was named the 2022 Swiss Basketball League (SBL) Sixth Woman of the Year and Most Improved Player. She appeared in 22 games for the BBC Troistorrents, averaging 6.7 points and 2.5 assists per game.



She was named to the Swiss National Team in 2021-22 ahead of Women's EuroBasket 2023 qualifiers.



While representing Switzerland at the U16 European Championships in 2018, she competed in eight games with 3.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game.



Holzer was later called up for the U18 European Championships in 2019 and the U20 Swiss National Team in 2021 for the European Challengers. She then played the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons for BBC Les Portes du Soleil Troistorrents in the SBL. She averaged 5.1 points, 2.4 assists per game during her prep career in the SBL.



During her 2021-22 season, she guided her team to a third-place finish in the SBL regular season and an appearance in the Patrick Bauman Cup. For her efforts, she was named the 2021 Rising Star of the Year.



She Played in 24 games for Troistorrents in 2020-21 with 4.8 points, 2.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds per game helping the team reach the semifinals of the league's championship.



Holzer also played at Christ the King in Middle Village, Queens, New York, in 2019 where she was named an All-Star by The Tablet, CHSAA Rookie of the Year, NYC Rookie First Team and a Second Team CHSAA AA All-Star after averaging 12 points and seven assists per game. She led the Royals to a 26-4 record, the GCHSAA NY State Championship, the New York City Championship, the Catholic AAA League title and the New York Federation AA championship.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (August 23, 2023) – West Virginia University women’s basketball head coach Mark Kellogg has announced the addition of Ainhoa Holzer to a grant-in-aid for the 2023-24 academic year.



“Ainhoa is a skilled point guard that has nice vision, a high IQ and can score at different levels,” Kellogg said. “We needed to add more ball handling and depth to the roster.



“She has valuable international experience playing with the Switzerland National Team and the Swiss Basketball League. We are excited to welcome Ainhoa to Almost Heaven and know that our fans will enjoy watching her compete.”



The 5-foot-9 guard comes to Morgantown with four years of eligibility after redshirting last season at Purdue.



Holzer holds extensive European experience at the junior and national levels in Switzerland. The native of Martingy, Switzerland was named the 2022 Swiss Basketball League (SBL) Sixth Woman of the Year and Most Improved Player. She appeared in 22 games for the BBC Troistorrents, averaging 6.7 points and 2.5 assists per game.



She was named to the Swiss National Team in 2021-22 ahead of Women's EuroBasket 2023 qualifiers.



While representing Switzerland at the U16 European Championships in 2018, she competed in eight games with 3.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 steals per game.



Holzer was later called up for the U18 European Championships in 2019 and the U20 Swiss National Team in 2021 for the European Challengers. She then played the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons for BBC Les Portes du Soleil Troistorrents in the SBL. She averaged 5.1 points, 2.4 assists per game during her prep career in the SBL.



During her 2021-22 season, she guided her team to a third-place finish in the SBL regular season and an appearance in the Patrick Bauman Cup. For her efforts, she was named the 2021 Rising Star of the Year.



She Played in 24 games for Troistorrents in 2020-21 with 4.8 points, 2.5 assists and 1.5 rebounds per game helping the team reach the semifinals of the league's championship.



Holzer also played at Christ the King in Middle Village, Queens, New York, in 2019 where she was named an All-Star by The Tablet, CHSAA Rookie of the Year, NYC Rookie First Team and a Second Team CHSAA AA All-Star after averaging 12 points and seven assists per game. She led the Royals to a 26-4 record, the GCHSAA NY State Championship, the New York City Championship, the Catholic AAA League title and the New York Federation AA championship.

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His whole presidency has been the worst moments

That was embarrassing for our Country!!! What a heartless careless leader

Come on guys, let’s feel bad for him. He almost lost his Corvette.

This guy just keeps topping himself.

Only a matter of time now. A Biden is going be our new word for A Blunder.

Maui now hates your guts, smooth move Joe!

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Honestly I think Biden is more useful taking a nap during the memorial, than being awake.

Perfect response from locals who allegedly voted for this rotting brain resident in DC.

--Athletic Director Wren Baker said it's been an eventful summer for the athletic department here at West Virginia and the Big 12. Baker said that he's had a great summer and got his girls moved here and everybody is healthy and happy. He is excited for the fall, he has been to men's soccer and women's soccer and is excited to attend a football game and go through the tailgates.

--Staff structure they are looking at that at the senior leadership level. He wants more efficient and timely decision-making. They will announce in a few weeks a little different staffing structure and how they initiate that. They want to look at more consistency in the way things are done. They want to lay out a four-five year plan on how they will address those.

--Baker said they want to assess facilities. Fan passion and loyalty is the biggest strength, they are always at or near that top grouping in the Big 12 but they want to monetize that loyalty in a big way. They're looking at things like that in terms of facilities to expand suites.

--Baker said that commissioner Brett Yormark is an excellent communicator and he has meetings throughout that process with expansion. Everything gets quiet when you get to the goal line though because you need to ensure confidentiality. He was with the media in not knowing what was happening because Yormark was transparent about that. When you look at where they were at two years ago in the Big 12 the league was on the verge of extinction. The Big 12 is in the top three of most stable, best conferences moving forward. It's a remarkable job of the leadership in the league and that started with Bob Bowlsby and Yormark has been aggressive and making sure everybody was on the same page. They wanted to get the four corner schools and they are a big winner in this round of realignment. If you look at what's happening in the TV markets and shrinking resources they are positioned well.

--Baker said they've got to find a way to bring in more revenue. They don't have a spending problem and are efficient with the dollars they have but they need to eat, breathe, sleep and think how they can bring in more revenue. When teams have been most successful they've been at the top in terms of budget and they have to find a way to do that. There are a lot of buckets, not all big, but they all add up with outside revenue or licensing or premium space opportunities. All of those things are additions but his job is to find the best ways to be successful.

--Baker said that he and Ray Anderson had a great conversation, the athletic director at Arizona State. He didn't mean it the way it was taken but it hit a sore spot on people that are proud of West Virginia. It is a beautiful place full of wonderful people. He said it was an attempt to be funny but was sorry. He said it didn't land how he thought it would. He was in Dallas and doubled down on the graciousness. He knows that if he could go back he wouldn't say that. All West Virginians want is for people to give them a chance.

--Contingent with 9 conference games. Five home games and four from conference schedule. Have six home games or minimum and one FCS game. Power five regional rival is important and they would prefer that to be Pitt and it's an important game to the fan base and the region and if it's not another regional rival. Then can they get a meaningful group of five with a regional meaningness. They aren't willing or eager to go to Huntington but they wouldn't. Schools that don't charter in football they'd like to cut down on travel with the Big 12 schedule but those CFP spots will be meaningful that if you lock into divisions or pods you can put yourself in a disadvantage. Baker seems to prefer the top two teams playing in the league for football but other sports in the Big 12 it would be more regionally based schedule if he had his pick. Students should have a voice and that's something they need to look at. There are subcommittees looking at different scheduling models.

--Financial people are looking at travel and different scenarios and they will know pretty quick what those schedules need to look like. There is a chance in certain sports they could reduce costs when it comes to travel.

--Baker is exploring naming rights for all the venues and what that could bring. The juice needs to be worth the squeeze because people get attached to certain names on venues but they also get attached to winning and that takes money. They're looking at venues that could have corporate naming and what it could bring in for them.

--Football, Baker has been impressed with coach Neal Brown and the coaches here. He is excited and he feels good about where they are at and the team and their resolve. The prognosticators not having high expectations have helped to motivate them and they want to prove people wrong and there are a lot of things that are done right in this program. You have to value the person over the player and if you do you'll get the full abilities. This staff does a great job of helping people grow and plan for the rest of their lives. They know they have to win games. Brown knows where he is at and that's an expectation to win but he is proud of the way this team has come together and there is a great camaraderie between that group.

--Coach Josh Eilert has done everything he has been asked to do. There was always going to be some roster attrition no matter what they did or how they did it when Bob Huggins resigned. They tried to move as quickly as they could to make the best decisions they could. They have tried to give coach Eilert everything he needed to do to be successful. He is proud of the work they've been able to do. Baker isn't opening up for job applications yet because the job isn't open right now.

--Baker said you have to address the transfer portal in one way, shape or form when a coach resigns because it creates a difficult situation. They had players that wanted to stay here but they want to be somewhere they can make the tournament and have success so it becomes a snow ball rolling down the hill.

--Baker is excited about where the Big 12 is positioned but he is sad for the Pac-12. There seems to be some kind of consolidation around schools there are going to be in power conferences and how many there will be and West Virginia is positioned well. When you talk about student athlete, health, welfare, their experience you have to think about that, too. There is a way to come together as a conference to look at scheduling and not send all the teams to Utah every year. There's a lot of creative things they can do with scheduling and it's their obligation to explore it. This expansion does not have to mean that they have to travel further, they can travel less and more teams to afford not to play everybody round robin.

--Baker and Eilert have had a lot of discussions about expectations and the integrity of what they're looking for. They are not a big you have to win 'x' number of games. They're all very supportive of coach Eilert and they hope he has a great year and gives them something to think about. Baker hopes he does a great job and he's part of the search for the next head coach. But there is no set criteria.

--Baker said that he can't say a lot on Bob Huggins on the back and forth but he said he has a lot of admiration for coach Huggins and what he accomplished here. He wishes the transition would have happened differently and Baker guesses he does as well. Sometimes there are disagreements and hard feelings and his hope is at some point they can look back on it and get past it. The appreciation has not changed for what Huggins did. Nobody has sent him anything to say it's fully resolved, but hasn't seen anything to suggest it isn't either.

--There is appetite to sell suites. He doesn't buy into that they don't have anything to say that can't happen. It's about availability and he gets asked a lot about the opportunity to buy suites. You can get cash flow from the suite rental and pay your mortgage and still have money to contribute. There is a variety of places you can spend the money but right now every metric you can look at they're behind their peers in terms of spending. You have a budget 9th out of 10 and you remove debt service and travel they're 10th. All of it is dominoes and connected so if you spend more somewhere, you have to spend less somewhere else. He wants to invest back into the programs and the support staff. The explosion of video and graphic design and coaches want to do one for everything now but there is a return because fans and recruits engage in that. The player development area needs to be improved and the digital and creative areas that they need to spend more in all sports.

--Baker has known Pitt AD Heather Lyke for eight year and he said they want to play for as much and as long as they want to play. They expressed interest in extending the basketball series. There is willingness on their part to extend and he believes that is the case on their end. They need to follow back up and circle back and see what that looks like.

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Anthony's got about 10 times more people following him than CNN does.

Politicians need called out, they need just out! Term limits needed.

Remember when musicians came out with a song and nobody cared who they voted for or even knew.

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Calling Maui arson a wildfire is like calling Biden a president.

He's definitely been taking some shots at Neal lately. As for the graphic it is really stupid. WVU has proven over the years that it can recruit quality players.

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Please text me at 336-420-9900. Bringing two Tar Heels who want to experience Motown.

Thanks !

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The West Virginia University men's basketball team will host a charity exhibition game against George Mason inside the WVU Coliseum on Friday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. Proceeds will benefit WVU Medicine Children's.

This will be the sixth time that WVU has played in a charity exhibition basketball game to begin the season.

Tickets for the WVU-George Mason game are included as part of the men's basketball season ticket package. Information on single-game ticket sales and admission for WVU students will be announced at a later date. To order 2023-24 men's basketball season tickets, visit WVUGAME.com or call 1-800-WVU GAME.

then i remembered drawing a blank for the pooling of interest vs purchase method accounting principles for acquisitions and mergers. exam. I remember panicking and then a vivid image of living in a box down by the river. Lol.