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Is it best to keep Neal another year?

My gut says absolutely not no matter the consequence we cannot have another crappy season with Neal Brown, but….. based on some conversations i had earlier today… this is how it is shaking out… Wren doesn’t really like any coaches out there that we can reasonably obtain. He doesn’t love the idea of a coordinator and would prefer a head coach who has won at multiple stops. I’ll run down a list of some names that were thrown around and my thoughts on them.

1. Cignetti. Donors are beside themselves that he is having the kind of success he is having at Indiana in year one. Wren looks awful for passing on Cignetti, coaches with his kind of winning history at three different schools are basically unheard of and for him to be a former player? sheeeesh. It may be more possible that wren could raise neal’s buyout AND Cignetti’s buyout than just Neal’s buyout and a random coach (if that makes sense). Personal opinion is that Cignetti goes somewhere bigger after this year anyway, but rumor is he would be interested in wvu.

2. Jimbo. He is really the only other coach that donors would pony up the dough for. I don’t think Wren wants to go down that path , but it seems most probable if Neal face plants the rest of the way.

3. Chadwell/Traylor/Kinne. Was told that none of them would be interested in the wvu job.

4. Sumrall. Most likely candidate if Wren chooses to not go the donor route. It would be interesting to see the backlash on this since he is pretty tight with Neal Brown.

5. Silverfield/Candle/Clark/Helton/Odom/‘Shot in the dark OC’. I just grouped these guys all together because I don’t really like think anyone (me included) is clamoring for our new coach to be one of the guys listed.

6. Mike Jacobs. Some FCS guy.

I’m not really sure what an extra year buys you in terms of getting a better coach but I’m not so sure i want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire with any of these dudes.

What are y’all’s thoughts? And before you say “anybody but neal” lol ..,, please give it some thought , who ever we get will probably be the coach for at least the next 4-5 years.

RECRUITING UPDATE WVU is in contact with a prospect that recently decommitted from UVA

WVU has been involved with Chance Mallory for the last couple of years and he's been on campus already.

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4-star PG Chance Mallory has heard from the following schools since de-committing from Virginia earlier this week @On3Recruits is told

Virginia Tech
Tennessee
Maryland
Miami
Creighton
Seton Hall
Iowa
West Virginia
Virginia
Villanova

My 2 cents from an old Mountaineer

I've been a member of this board for close to 25 years. In all that time, I have responded to board posts sparingly, and I have initiated posts very rarely. And that is only interesting because of all the hours I've spent reading almost every post virtually every day.

But I feel compelled today to voice my opinion on the quagmire my family, my friends and WVU fans in general face with regards to our situation with Neal Brown.

First, I think a little of my background may be relevant. Despite not having lived in West Virginia since 1963, literally, my life began as a Mountaineer 75 years ago. Born in Morgantown, my parents both graduated from Morgantown High. My dad was a WVU student after being discharged from the Marine Corps after both WWII and Korea. We moved around the country a lot for his work - I attended elementary school in Kanawha and Mason counties, Jr. High in Philadelphia, and high school in California, with some intermediate stops also.

But no matter how far away we were, we were Mountaineers first. And I returned to attend WVU. I graduated with a BS in journalism and athletic coaching. I had classes with Jim Braxton and Bob Gresham, Curtis Price and Dave Werthman and classes taught by Dale Ramsburg, Gene Corum and Whitey Gwynne. I knew Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden, Sonny Moran and Gary MacPhearson on a personal level. And the same can be said for Mickey Furfari and Tony Constantine when I worked in the Athetic Department.

This is, unfortunately, a long way around to say I've been close to WVU athletics for a long time, and I might have some insight and a lot of interest in our current situation.

Never in my lifetime (and long before that) has WVU come even close to having "silly money". And I suspect, as many of you do, we never will. As a result those whose responsibility is to manage what money we have must be extremely careful. Was it a mistake for Shane Lyons to sign Neal's first extension? Without a doubt. Was the second extension a mistake? It could be argued so, but maybe it was a chance to help a bad situation that turned out wrong. Either way, this is where we are now.

However, to fire Neal now means we we will have to come up with money to cover his buyout, the assistants' salaries for the rest of this year and next year, maybe a buyout to the new coach's current school, his salary for next year and the new staff's salaries. Unless one of us wins the next Powerball, I can't see how all of that happens.

All of this is to say, even though many, myself included, think we need a change from Neal, the bottom line is we cannot afford it at this time. Next year I think we will be in a much better position financially to make the change. And if we withhold our collective financial support from WVU athletics at this time, I'm afraid next year may never come.

I am sorry for being so long-winded.

Five Thoughts: WVU Basketball 2024-'25

My Fiver on WVU hoops tipping off here in just three more days with a monumental beatdown of Robert Morris...

1. Staying connected defensively is No. 1 for me. Dry spells shooting and scoring the basketball happen to everyone. But, when you can't defend, then WVU basketball 2023-'24 happens. From watching this WVU team in the Exhibition, you could already see evidence of a connection and cohesiveness (i.e. communication) that last year's squad and Bob Huggins's last couple squads did not have. You look at Drake's defensive statistics from last year and they ranked, out of 350 D-1 programs:

- #27 is scoring margin at +9.4 ppg (WVU was #324 at -7 ppg)
- #36 in turnover margin at 2.7 (WVU was #317 at -2.3)
- #81 in defensive rebounds per game at 26.4 (WVU at #224 with 24.59)
- #119 is scoring defense @ 70.4 ppg (WVU was #303 at 76.8 ppg),
- #133 in TO forced @ 12.41pg (WVU was #301 at 10.38 pg)

We're going to be better, more connected, on defense and the days of dozens of unabated straight line drives are behind us. Darian DeVries focus on playing a defense which can switch all five positions and focuses on trying to take away what the opponent does well. This is reason for optimism. Plus, it appears we very well may have a couple stone cold defensive stoppers on the roster.

2. On Offense, I love everything DD is saying thus far -- we're going to play free. Everyone has a green light. If you don't take an open shot, you sit. We're going to recruit and play guys who are interchangeable, even some "5"'s who can handle and shoot. (Eduardo Andre being the exception). I'll give Huggs credit for his accomplishments at WVU, which were many. There were great, great days. But, It's been a struggle at times watching Huggs's offense - in particular since he killed Press Virginia. With DD, we are entering the 21st Century in terms of offense. Our players are going to have multiple options on screens, and will practice them ad nauseum, so come game time it is instinctive. We'll see back door cuts, ghost screens, pick and pop threes (Tucker DeVries and Amani Hansberry), and PnR lobs. It's going to be refreshing and different. Also, DD loves to have a good, solid point guard who runs the offense and can be multiple. We have Javon Small in that role this season, but he's setting KJ Tenner up to be a 3-year starter at that position after. And,

- Drake ranked #10 out of 350 teams last season in assist-to-TO ratio at 1.66. (WVU ranked T231 at 1.03).

3. Tucker DeVries - I think it is clear that he is THE Guy for our team in 2024-'25, but we'll have other options. And I am very interested to see how the increase in competition and in particular defensive prowess will affect him once he sees what things are like in the Big 12. We're going to need others to take some of the pressure off of DeVries to free him up...

4. Jayden Stone and Sincere Harris. While everyone was giddy over the Stone presser due to how articulate and forthcoming he was in his commentary, I came away kind of surprised -- it seemed to me that he seemed thoroughly confused as to his role on this team. He mentioned how he had to carry Detroit Mercy last year in scoring, but now, he is getting used to being somewhat of a role player. And he seemed to be lost in terms of what his role may or may not be. Then, he kinda played like that in the exhibition vs. Charleston. Bottom line is that we're going to need him to score to loosen up opponents and spread their "D" thin for Javon Small and Tucker DeVries. Heard he played much better vs. Wake Forest, so that is good. With Harris, it appears that we have a bona fide defensive stopper. He was intense as hell defensively in the Charleston scrimmage. He's a great pickup and looking forward to watching him try to lock down our opposing best player.

5. Prediction? Hell, I don't know. I think we're looking at a starting 5 of:

1. Small
2. Stone or Harris
3. Okani
4. DeVries
5. Hansberry

I like those 6, and I really like Jonathan Powell. Powell is going to be a good one. Beyond those 6 or 7, I don't know about how they'll stack up vs. Big 12 play and Gonzaga, Pitt, Indiana. With our coach, and with this assembled talent, I do expect to come out and start with a big win over Robert Morris. Then, the UMass and Pitt games will be a great barometer as to where we stand for now. UMass is picked preseason #9 in the A10 and Pitt is being tabbed preseason #7 ACC(thank goodness the Hinson kid graduated). Overall, I expect to win a few we're not supposed to win, but on some nights we'll get run out of the gym. But, there is potential enough with the Coach, the Staff, and the assembled talent, to make the Tournament if those top 6 or 7 stay healthy and we get a few breaks.

WVSPORTS.COM West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries press conference summary

--West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries feels that his team is ready for the season and excited to play. This is a longer week and the last opportunity to focus on themselves as well as game prep to prepare for a real scout which it will stay that way until March.

--Robert Morris has a ton of new faces and played Villanova close in a scrimmage. Every night you have to be ready to play and he thinks the players will be ready.

--DeVries has a pretty good idea of what the rotation will look like but that could definitely change. Whether it's an injury or foul trouble it's about putting yourself in the best position possible. They'll be in that eight to ten range to see how it goes.

--DeVries said that Jayden Stone will be out for a period of time with an upper body injury. That will be day to day moving forward. He got banged up in practice.

--DeVries said they won't put any sort of limit on what they'll do on the floor and they'll take what the defense is giving them. If they let them shoot threes they'll take 30 threes, but if they take those away they will drive the basketball. They want to be as flexible as possible.

--West Virginia has a lot of players that can make shots and they have several guys that can get them 20 in a single night.

--DeVries said they have a collection of players that have been good. The starters have done a good job and have a good group that has given them a lot of effort.

--West Virginia is still going to run offense the same way but it's about trusting your instincts in order to play faster and be more effective. They don't want players being robots.

--DeVries wants to win and they want to see how they can win the 40-minutes and isn't going to experiment a lot.

--DeVries said there isn't a lot of data to go off but there is a lot of different ways to approach it. This team spent a lot of time on install offense and defense, but if you have a veteran group you can focus on the individual stuff and cleaning up things.

--DeVries said they will use all five assistants for scouting reports and will split it up. Like every assistant coach they have a different approach to how they do it, but they do have a format that includes his expectations of what he wants in a scout. Some of it takes time to discover what he wants but they try not to make it too tricky.

--Anything you can do to help guys get through a lot grinding season it's good and they've gotten great energy from the assistants and managers in that regard.

--DeVries said he doesn't feel pressure but it's a good thing to have nerves and be excited for his first game here. From a coaching standpoint the only thing he cares about is playing the way he wants to play. He remembers his first game at Drake and he was excited and wanted them to do well.

--DeVries will mix up the pre-game a little bit and will do the warm-ups they want to get done to get a feel for the guy. He doesn't like sitting back in the room by himself, it's too long before the game.

--DeVries said they take a lot of plays into a game and the playbook is pretty extensive. They go into a game and pull out 10-15 plays and will focus on those but in the course of the game you might see something you can pull out of the playbook and use at that time.

--There will be sets that are designed to get a specific three-point shot for a person, but it doesn't have to go there.

--DeVries said it's a longer off-season anytime you take a new job but right now he's excited to go play and get his team out there.

--DeVries will have about 12 friends and family there for the opener.

--DeVries approaches every game the same and doesn't ever take winning or losing for granted. You have to pour into every game.

--If you look at the group from summer to now the identity of the team has started to shine through. They are playing really hard and very unselfishly and he is excited to see if they can do that for 40-minutes every single night. Consistency will be the key there.

--DeVries said they know what's in front of them with the schedule and are excited for the challenges.

--From a coaching perspective you can always continue to grow and learn. DeVries is comfortable with where his team is at and he hopes they are as consistent with how they approach things here as they were at Drake.

--No surprises yet, but he likes how the group has continued to compete and work in practice.

Immediate Action

I know WVU isn’t known to make personnel changes during the season, but Jordan Lesley and ShaDon Brown shouldn’t coach another game for this program. The product put on the field is frankly embarrassing. It’s hard to think an FBS team could be this terrible defending the pass. Technique, scheme, and effort are atrocious.

I honestly can’t believe Neal let Jahmile walk and kept Lesley as the DC. What a mistake that was.
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