#WVU Baseball struggles, basketball roster moves, and football transfer talk

one welcome back welcome in this is country roads confidential at earport dcom a Paramount podcast I am M cazza that is Chris Anderson Chris um I think for like the fourth time ever you and I actually met this weekend how about that yes we did and this might have been the first time you and I hung out in person where someone from WBU didn't walk up and go oh God what are you guys doing together it was that was good yeah we stayed out of the Limelight so that no one at ww could see us together um wives were there my wife said to me on the way home you guys didn't talk about work once and I was like yeah you know why because all we do is talk about work yeah so that was refreshing enjoyable not to talk about work yes segue let's talk about wwu sports because we haven't done that in forever right we got a nice little reprieve and now let's jump right back in not because we were out and about doing things on our own and having a social life but just because the pace of things right now couple of sports converging for different reasons in their regular seasons and their off seasons and their roster construction plans um and their postseason Pursuits yeah baseball yeah basketball you know football staffs rosters schedule um for baseball winding down action ramping up for basketball roster maybe even the staff soon football in that that stage right now where you kind of cross your fingers I happens that's good news and players are away for a while they'll be back in campus starting their summer courses soon but still a glow of last week with the um spring game the uniform reveals multiple little draft Buzz then and now too so certainly a lot we could have talked about on Friday night that we can talk about here on Monday morning that's why we're here where should we lead off on this one here because there are a couple things we could pull right away to get into but I'm not sure which is more important than the other and let's start with let's go baseball let's get the let's get the bad news out first Mike um three game series against Cincinnati Cincinnati not a terrible team not a great team um West Virginia wins the first game loses the next two and a lot of the struggles it was something we were asked about and we discussed on the podcast I think it was last week about do they have the pitching get it done that was a big problem for sure in this series but not the only problem were there any takeaways you had from this three- game series cuz I got some thoughts for sure yeah that was one I really thought they had to win if they wanted to be like a legitimate you know Coast to the end postseason team like if they take two out of three or three out of three at Cincinnati that's good because Cincinnati is not um just kind of like a a doormat in this league first year coach could have been somebody different than who it was by the way really good at home and they've had some young players have come through for them and you saw some of their pitching this weekend too so that was good I was the one who said that they had the pitching they did not yet have the pitching they have arms and they certainly recruited players in the portal and they develop their program that could put together a Friday Saturday Sunday fourth game if you're in a regional kind of a thing or a big 12 tournament they had the arms they had the candidates for that they just don't have the performers right now and that's kind of troublesome because they've been working with that for a little bit trying to figure out why is our Friday guy not our Friday guy anymore more um who is going to P pitch Sundays for us who's going to get us you know from the third inning to the sixth inning a lot of those questions I haven't answered and at some point you stop trying to answer me just go that's our answer we don't have one or we don't have the guy for this we don't have the person for that we don't have the individuals for this and and moreover now that seems like what the situation is to me have candidates they don't have the answers right now and that's going to be really difficult for first their their remaining Big 12 series Kansas State TCU and then if they go in when they go into the Big 12 tournament how do you win an elimination game if you have to how do you get out of a a 43 game in the fourth inning and not have it turn into an 114 game in the fourth inning there's going to be some questions there they have to answer and and again they just haven't been able to do it yet for performance for health the portal hasn't been great to them sooner or later you just you just realize that's what you have and you're going to have to figure out how to cross your fingers the tightest to make it work and that's not the best feeling going into a postseason in atmosphere yeah this was a series where I think a lot of people were looking at the second and third game and seeing those losses and it it's not good because both kind of followed the same script of falling behind early on Saturday they were down 7even nothing before they ever even uh got anything going on offense on Sunday they were down four nothing in the first inning um so once you get put in those holes you start getting desperate you start getting down things just you you get it you understand why things are going to go bad after that but even Friday night's game you I went back and watched it after the fact I saw the win um but that there were seeds of Doubt even in that win right there if you truly go back and look at that game because the pitching was not great like hey Chris what are you talking about they won five to four they held on tight close game yeah but man there there's some stats you look at that you say that's not great in that game they gave up nine hits they walked five batters they hit five batters they were putting a lot of people on base and it was on I want to say you know if you put those numbers out there you know baseball is a numbers game it's a statistics game probabilities type of game that's a game Cincinnati probably wins nine times out of 10 given some of those numbers because they just seem to West West Virginia got very luy to win that game let me put it that way because Cincinnati was two of 14 with runners in scoring position they were thrown out running to Third on trying to advance like from first to Third on a single they grounded into double plays after they had multiple guys on base they fouled out like on pitches that were or a ball that was barely in able to be caught when they had multiple guys on base just seemed like a lot of things went against Cincinnati just for West Virginia to eek out that one-run win so even saying they won one of three it was it was even more concerning than that for me personally watching some of that yeah I was kind of concerned as some of the visuals some of the responses Sunday you had kind of an animated I guess catcher pitcher manager conference at the mound where it it did seem like Randy Maisy and Aiden major were having a dispute about something out there too and then I don't know exactly why you could hypothesize but Randy mayy does not let major go out for the second inning Grant he gave up four runs in the first inning but was there some dispute there do you not make a scene and pull that guy right there do you want to give your your Bullpen guy the most time to warm up like if you get mad at a guy during a pitching conference it's one thing to pull him out then you got to have a guy come in too so that was a strange thing and Major's been working on a bit of a short Leash too because he just hasn't had it lately good the beginning of the year has not had it lately in conference play and then you know there was some some Fielding indifference with Grant hussy later in the the game um that was highlighted by a lot of people following it and then he gets pulled from the game too and that's a big betat in the middle of their lineup who has been relied upon to to make something happen whether it's off the bench for sack flies when he was injured whether it's just getting the Home Run Record because he has that type of power I just think you keep an eye on those things and you wonder you know what is the manager really who can see the end of the road right now what does he do what buttons does he press I'm not saying that was fake or inauthentic it might have been you know long time coming stuff it might have been you can't do this stuff but those are reactions you don't often see from Maisy very um even ke kind of a guy on the field but not known for making a lot of like instant reactions and for those two things to happen and again it might have been just a guy who was having a bad game pitching and a bad game hitting but it did happen and I think a lot of times there has to be an accountability built in things and if a Coach manager feels like things are getting away you really kind of have to to to grab your team by the collar and say no this is not over yet we have ways to do it and we've seen that with those lineups lately too they made some changes the last couple of games top of the order um players in players out players who've been out coming back in having a chance and not being able to sustain it a lot of a lot of unknowns right now Chris whether it's the pitching staff the batting order who goes where on the field maybe they find the right combinations at the right time but I think all things considered you'd obviously rather not have those unknowns right now yeah and and to round this out just circling back to what you said at the beginning this could have been an opportunity to go two of three or three and0 and solidify yourself as a postseason team and kind of cruise down the stretch now I don't think it's a completely a given that they're going to be in the postseason they're gonna have to do something you know I don't think they got to go they got what three four seven games maybe eight depending on what they do with that midweek game a couple weeks from now um you know four and four five and or four and three I guess if they only play seven maybe that's necessary I don't know but they can't can't just Cruise in like you said earlier and they got Penn State on Wednesday Kansas State three- game series and Morgantown after that maybe a midweek game next week and then a three- game series at TCU to in the season and they could be going into that that trip to Fort Worth needing a win which again not a given and so miss opportunity for WB baseball this weekend yeah what would you do with that open game on the 14th I would want to hold out hope or hold out on making a decision until after this week because here's my thing if you go if West Virginia goes say three and one or four- 0 here with Ben State and the Kansas State Games then you're like okay I'm good now let's just focus on TCU I don't want to get a quote you know gimme game and then I have nothing to gain from it and if I screw up that might then force me back onto the bubble against TCU the end the season but I just don't know how quick of a turnaround you can get a game going so they might have to make a decision before obviously those four games are played yeah right now there's no from what I understand there's no plan to play that game there there have been teams lined up that possibly doesn't help the RPI win especially lose but if there's somebody in the region who you could pay to come and play a game if you go two and two Chris are one and three you lose to Penn State and then you lose the series to Kansas State you might need a spike in your SOS in your RPI could you get and I'm just I'm hypothesizing here could you pay Maryland to come to town and play a game for RPI purposes where that helps you like that's a risk I don't know but I would not make that decision right now I think you're right there see what happens again cross your fingers really tight and hope the best works out for you and you don't have to actually even worry about filling that spot doesn't do you any damage to not play that game but if you play it and you lose whether it's a good RPI team or a bad RPI team and they're not going to play a can of soup that game they're going to play somebody good if they do it that's a big risk and at this point of the Season probably not one they can take all right let's flip over for a quick quick quick trip to basketball here over the weekend some rumored visitors for uh Darren Dev and his coaching staff um rumor that Arkansas point guard Keon menifield was in town uh started his career in Washington played one year there came over to Arkansas was ruled ineligible to start the season played some started some got hurt in out of the lineup starter bench not dnp coach's decision kind of all over the place but there have been a lot of discussions about what all was going on at Arkansas this past season and all the issues they had there so don't know if you can really hold that against him but maybe the more intriguing prospect on town was former Xavier sin Jonathan Powell um out of Dayton Ohio he is confirmed in C on campus on Sunday I spoke with him briefly before he got there said he was coming in for the day said it was his only visit he had planned Mike do the math for me here help me out he had requests a release from his National letter of intent on a Friday within 36 hours he is on campus at another school and he has no intention of visiting another school if you had some kind of projection device where you could look into it say a sphere type clear sphere where you could look into it and make a prediction what would you predict a ball of some sort of expensive glass-like material um well I would put the theory to the test and have him like play the Mega Millions for me or the Powerball because golly what an unusual set of circumstances um that's a really good player from Ohio right yeah play the year in his division going to Cincinnati playing for Shawn Miller excuse me going to Xavier playing for Shawn Miller in Cincinnati there's nothing wrong with that like that's a good lot for the player of the year in Ohio what in the world happened don't know but he must have had a a sensation that this is going to be a good trip and a good business decision for him to come to Morgantown it's very curious Chris um I don't know like this is the type of thing that probably would make coaches mad in a lot of situations how does this happen um but we don't know what the reason why he would ask out of his nli is at Xavier I'm sure there's a question and answer sometime in the future probably predict that answer right now best decision for me and my family whatever right place right time though I mean whether it's on a map or whether it's on the the roster development progress plan they they need somebody they need youth it'd be good to get some freshman in because you can balance out the classes so they have a freshman they have three sophomores and the rest are seniors right now that's a good addition and it looks like a pretty good player too and if you keep I mean I don't think it really matters but you're getting another like really good Ohio player in the West Virginia program that's been a thing for you know six 16 years now why wouldn't that be the case in the future but a lot of questions on this one too like what happened What's the timing here the the string of events before this too and where else might he possibly go like why doesn't he have more lined up I'm sure there's other schools in Ohio maybe even one at Cincinnati that would like to have a talk with him because they probably liked him before and then all of a sudden he was off the board so good for West Virginia for getting him here and being first in line and maybe the only one in line keep an eye this one though I guess there's probably a lot to um a lot to assume that we don't have aners for but I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of other action in this story this seems like a u i don't know this seems pretty linear to me Chris it's gonna go from A to Z pretty fast it feels like it me when the player himself says you know this is this is the one visit I'm taking this is it and it feels like the ball's in West Virginia's court and and I don't think West Virginia at this point is going to be wasting their time or anyone else's hosting visitors that they're not going to take so keep an eye on it but this is kind of following the pattern that we laid out on this podcast a week or two ago a week or so ago um where we said hey they can't get all the players at once they can't have eight visitors on campus all transfers all guys you're telling they're going to start and get them all committed like that it's not going to work like that it's going to work where it's a situation of get two key pieces then once you get those two Circle back for two more Circle back for two more add a couple high schoolers and so on the two examples we gave then get a true point guard and get a serviceable big what did they do they got a two-point guard they got a serviceable big and now I think it's it's going to be more focused on the transfer front another serviceable big you're going to need more than one and again I keep saying the word serviceable because I don't want anybody to get any expectations of a 20 and 10 guy rolling into Morgantown at that spot that's not what they're looking for that's not what they're capable of getting at this point I don't believe um and a three-point shooter is that menafield who we mentioned from Arkansas wasn't as prolific uh as you would have like or as efficient excuse me as you would have liked during his two years so far in college but he was a really good three-point shooter in high school so maybe it just hasn't quite translated yet or it's going to get there he's a possibility but then I also mentioned in the VIP Buzz hey keep an eye on high school kids because you're going to need to B bance out the roster just like you said it's it's not quite what it once was where you want to have say three seniors three Juniors three sophomores three freshman but you need a couple freshmen you need a couple high school kids that you're saying hey man maybe you get a few minutes this year maybe you just develop and then you can be our guy next year you got to do it you got to go there you you limit your Targets in high school maybe make them you know raise the bar on what you would take out of high school and this seems like this would fit this is a guy who averaged like 20 and six and was the state player of the year so it seems this is going to plan if that plan is correct we'll see and in defense of pow too and West Virginia and whatever like tampering or mouth beas you might you might suspect I'm not necessarily sure that's true Xavier has a lot of guards coming back that was a strength their team last year and they did not have a lot of shooting though and pal figured to fit into that too good shooting guard again top 100 recruit top 25ish shooting guard in the country makes sense for the player of year in Ohio to stay there in the good to Cincinnati excuse me good to Xavier in Cincinnati Sean Miller also brought in three other guards from the transfer portal so now you go from a freshman who is maybe like a fourth or fifth option in the backourt to a freshman who's six seventh maybe more in the backourt too and if you want to play right away which is what everybody of his caliber wants that's a long way to the court and moreover it's not what he signed up for like these guys sign in like November too and things change he's thinking okay you know I could be third or fourth maybe fifth depending on what happens and all of a sudden he signed he's watching the team they go into their postseason and he's thinking all right how can I come in and liveing things up what is my contribution going to be well now it's after those guys who are returning and it's after those guys who were also brought in from the portal too and again if West Virginia was on top of this and said hm here's a guy who is who could wander let's keep an eye on it and all of a sudden he's in the port he's not in the portal but he's he's out of his nli pick up the phone be first be second be on that first wave of calls so um again timing is everything they time this one right they got him on campus impressionable moment for him here's a guy who wants to be valued and needed for his play and not just you know a spot in the roster of the fact that he's from the state where he's going to play college basketball West Virginia can certainly offer that right now too in need of spaces to be filled by players but also they need Shooters and if he can Comm in and do that which is kind of what he was supposed to be doing for Xavier that's a fit for the Mountaineers nothing to apologize for all right let's stay uh with basketball but move to a bit bigger picture than just Morgantown the Big 12 came out earlier this month and said they wanted to they were in favor of expanding the NCAA tournament Mike is this the first misstep of the new leadership in the Big 12 or is this them just looking out for the best interests of the Big 12 so it is the right decision say it's the way of the world Chris everything I just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I don't I don't like it I can see though where coaches know that measure by NCAA tournament bids and if you're a first four out team or you're at a first like the one of the first four games and you're getting left out or you're getting one game on a Tuesday in Dayton because you are grinding through the Big 12 schedule and the best you can do is just on the periphery of the tournament that could be really frustrating and maybe job endangering for you too so if you can add you know they're talking going from 68 to 76 or 68 to 80 if you can add those spots you likely in increase your chances of making the tournament of course you increase the chances for everybody else too so it's not like you're going from 64 to 128 you're adding a small slice to the field so I don't know the money I guess that would be a big deal but you know NCAA tournament money is different than college football money and payouts for things like that get the units is very complicated it can be nice but it's not guaranteed every year to but sure more teams in the tournament it helps I suppose that's a powerful thing I wonder about the vote Chris it's 16 coaches in there too couple of them are new like if you see Bill self is is is for it and you're new to the Big 12 do you not raise your hand right are you going to be the new guy who was like no I don't want to expand everybody's like what are you doing supposed to expand right and all of a sudden you're left out you're not invited to the golf tournaments you know things like that oh gosh I wonder about the vote was it 97 was it 142 I don't know in favor of can be like hey would you be in favor of expanding yeah sure do they even have like a vote I don't know I wonder about that that's a detail that's unsaid and maybe a question that was unasked but yeah they're in favor of it what number sound like 76 from Brett ymark but if you think about Brett ymar he's a guy that wants a National Conference that's recognized for basketball he's he's acted that way he's kind of said that a little bit before too that's why you're talking about Aden Gonzaga for just basketball now you're going from Orlando to Spokan that's a big conference right but it's also going to be the premier conference which already is the case but now you're going to be bigger and better and wider Spain in the map of the United States think he fancies that and if he can get more teams represented that tournament that's a good thing too you can also make this tournament a spectacle that kind of is maybe it isn't quite as big as a could be I'm not in favor of I don't like expanding it I thought going from 64 to 68 was weird but there's something kind of intriguing about those first four games so there's been good some good stories born out of that in the past few years but what are we getting out of 76 what are we getting out of 80 how does that tournament look and then what are those extra teams going to really do like I know that some of the first four teams have made a run have been good but those are like major Conference teams or teams that like profiled is very good that just for one reason another weren't at that point of the season you're you're adding that is the 80th team going to make it to the Elite 8 I don't know that's difficult for me so now you're just giving like consolation prizes and and trophies and ribbons and things like that which I suppose for the college experience that's part of it but I guess it just come down to the money Chris like how does this work for money that's what it always comes down to to me lately too so I don't like it I'm sure there's some Financial aspect to it that makes sense it hasn't been explained to me yet I'm sure it's there I'm also not sure it's going to happen either you said it best right there because I'm I'm against it I don't like like expansion for a lot of reasons again but what why are we rewarding the 80th best team 76th best team I'm just not not for it so I won't I won't pile on uh if you will and I will move on to football instead Mike maybe the biggest news over the weekend we put out our dep chart projections big big news um there were a few differences we we we delve into the differences between ours and Andrew since Andrew is not here to defend himself but I'll say that I purposely did not look at yours or Andrews until I had written mine for obvious reasons I'm trying to make sure that I'm not influenced by anything um so we ended up with a couple things different or not too many things different but a couple things different like how how we listed positions or where guys are playing again in part because I didn't look to see where you had guys but the main difference in our depth chart I want to talk it out here was mostly just a wide receiver or at all receivers um for the outside receivers I went Ray and Bray and you went Ray and Clement let's talk it out let's talk it out right here so are we essentially discussing CL Clement versus Bray are we talking two different positions why are we on a different page on here or does it even matter so it's a difficult one to answer because so many of these players are like multi-position too I just happen to think that they're going to start Ray obviously I think that's your I'm not sure they have a number one on this team yet probably won't even after the transfer portal but they have players they think that can be that one and by the end of the season my bet would be that's most likely Ray second to him is probably Clement and that's a bit of a stretch to me more so than Ray but I could be wrong there too and I don't think that those two were separated by so much but I think that they're probably ahead of the third option I don't know what they're doing a break Chris like I've seen him used inside and outside XZ I guess the the H position would be the the inside spot the slot position I think he's going to be on the field a bunch too but my my guess would be outside for for him because he's so big and fast and strong but he's just such a big guy in the middle of the field and he's kind of Twitchy with you know the ability to break through tackles that I like him as inside guy I know they've mentioned that Clement is a tackle breaker he's not like Ray he's just not built like Bray sorry if you look at Jaden Bray you look at Hudson Clement that's different I just figure he profiles more inside but I honestly like if we did a PFF thing during the open week in the middle of the Season you found out that Clen had played you know 40 snaps inside and 90 snaps outside that wouldn't surprise me at all like I could see something like that happening he just knows the positions too but I I don't think they're position list I think they're going to rotate a lot and then it's it's not so much about inside outside Demus they're going to have four receivers in the field sometimes but it's going to be Cole Taylor as as the fourth receiver or one of the four receivers they're just G that's not he's not going to not be on the field in those spots so you're not going to have two inside guys so you're going to have Clement Ray haor and then who is it Bray is it Fox is it Rodney Gallagher is it RI Darius farmer I just think if you go to a situation before you're gonna have Cole Taylor out there and not as an outside guy he's going to be an inside guy which means you're probably going to have Bray Clement Ray outside and and I just I just feel like Bray is more of an inside guy I'm I'm not married to any of this and I think that the the the confusion in the answer is probably by the design by the coach it's not intentionally I think they want to have players who could do multiple things and and can keep you from keying on somebody but you can throw like bodies out there across the field too with those receiver spots yeah I'm in the same boat I had I I considered Bray one of the inside receiver position when I was putting together my list and yeah it would have been Ray CL and Bray if I did if I had put Bray on the inside so it's not like we got crazy differences here I just wanted to talk it out a little bit because yeah and again it kind of takes us back to the what you just said there isn't much difference in there but is there a very clearcut number one or is West Virginia in the situation again where they have hey you got five number two receivers or you know four number two receivers two three receivers we'll see the other part where we were different was again just more of a clerical thing here you had you had the H receiver and the slot I only did just one inside receiver with yours Fox and Gallagher were both starting because the two inside receivers I did one and had Fox over Gallagher if you had to pick one you picking one or do again does it matter I I like Gallagher I again I think I've mentioned this a couple of times I wonder if he can't be a guy who catch like 30 catches and 30 handoffs something like that I would have Fox ahead of him right now just less to prove uh more body of work in his back pocket all right our last Topic in our little news of the day podcast here the over unders were released earlier this month futures for the upcoming season from FanDuel um I believe we've already mentioned the fact that West Virginia was over or under six and a half wins with a little bit of juice on the over meaning slight pick for the over there from Vegas fair or unfair surprise it's not higher just because I think it would be more attractive to some people to pick the under if it was seven and a half I think the action on six and a half probably eventually raise that number a little bit I just think 6 and a half is if you've seen this team late last season in this offseason why would they be three games worse than last year don't see that I'm with you I think I think it's hard and here's where I think it's difficult if you're Vegas and I'm why I'm surprised like maybe the the juice is not higher for the over here they hate even numbers remember was it two was it two years ago yeah it was two years ago where they they started it at five just a flat five and you and I were like bet the house because they should get the over and even if everything goes wrong they'll at least get the five and you'll get your money back well everything went wrong they got the five you got your money back if you listen to us so um they hate even numbers if you go all the way up to seven and a half then you're probably having to you know push the the the juice on the under and kind of even it out to try to make it even for Vegas but the more I want to say alarming thing but the thing that that catches my attention more than just the over under six and a half is would you like to guess out of the 16 teams where that puts West Virginia in the Big 12 Conference was six and a half wins is it eth or ninth 10 is it okay yeah so it goes in order Kansas State at Utah SL at nine and a half wins at the Top Texas Tech Kansas UC F Arizona all with 8 and a half Oklahoma State Iowa State and TCU at 7 and half and then West Virginia at six and a half so again this isn't the preseason poll but it might give you a hint as to where the general public might be leaning with West Virginia as the number 10 team in the Big 12 Conference fair or un take over on that one too they're gonna finish higher than P yeah um I I just did this really quick went over and I my mathematical explanation is pretty easy here they're going to beat Albany I'm not really threatened by Pit by Cincinnati and by Baylor there's four now I just got to get three and then their toughest games at home this year their toughest games are at home Penn State uh Kansas State Kansas and Iowa State are they gonna lose all them I don't think so so there's one so now you're at five their toughest games on the road Oklahoma State Arizona and Texas te are they going to go 0 and three and lose all the tough games on the road I would say no so give me one now I'm at six and then the only game I'll have there is UCF that's a home game if I'm trying to get over under and I'm betting my money Chris not even yours I'm betting my money on West Virginia at six and six and has to win the UCF game I know it's not how it works in the schedule but UCF in Morgantown I saw that game last year um I don't know why he wouldn't feel good about West Virginia going over by breaking down the schedule the way I just did there all right you guys keep that in mind Mike Mike I think wants to take the charity bets this year at this rate we're going to have to bring you back for the charity bets Charities do not want that though unfortunate for them yeah well Mike I think that's going to cover everything uh everything that was in the news over the last couple days that we missed over the weekend and had to catch up on again maybe sometime in the next week or two we'll pop back into a Q&A podcast once the uh message board let's say veers away from their current discussions and gets back to asking questions that we can answer on the podcast can't wait until then I'm Mike Caz and I'm Chris Anderson we will talk to you then