WVU athletics going to hell under Lyons
2 years 9 months ago - 2 years 9 months ago #242
by wvu4u2
WVU athletics going to hell under Lyons was created by wvu4u2
MORGANTOWN — In the last two days, West Virginia’s football program has lost two more players to the transfer portal, but before you allow yourself to start thinking,
“Oh, no, not this portal stuff again” and move on to something else, let me assure you that this is neither about the portal or who went into it.That is just a fact that can’t be afforded, as much a part of today’s world as COVID, electric cars and 24-hour cable news that isn’t really news at all.
Now it’s true that losing tight end Charles Finley and starting cornerback Darryl Porter Jr. is not the kind of thing you welcome and, added to the numbers that are leaving the Puskar Center as if someone were in there pulling fire alarms, is a cause for concern.
But there is a much larger cause for concern within the athletic department that must be addressed and that is its future is very much uncertain.For lack of a better image, it seems to be in the same kind of danger that the human heart faces as a major artery becomes clogged, with blockage cutting down the lifeline day by day, week by week and month by month.
It is reaching the point where something has to be done, be it a prescription for medicine or some kind of surgery.We’re not just talking football, although that is the aorta of the program, or even football and men’s basketball, for it seems to go deeper.
You have to include women’s basketball into the conversation, as well as women’s soccer, the two top women’s sports, as well as rifle, whose team has not won a national championship in four years (one championship was cancelled due to COVID).
Now thinking not winning a national championship is setting the bar high certainly is fair, but this is a program with 19 team national championships and 25 individual titles, so it is in a slump, too.
The wrestling program has not taken off under Tim Flynn as hoped and WVU’s baseball program, while competitive, is coming off a difficult season and no one is expecting anything near a championship this year.Even an NCAA bid is uncertain.
The umbrella over all this is being held by athletic director Shane Lyons, who has avoided much scrutiny during his tenure after replacing Oliver Luck eight years ago, but certainly it’s difficult to make a case that the department is in a better place than it was when he took over.
Yes, facilities are better and there has been COVID to deal with, but I find it difficult to accept new coaching contracts and raises and bonuses being awarded for underachieving.Neal Brown’s football team clearly has some kinds of internal problems as the players flow through the portal and coaches move in and out.
His record last season was 6-7, but considering that is beefed up with a 66-0 victory over Long Island University, a team that had no business being on their schedule.Brown has three years in at WVU and two of them were losing seasons with the only winning season needing a bowl win over Army to get on the plus side.
With his defensive staff all receiving new contracts to carry them two years into the future, and with Brown working on a contract that runs that far into the future, one can assume Lyons believes that he’s safe for two more years, too.
On the basketball team, while we all were caught up in Bob Huggins’ run toward and beyond 900 victories and on whether the Hall of Fame would induct him this time around or not, his team slipped away from a 13-2 start built upon playing mostly patsies into troubled seas.The record is now 14-11 and with nine losses in the past 10 games there’s no guarantee of a better than .500 record. If they fall beneath .500 it will mark the second time in four years and the third time in 10 years.In fact,
West Virginia’s Big 12 Conference record under Huggins is just 89-84 — just five games better than .500.
Mike Carey, the women’s basketball coach, finds himself at .500 after losing at Kansas and is currently trying to keep from finishing under .500 for the first time since 2006. His team has lost four of five and six of nine in a season that was born with much hope.
Women’s soccer? It was really one of the bright lights in WVU’s athletic department, a team that made it to the final of the NCAA championship in a 23-2-2 season in 2016. Last season they were 10-5-5.Nikki Izzo-Brown, the only coach the team has ever had, dominated the Big 12 after losing just two conference games in the first 6 conference years. The Mountaineers have lost 10 conference games the last 4 years.
Other than the men’s soccer team, which does not compete in the Big 12 but which arrived on the national scene in a big way last year under coach Dan Stratford with a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, there is no shining light in the athletic lineup.
All of this, in a transitory time in college sports unlike any that has ever preceded it, is on Lyons’ plate and deserves immediate attention, for the WVU franchise is trending downward and needs some new ideas to get it back on track.
Follow @bhertzel on Twitter
“Oh, no, not this portal stuff again” and move on to something else, let me assure you that this is neither about the portal or who went into it.That is just a fact that can’t be afforded, as much a part of today’s world as COVID, electric cars and 24-hour cable news that isn’t really news at all.
Now it’s true that losing tight end Charles Finley and starting cornerback Darryl Porter Jr. is not the kind of thing you welcome and, added to the numbers that are leaving the Puskar Center as if someone were in there pulling fire alarms, is a cause for concern.
But there is a much larger cause for concern within the athletic department that must be addressed and that is its future is very much uncertain.For lack of a better image, it seems to be in the same kind of danger that the human heart faces as a major artery becomes clogged, with blockage cutting down the lifeline day by day, week by week and month by month.
It is reaching the point where something has to be done, be it a prescription for medicine or some kind of surgery.We’re not just talking football, although that is the aorta of the program, or even football and men’s basketball, for it seems to go deeper.
You have to include women’s basketball into the conversation, as well as women’s soccer, the two top women’s sports, as well as rifle, whose team has not won a national championship in four years (one championship was cancelled due to COVID).
Now thinking not winning a national championship is setting the bar high certainly is fair, but this is a program with 19 team national championships and 25 individual titles, so it is in a slump, too.
The wrestling program has not taken off under Tim Flynn as hoped and WVU’s baseball program, while competitive, is coming off a difficult season and no one is expecting anything near a championship this year.Even an NCAA bid is uncertain.
The umbrella over all this is being held by athletic director Shane Lyons, who has avoided much scrutiny during his tenure after replacing Oliver Luck eight years ago, but certainly it’s difficult to make a case that the department is in a better place than it was when he took over.
Yes, facilities are better and there has been COVID to deal with, but I find it difficult to accept new coaching contracts and raises and bonuses being awarded for underachieving.Neal Brown’s football team clearly has some kinds of internal problems as the players flow through the portal and coaches move in and out.
His record last season was 6-7, but considering that is beefed up with a 66-0 victory over Long Island University, a team that had no business being on their schedule.Brown has three years in at WVU and two of them were losing seasons with the only winning season needing a bowl win over Army to get on the plus side.
With his defensive staff all receiving new contracts to carry them two years into the future, and with Brown working on a contract that runs that far into the future, one can assume Lyons believes that he’s safe for two more years, too.
On the basketball team, while we all were caught up in Bob Huggins’ run toward and beyond 900 victories and on whether the Hall of Fame would induct him this time around or not, his team slipped away from a 13-2 start built upon playing mostly patsies into troubled seas.The record is now 14-11 and with nine losses in the past 10 games there’s no guarantee of a better than .500 record. If they fall beneath .500 it will mark the second time in four years and the third time in 10 years.In fact,
West Virginia’s Big 12 Conference record under Huggins is just 89-84 — just five games better than .500.
Mike Carey, the women’s basketball coach, finds himself at .500 after losing at Kansas and is currently trying to keep from finishing under .500 for the first time since 2006. His team has lost four of five and six of nine in a season that was born with much hope.
Women’s soccer? It was really one of the bright lights in WVU’s athletic department, a team that made it to the final of the NCAA championship in a 23-2-2 season in 2016. Last season they were 10-5-5.Nikki Izzo-Brown, the only coach the team has ever had, dominated the Big 12 after losing just two conference games in the first 6 conference years. The Mountaineers have lost 10 conference games the last 4 years.
Other than the men’s soccer team, which does not compete in the Big 12 but which arrived on the national scene in a big way last year under coach Dan Stratford with a run to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, there is no shining light in the athletic lineup.
All of this, in a transitory time in college sports unlike any that has ever preceded it, is on Lyons’ plate and deserves immediate attention, for the WVU franchise is trending downward and needs some new ideas to get it back on track.
Follow @bhertzel on Twitter
Last edit: 2 years 9 months ago by wvu4u2. Reason: formatting
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