A little bit on a a lot of things for today’s blog…

 

College Basketball

 

You’ve no doubt heard about the ongoing FBI investigation into multiple college basketball programs across the country. Assistant coaches at four schools have already been indicted (Arizona, Oklahoma State, Auburn and USC).

 

This story took a new twist on Friday as Yahoo Sports identified players, past and present, from some of the biggest schools in college basketball.

 

Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, Alabama and a number of other schools are specifically named as having players (or their family members) tied to payments from an agent.

 

The NCAA and the sport sit at a crossroads. How will this be addressed? 

 

Will current players named miss the upcoming NCAA tournament? Will we see this year’s champion be forced to vacate the title down the road as was the case this week with Louisville and its 2013 national title?

 

If you are interested in the report from Yahoo, you can find it in its entirety HERE.

 

Keep your eye on this one. This doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon and the implications could alter the landscape of college basketball for years.

 

WVU Football

 

The WVU football team had a couple of players depart the program this week. Quarterback David Israel will be leaving WVU and transferring to another program with the intention of more playing time.

 

Israel arrived in Morgantown last summer, prior to the start of fall camp. He did not appear in any games for the Mountaineers this past season.

 

Defensive lineman, Adam Shuler has also announced he is leaving the program. Shuler started at defensive end for WVU and finished the season with eight tackles for loss and three sacks. He was a key contributor for a position group that was badly in need of depth last season. His departure opens up the possibility we will see incoming freshman, Dante Stills of Fairmont on the field during his upcoming true freshman season.

 

Stills enters WVU as one of the most highly decorated recruits to come out of North Central West Virginia in decades. He chose WVU over Oklahoma and Florida.

 

WVU Basketball

 

We’ve come to the final week of the regular season for the WVU basketball team.  Games against Iowa State (today), Texas Tech (Monday) and Texas (next Saturday) all remain important. Technically, West Virginia can still win the regular season title, but admittedly, that’s a long shot.

 

A number two seed for the conference tournament remains a real possibility, however.

 

Given how the Big 12’s regular season has played out, with 60 percent of the league’s teams below .500 in conference play, can you imagine what the conference tournament will look like? But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. West Virginia needs to win a revenge game today against an Iowa State team that absolutely destroyed them in Ames. 

 

The Cyclones come to Morgantown with an extremely depleted roster. Nick Weiler-Babb, who missed the first game between these teams, is out for the rest of the season. As is Solomon Young, who put up a double double (14 points, 10 rebounds) against West Virginia in Ames.

 

Add in the absence of Donovan Jackson, who will miss the game today due to the death of his father, and you can see Iowa State arrives in Morgantown at far less than full strength. Jackson led the Cyclones with 25 points in the first meeting against West Virginia.

 

Mountain East Conference

 

One of my favorite events of the year begins on Wednesday. The Mountain East Conference will tip off its men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments this week in Charleston. 

 

The action begins at noon on Wednesday and continues through the championship games on Sunday afternoon. You can find a complete game schedule for the tournament HERE.

 

If you can’t make it to Charleston for the games, you can watch every one of them on the Metronews Channel at wvmetronews.com. If you like scoring, these tournaments are for you.

 

On the women’s side, Glenville State enters the tournament averaging an eye-popping 100 points per game. Paris McLeod leads the Pioneers in scoring at 20.3 points per game.

 

On the men’s side, West Liberty not only leads the league, but also the nation at 107.3 points per game. The leading individual scorer in the league is Concord’s Tommy Bolte. Bolte averages 31 points per game and tied the league’s single game scoring record earlier this week with 49 points against West Virginia State.

 

I encourage all of you basketball fans to either head to the Charleston Civic Center or watch some of these games on the Metronews Channel.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Kentucky Coach John Calipari followed by Coach Bob Huggins with Duke's Mike Krzyzewski. In the third photo, while Huggins breaks the WVU huddle. Below is Mountain East Commissioner Reid Amos.