With just four weekends left in the regular season, the baseball team sits first in the Big 12 standings over game with a 13-3 conference record. (Kansas, Arizona, and TCU are tied in second at 12-6). They swept a Cincinnati team that had been playing good ball as of late, and that vaulted the Mountaineers into the Top 20 of all the major polls. Their 14 game win streak came to an end with a 3-2 loss at Penn State, but even after that loss, WVU was still in the top 15 of the RPI. IF they can maintain that, then they should be in line to host a region in the NCAA baseball tournament. Since they are on he bubble, they don’t have a ton of room to slip, and they started the homestretch with a series at UCF last weekend. The Knights are red hot, just winning a series against TCU. If WVU can pull off a series win, that will help their chances of hosting a region.
Probably the biggest sports event nationally this week was the NFL Draft. WVU had another player taken: Wyatt Milum. The West Virginia native was a star offensive tackle for the Mountaineers, but is expected to move inside to guard in the NFL. He was chosen in the 3rd round (89th pick overall) by the Jacksonville Jaguars. There will be other WVU players who sign free agent contracts, and I’ll have that list next week.
The golf team had its Big12 Championships last week, against a stacked field (two top 10 teams, and 9 teams ranked in the national Top 50). Unfortunately, they stumbled out of the gate, finding themselves 15th out of 16 teams after the first round. The second round was marginally better, so they were out of contention after the second round. In the last two rounds, they turned things around. In fact, they had a top 10 score in the third and fourth rounds, but ended up 13th.
WVU sent a small contingent to the prestigious Penn Relays, and the top finish was freshman Joy Naukot, who finished second in the 5000m run. Her time of 15:49.37 is the fourth fastest time ever for WVU, and it was her first collegiate 5000m outdoor competition. (She is already the school record holder for the outdoor 10000m run).
In basketball, the spring portal window is now closed. That means that players can’t enter the portal, unless their head coach leaves. There are still plenty of unsigned players, so this doesn’t mean that portal activity is over – far from it. It just means that we will not see many new names in the portal any more. In WVU’s case, it looks like they will have an entirely new roster next year. Every player from last year’s team either graduated (or used up their eligibility), or entered the portal. Many have signed with new schools, including KJ Tenner (Murray State), Sencire Harris (Cincinnati), Jonathan Powell (UNC), and Amani Hansberry (Virginia Tech).
The good news is that Ross Hodge does appear to be brining in some talented players. He will have a pair following him from North Texas: G Jasper Floyd and F Brenen Lorient. He also has a recruit following him in forward DJ Thomas. Other players include guard Honor Huff from Chattanooga, who was one of the nation’s best 3-point shooters last year, and swingman Treysen Eaglestaff from North Dakota, where he was one of the nation’s best scorers last year (among his accomplishments was scoring 40 points against Alabama). He also has a couple of players known for defensive excellence, with forward Jackson Fields from Troy, and seven-footer Harlan Obioha from UNC Wilmington. He needs to add more players, of course, but there appears to be a pretty decent nucleus right there.
