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WVU’s display for Payne remarkable

by on Oct. 18, 2009, under Sports

If you want to see how much of a circus college basketball recruiting has become check out what West Virginia did for potential Class of 2010 recruit Adreian Payne during its Midnight Madness celebration on Friday.

T-shirts were made that said “House of Payne” and one Rocky cutout blares: “Yo Adreian, come to WVU.”

Either you think of this as college kids just having some fun or you look at it, like me, that this is way over the top. I am not writing that Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins had anything to do with this. I am certain the fans read blogs and Internet updates on recruits and knew that Payne would be visiting that campus last weekend. What the fans did falls in line with NCAA regulations.

If he was announced to the crowd, that would be a violation. He never was announced to the crowd.

Payne, a 5-star center from Dayton (Ohio) Jefferson High School, visited the UA a week prior to his visit to West Virginia. He is scheduled to visit Kansas on Oct. 31. He is also being recruited by Kentucky and Michigan State. He would shore up a UA frontline in need of more athleticism and versatility at the post position.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 18th, 2009 at 10:40 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • WVU Fan

    Wow, sounds like the Arizona media has eaten some sour grapes recently. Get over it.

  • Lee

    He would shore up a UA frontline in need of more athleticism and versatility at the post position.
    Could this be why you, Mr. Morales, are really disturbed about WVU’s display for Payne? If the samething happened at UA would you still be disturbed? Doubt it.

  • IloveWVu

    Would it be considered over the top if Payne signs with WVU and lists the fans as one of the reasons?
    Envy is the religion of the mediocre.  Hope that isn’t the case.

  • WVU

    THIS IS HOW WVU LOVES ITS TEAMS AND PLAYERS

  • http://www.wildaboutazcats.com Javier Morales

    WVU, IloveWVu, Lee: What WVU students did is admirable from a standpoint that they went all out to show Payne their respect for him. I just thought it was over the top. My opinion. It all matters what Payne thinks, and from all accounts, he was blown away from what the students did.

  • Abstruse

    Javier, you’re not fooling anyone.  You use the standard not-pology script.  Everyone knows you’re actually insinuating that WVU committed recruiting violations.  I’m not saying your article is Libelous, but don’t you think your opinion column is over the top?
     
    You see what I did there?

  • IfTheShoeFits…

    Interesting that these Morgantowners would come all the way to a Tucson blog to defend who from what?

    If there’s nothing there, why write, why say anything, why give this small piece the light of day?

    A word to the wise:

    1) Sour grapes come after the sweet ones have been taken, claimed, signed, and for all the so-called impromptu hoopla surrounding this young man, for all the talk, he didn’t leave town with a verbal commitment for anybody.  So, there’s nothing for anyone to “get over,” period.

    2) Should this ***** recruit with more upside than can hold a kid destined for greatness from LA to NY, Orlando to Seattle, Detroit to Tucson want to take his game, his studies, his future career plans to West Virginia and bank all that he has on the good feeling a few signs brought to the partisan crowd the night in question, so be it.

    3) Mediocre, huh?  Try Top-15 Recruiting Class in a few short months on the job for up and coming, fast tracker, clean, lean, fighting machine, Coach Sean Miller.  Try new, state of the art Richard A. Jefferson Basketball Practice Facility and Sports Complex on the campus of the University of Arizona.  Try numerous Sweet Sixteens, Great Eights, Final Fours and a National Championship.  Try 25 straight NCAA Tournaments and counting.  Try dozens of NBA and European Professional Basketball League players signed to millions of dollars in contracts over 30 years or more.  Try close to a dozen NBA Lottery Draft picks, a good number of which having been actively involved in bringing their teams World Championships.  Try an up-standing, legendary, Hall of Fame Coach who goes by the name of Lute Olson.

    This is how – and why – the U of A loves its fans, its players, its coaches, its teams, its programs, its community, its place on the biggest of stages for big time college athletics, its institution of higher learning.

    Its Wildcat Family.

  • whitepat

    Sounds like whoever wrote this article got some sand in their vajayjay

  • timF

    Who in their right mind would want to be anywhere near the state of West Virginia? And to play for a scummy mercenary like Huggins? Madness.

  • http://www.wildaboutazcats.com Javier Morales

    Abstruse: With all due respect, where do you get that I insinuated West Virginia committed recruiting violations? Didn’t the blog point it out that the Mountaineers did not because they didn’t announce Payne’s name? Let me answer this plain and simple for you: West Virginia did not commit recruiting violations. Did you read the headline of the West Virginia-based report I linked to? Maybe you should take up your reservations with the author of that blog.
    And I don’t need to fool anyone or apologize to anyone. I offered my opinion. The opinion of West Virginia folks differs. That’s completely understandable. Some Arizona people I’ve talked to also think what West Virginia’s fans did was “cool.”
    And I want to thank all the West Virginia people for reading this blog and making their comments. Made it all much more worthwhile.

    You guys think I am making too much of this, did you read this?: Did West Virginia fans go too far for Adreian Payne?. You guys should want to give me a hug after reading that. How is anyone going to prove that Huggins or his staff alerted the student body that Payne was about to visit? Again, I pointed that out in the blog as well, WVU folks.

  • Oldwest2

    Are we talking about the same Bob Huggins that was fired from the University of Cincinnati  (Bobcats) for DUI violations and conduct detrimental to the University’s and the teams reputation?
    He coaches at WVU now? Good luck with that one.

  • Moby1kenobi

    Mr. Morales,

    I am a WVU alum, fan, and former athletic dept. employee (10 years ago).  WE WVU fans are a very insecure group.  Much of this I attribute to the bashing Appalachia/WV/WVU takes in the media.  We are passionate about our state and University. 

    I personally don’t see what WE are so upset about in your comments.  Your responses are restrained and classy.  Thanks for not getting us all fired up to a point we would say something stupid.  Consider me a fan.

    Thanks for the pub,

    Rob

  • Abstruse

    Javier, watch Glenn Beck much?  Your rhetorical style shares much in common with his bloviating.  When you make assertions and then casually opine that you don’t (necessarily) believe that there is higher culpability, you have in fact painted the image of wrongdoing in your audience’s mind.  I assume you know that I’m right, you went to J-school, yeah?
    I mean, there is no evidence that Javier Morales is a habitual drug addict, and I certainly don’t believe the stories that surround Javier Morales’ alleged drug use, but why doesn’t Javier Morales come out and openly deny the allegations against him.
     
    You see what I did there?  I totally expect you to delete this comment, made me feel better writing it anyway.

  • http://www.wildaboutazcats.com Javier Morales

    Thanks Rob, for understanding my point of view.
    Abstruse: Call me sheltered but I don’t watch Glenn Beck at all, sorry. I do understand what you are trying to say but let me ease your mind: I have nothing to insinuate, unless you believe there should be more to write than leaving it as WVU students going overboard in their showing of affection for Payne. Understanding the recruiting game, from being a reporter for almost two decades, I don’t believe anything else should be written.
    How about this? When Ray McCallum visits when Arizona plays its Red-Blue Game in a couple of weeks, I will be the first to openly criticize the UA students if they have an abundance of t-shirts and posters made screaming for McCallum to choose Arizona. No need for any of that stuff from the students, in my opinion. Your opinion differs. (I’m not trying to insinuate anything with that comment, such as your opinion does not matter). We have two different opinions. I respect yours. Don’t think you feel the same about mine, but that’s OK.

  • Abstruse

    Word.  Cool response.  Guess I’m done.
     
    BTW: my Captcha was “Fecal California”  Had to mention that.

  • Michael

    Typical insecure response from West Virginia fans. I’ve come to expect this after the Rich Rodriguez fiasco.

    For the record, regarding “WVU love” most of the comments on the WVU websites talk about how poorly the ceremony was organized. http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=159&f=2509&t=4949872

    Abstruse, regarding Glenn Beck, I have never watched him either. But it sures like you have watched him plenty.

    The best line was the part about UofA being jealous of West Virginia. Man that was funny. Thanks for the laugh.

  • Abstruse

    Michael is an old hand at parsing WVU intentions, apparently.  Why are you lurking WVU message boards?

  • kevinp

    Hmmm,
    initially, i thought that what the WVU fans did was cool, and found myself wondering if UA fans could do something similar, but after reading the replies here, I now think that WVU fans are a bunch of bass-ackward crybabies.

    you see what i did there???

  • Eric T

    If Bob Huggins is recruiting heavily does that mean he’s a thug? After all look at some of the players he’s recruited in the past

  • David

    After reading these responses, WVU fans make Memphis fans seem classy.  Nice job, WVU fans, I guess you are proving there is no bad press, eh?

  • DaNatiLilAppleWuzNext?!

    No, no, no.  I say we go with the investigation and start with the player(s) who, ahem, impromptu-like pointed Payne out to the crowd. 

    Then, we can move to the assistant(s) who thought:

    Wait a minute.  We could get in real trouble for this.  

    And decided right then and there to, ahem, put an end to the, uh, outwardly display of, uhm, emotion.

    Yeah.

    Emotion.

    Pure, unscripted, unadulterated emotion.

    Right.

    And for those who think, who say things are fine in Morgantown right about now and to go look elsewhere, like Calipari and Lexington, Kentucky for trouble, two words: The ‘Nati.

    And just for good measure, three more words: The Little Apple.

    Good night and good luck.

    With apologies to Mr. Keith Oberman, The Maestro.

  • irepdubv

    WVU 75- arizona 65  March 20, 2008

    nuff said**

  • Bull-Loney, Nuff Said!

    That score in that game says absolutely nothing about Payne and Morgantown and the investigation that’s bound to spring from all this lunacy and outright abuse of NCAA rules.

    Nice try though.

    But O’Neill and Pennell are no longer at the helm.

    You’re answering to Miller now.

    And the NCAA.

    Sound familiar?

    It should.

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