Project 4: Problem and Solution

Our group's premise for project four is simple enough: Sunnyside is a huge dump, and it needs to be cleaned up pronto. Everone in our group has had experience with Sunnyside at one point or another, and it's safe to say that something needs to be done to revitalize the neighborhood. There is trash everywhere, the buildings are dilapidated, the landlords don't care about their tenants, and no one seems to have any pride in the neighborhood anymore - other than the parties that take place there.

We're proposing implementing new rules for both landlords and tenants to ensure that the neighborhood is revitalized. We really want to focus on creating a forum for residents there, so that communication between members of the community is easy and quick.

So Much Scuttle...

I knew that the media rumor mill would kick into 6th gear pretty quickly after Coach Beilein's hasty abandonment of the WVU basketball program, but I had no idea that things would escalate this quickly. Almost exactly 48 hours after Beilein's exit, numerous media outlets are reporting that Dub Vee has found a new basketball coach.

Kansas State head coach (and WVU alum) Bob Huggins will reportedly be the new head of West Virginia's basketball program.

What does this mean? Well first, say goodbye to ever being a Cinderella team again. Say goodbye to our gimmick "unathletic whiteboys raining 3's" offense. Say goodbye to a squeaky clean program full of character players.

Say hello to seeing actual ATHLETES on the basketball team. Say hello to bluechip recruits. Say hello to 360 dunks. Say hello to the NCAA tournament every year.

Unfortunately, you can probably also say hello to NCAA rules violations, players that don't graduate, and general disarray within the program in a few years. Huggins is a great recruiter and a great basketball coach, but god love him, he has a terrible record with off-the-court issues. His health is a problem: he had a massive heart attack while on a recruiting trip in 2002. He was forced to resign from his 15-year gig at Cincinatti after a DUI arrest. The players he recruits are amazing (eg: Kenyan Martin, Nick Van Exel), but many of them have shown next to zero allegience to their programs - not to mention much respect for the law. Really, the last thing we need here are more Pacman Joneses and Chris Henrys.

Let's also ponder K-State's situation for a second. That program took Huggins right out of the unemployment line after his arrest and gave him a second chance to coach when no one else in the COUNTRY would even loan him bus fare. And then he leaves for WVU a year later, after landing a near NCAA berth and the #1 recruiting class in the country? I know that it's been cited that WVU would be his "dream job," but something about this bugs me. How much respect can he have for his players if he abandons them after just a year? I mean, at least Beilein stayed with West Virginia for half a decade, even if he was only trying to further his career. That period can at least be called "the Beilein era," and can never be erased from WVU history (even if it was just a sham). What can those K-State students say about the year they spent with Huggins at the helm? "Dude, we had Huggins once...but he totally bailed because he's a scumbag."

I really don't know what to make of this. Sure, it would be awesome to have Huggins coach here; any way to build the basketball program here is positive in my eyes. However, do we want to steal him from Kansas State in nearly exactly the same form and fashion that Michigan stole Beilein from us? And do we want all the potential off-the-court issues that could be associated with the new Huggins regime?

Honestly, I think the short answer is a resounding YES. Sure, it sucks that we basically shanghai'd Huggie from K-State, and the program will probably have violations by November. But we'll get over stealing him after our first final four appearance. And who knows? Maybe that DUI arrest has scared Huggins straight. He had no problems with any of his players this past year, and basically kept the program on the straight and narrow. I think the key to the marriage with Huggins will be optimism: don't count him out if things start to go awry. He will always bring good players here and will always win. Just keep that in mind, and the titles will hopefully roll right in.

Say It Ain't So, Coach B

Well, according to this article (and senior center Rob Summers), it looks like WVU will be in the hunt for a new basketball coach. After five years of building the basketball program here into something that almost resembles national respectability, coach John Beilein is leaving Morgantown for the University of Michigan. Honestly, we really should have seen it coming; I mean look at coach B's resume. He's a bonafide journeyman.

He's coached at six schools (be they either under the NCAA or NAIA umbrella) since 1978; his longest tenure was nine years at NCAA Division II LeMoyne (1983-1992). Prior to that, he spent a year at Nazareth College (1982-3) and began his college coaching career at Erie Community College in 1978.

As far as Division I schools go, he's never stayed in one place for more than five seasons. After he left LeMoyne, he began a stint with Canisius that ended with his leaving for the University of Richmond in 1997; during his tenure with Richmond, he led the Spiders to two NIT appearances and one NCAA tournament berth. From there, he left for West Virginia in 2002, and (if you're reading this, you know) the rest is history.

Can you blame coach B for leaving like this? I guess not. If speculators are correct, Beilein could be making upwards of a million dollars a season with the Wolverines - about 25% more than he currently is paid here at WVU. But is that really worth it? Is using the hearts of 25,000 college students and countless alumni as a stepping stone to further your career justified by a 270,000 a year raise? I can't answer that question. I don't think coach Beilein can, either.

Best of luck, coach B. It was fun while it lasted.

Spring Break: Awesomeness Abound

So last week was spring break, and it was definitely awesome. Nothing beats a chance to go home and recharge the batteries for a few days, and I definitely got that chance this past week. My spring break was extraordinarily uneventful, but that's really just how I wanted it. It was kind of lame that it was so late this year, so all of my friends were away at school. However, the upside to this was that I didn't have to do anything...no school, no work, no obligations. Just sit around the house all day and reflect on how awesome it is that there are 5 weeks left in the semester, with graduation looming 2 weeks after that.

Wait, what?

Yeah. I had to stop and think about it too. 5 weeks. Where the F did the time go? Didn't I just say goodbye to mom and dad? Wasn't I just complaining about dorm food? When was the last time I was at Club Z?

It was definitely a hard concept to wrap my mind around. And that led to a pretty epic freakout on my part. Sometimes you just can't handle the truth; it's either too difficult to comprehend or you're in such denial that you just forget about it...until you remember. I guess a good way to picture my reaction to this realization would be to imagine Luke Skywalker at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, after Vader has cut off his hand and informed him that he's his father.

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!!!! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!"

Yeah, with pretty much the same idiotic face, too. I think I might have kicked a lamp. But I mean what can ya do, right? One era ends and another begins. Sure, it's gonna suck something awful to be out on my own, living in a cardboard box on nubbins street with my English degree, down to the felt; but at the same time I'll finally be independent. And that's really what it's all about.

After I managed to calm myself down by realizing this, I felt much better. I've had a ton of fun these past 4 years. It's been an experience that I wouldn't trade for anything. But college is over. Adulthood is around the corner. What's in between? I think the medical term is "alcoholism." And I'm down with that.

Weather? Money!

Dude, the weather was CRUCIAL this morning. Warm, sunny, just a slight breeze...perfect golf weather. I was debating going to the driving range when I got back from class today, but by then the sky had begun to turn a little sour; I guess I'll just have to get back into form over spring break at home. I love golf. Golf means good weather and laziness. It's fantastic.

There's a problem with this, however, and it doesn't really go well with my love for the sport. I am a HORRENDOUS golfer. I mean really awful. Maybe it's just because I've only been playing sporadically for a year, or maybe it's just because I'm tragically uncoordinated. Either way, it's like...embarrassing to watch. Hopefully practice will remedy this, but I really can't say at this point. Hopefully the following anecdote will provide some insight into the severity of this situation.

Last semester I took the golf class that WVU offered as a PE elective. The crappy thing about this class was that it wasn't outside; it was in the shell building by the coliseum. An indoor golf class kind of defeats the purpose of even having a golf PE class, in my opinion; but I digress. So one day we were practicing iron shots, and I was doing alright...nothing really spectacular, but I was getting some pretty good arc. Anyway, there was one station with bleachers folded up into a wall about 10 feet tall to make an obstacle; I addressed the ball and took my backswing. but then - I don't know what it was: maybe nerves, maybe just fatigue, maybe a hangover - as I followed through (a real hard swing...I really wanted to launch it), the club went FLYING out of my hands and into the rafters of the shell building. It missed a light by literally about 3 inches, and connected to the metal rafter with the most sickening *CLANG* I've ever heard. It fell to the ground and landed two feet to the right of the teacher. Of course, everyone in the building just stopped immediately. The stares were awful. I think I heard an "Oh, my god" from one girl, but I really can't be sure. I was frozen, both hands clutching my baseball cap over my head, staring at where the club had hit the ceiling. After what seemed like an eternity, I turned around and felt the stares of about 100 classmates; time stood still. Were they waiting for me to apologize? Were they waiting for the teacher to beat the bejesus out of me? I figured I had better say something, if only to break the godawful silence.

"umm...fore?"

Site FAQ

Since this is going to be sort of a biographical site, I think that the FAQ should focus on biographical information. For example: "what is the boat?" or "who the F is this dude writing about his crappy car?" Most of these questions will probably be answered within the content on the site, but the FAQ will provide a quick summary of key points: who, what, when, where, why, etc. It would probably help to include some stuff about why I made the site and information about the class it's for. Actually, now that I think about it, that stuff should probably go first, and the content-related questions should follow.

Dividing the FAQ into those subheadings, "purpose/info" and "content issues," should make topics easy to find and the page somewhat painless to navigate...hopefully.

Writing: Project 1 revision

In my first edition of project 1, I mentioned a few anecdotes that pertained to the content on my pages; however, I don't think I explicated these enough. The best way to extend the text to cover 10 pages would be to explain the content on the current pages in greater detail, and then create some new pages that tell related stories to supplement them. I don't think it will be too hard, because these anecdotes and stories are already in the ol' noggin - they just haven't been recorded online yet.