06-15-2012, 08:08 AM
I'm looking forward to basketball season in a way I haven't since WVU's run to the Final Four in 2010. I really like the schedule this year...
Weber, Huggins, Johnson adjust to Big 12
I'm glad to see the last of that crap. Bring on Round Robin play...
Weber, Huggins, Johnson adjust to Big 12
Quote:First-year Kansas State coach Bruce Weber is so new to the Big 12 that he called into his first league teleconference from Champaign, Ill., as movers were packing his family's belongings for the journey to Manhattan, Kan.Huggins comment in bold face type was what I saw as one of the biggest problems with The BEast. The way the conference scheduled, especially in basketball, downplayed any potential rivalry that could be created - except for those they felt were marquee matchups among original BEast members...
Weber, West Virginia's Bob Huggins and TCU's Trent Johnson are the newest coaches to join the Big 12, which will lose Missouri and Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference on July 1. In their place will be the Mountaineers and Horned Frogs.
Weber, who was fired by Illinois in March after nine seasons, has been impressed with what he's seen so far after being immersed in the Big Ten.
"The success of the Big 12 as a basketball conference, a football conference, is just pretty eye-opening to be honest. Our whole staff, that's the one thing we've talked a lot about," Weber said Thursday in a call with reporters. "Comparing to the Big Ten, probably a little better athlete and maybe a little bit more open, up and down."
Huggins knows all about the Big 12, having spent one memorable season at Kansas State before jumping to his alma mater before the 2007-08 season.
Huggins said that one of the changes that fans in Morgantown are most excited about in the leap from the 16-team Big East to the Big 12 will be the true round-robin schedule.
It should help the Mountaineers generate some heated rivalries before long.
"There were times, I think we played at Syracuse four years in a row and I think Louisville played at our place four years in a row. You don't get to see all the teams," Huggins said. "I don't think you develop the rivalry like you do when you're playing people on a home-and-home basis like we're going to be able to do."
The coach facing the biggest challenge in moving to the Big 12 has got to be TCU's Trent Johnson.
I'm glad to see the last of that crap. Bring on Round Robin play...