Catlett Leaves West Virginia
Longtime West Virginia head coach Gale Catlett has stepped down as head men's basketball coach at the Big East school and will officially retire at the end of this season. In the meantime, Drew Catlett, nephew of the head coach, will move from assistant to interim head coach for the remainder of the 2001-02 season. (Or as West Virginia has named his position, "bench coach.")
Catlett, the winningest coach in West Virginia basketball history with a 431-261 career record, is having an unusual losing season with the Mountaineers who are 8-15 this season. WVU sits in the basement of the Big East West Division with 1-10 conference record. Catlett overall head coaching record is 557-305 over 28 years, all but three .500 or above.
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Catlett missed a couple games two weeks ago (Providence and Georgetown) because of an infection. And last Friday, he announced that two guards, senior Lionel Armstead and junior Tim Lyles were suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.
WVU started out the year 7-2 but after an upset win over Tennessee on December 22nd, the Mountaineers have won only one game (the above-mentioned Providence contest on January 30th) since then.
West Virginia signed two players to National Letters of Intent this fall, 6-11, 265 center Jabbar Young from National Christian Academy in Fort Washington, MD and 6-9, 220 pound power forward Kevin Pittsnogle from Martinsburg (WV) High School.
Young is presently competing in this week's St. James (MD) Invitational. Since we did not hear the news prior to his departure, we didn't have an opportunity to discuss this situation tonight. RivalsHoops will check with him later this week.
According to sources close to the situation, both players have been advised of this news and, while WVU hopes they will honor their commitment, they have been told the school will release them from their letter if one or both so chooses.