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Dominion Post
11 hours ago
- Sport
- Dominion Post
COLUMN: Manipulating the RPI is the next step for WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins
MORGANTOWN — My first venture into studying the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) came in 2007, after a WVU men's basketball team that had gone 22-9 through the end of the Big East tournament with wins against UConn and UCLA had been left out of the NCAA tournament. And you thought the Mountaineers were snubbed last season. Anyway, in the years that have followed, two things truly stand out about the RPI: ** There really isn't a better tool to gauge a team's strength of schedule. ** It can also be manipulated like silly putty. WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins has got to find a way to become a master manipulator. It's not exactly an easy thing to do as a college baseball coach in the part of the country where the state of West Virginia resides. Still, if the WVU program is headed where it seems to be headed — a perennial Top 25 program and super-regional contender — Sabins' ability to schedule games is going to become just as critical as any recruit he signs out of high school or the transfer portal. Because talent wins games, true, but it's that strength of schedule that determines a team's ultimate fate between always being a regional host or always heading out on the road for the NCAA tournament. First, let's get into some basic numbers. WVU's nonconference RPI strength of schedule this season was 176th in the nation. That's out of 307 Division I teams, which doesn't exactly look great on the surface. OK, but here's where a little more research comes in. LSU, which just won the national title, had a nonconference strength of schedule of 124. Texas — the No. 2 overall seed heading into the NCAA tourney — was at 152. Tennessee, the 2024 national champ, was at 179. WVU took a beating from the so-called experts of college baseball, because the theme was the Mountaineers didn't play anybody in the nonconference. You didn't hear that about LSU, though. It wasn't a story told about Texas or Tennessee. Why? Because once SEC play began, the overall strength of schedules for those schools shot up like a rocket. All three schools finished with an overall strength of schedule no higher than 22nd in the nation. WVU finished with the 78th toughest overall schedule, which included the Clemson Regional games and the super regional against LSU. 'I think that's why I have a difficult time discussing the RPI and some of those factors,' Sabins said. 'There is really only so much you can do and it's an uneven system.' Meanwhile, the Big 12 season isn't exactly a stroll in the park, but WVU and Arizona were the only Big 12 schools to finish the season ranked in the Top 25. The SEC had seven of the top 15 and 11 of the top 30, so of course SEC coaches know they have the conference season to fall back on. They essentially don't have to schedule anyone other than cupcakes in the nonconference and then hope for the best once conference play begins. No one else — not even ACC coaches — have that luxury. So, is it an 'uneven' system, as Sabins suggested? You bet your baseballs it is. This is where Sabins' ability to manipulate the system is crucial. The problem: 'It comes down to you only having four weeks of nonconference games to start the season,' Sabins said. 'It's not like it's 10 weeks. And then, oh by the way, it's still snowing in West Virginia for three of those weeks, so you have to travel south. You can't play midweek games in West Virginia then, either, so you end up asking for a four-game series.' That is the unfortunate geography mismatch that exists in college baseball, where every school north of Nashville, Tenn. is at a disadvantage in an outdoor sport that begins play on Valentine's Day. 'You don't want to fill your schedule with cupcakes,' Sabins continued. 'But the truth of it is, everybody is playing then. It's not like there are a bunch of good teams searching for games. You kind of get stuck with playing who is willing to play.' Here is where the RPI can be easily manipulated, and we offer up Hawaii's nonconference schedule as the perfect example. Hawaii played the second-toughest nonconference schedule in the country this season, so you'd believe that schedule was filled with multiple Top 25 teams and maybe even a couple of series against teams from the American League East, right? Far from it. Hawaii played just one four-game series against a Top 25-ranked team (No. 4 Oregon State), while the rest of its nonconference schedule was Marshall, Wichita State, a mid-major darling in Northeastern and then one game against USC. Now, that doesn't exactly look like a gauntlet, but you don't need a gauntlet to manipulate the RPI. It's really not so much about which schools you can get to agree to play you more than understanding which schools to avoid playing. WVU played 13 nonconference games last season against schools ranked 201st or higher in the RPI. Hawaii played none, that's the difference. So, how can Sabins approach future scheduling? He believes playing true road games is a boost to an RPI rating, which is true to a point. To that end, WVU was a stellar 24-7 in true road games this season. But, if it becomes a question of playing a four-game road series against a team ranked 214th in the RPI or playing a neutral-site game against a team in the top 75, the neutral-site game is the way to go. This is where early-season college baseball tournaments come into play. To my surprise, there are literally two dozen of them to choose from. One of them is actually played in Surprise (Ariz.), the site of the 2026 Big 12 tournament. You don't hear much about them, because they are played at the height of the college basketball seasons and only a week, or so after the Super Bowl. But each one can offer three or four solid RPI matchups against other Power Conference schools who otherwise would never even consider playing the Mountaineers. WVU traditionally hasn't played in them and hasn't done so since J.J. Wetherholt was a freshman. 'Getting in some of those tournaments is something I think we have to look at for the future,' Sabins said. It would go a long way toward eliminating the theme of WVU not playing anyone. It could also be the next evolutionary step for Sabins' coaching career, because he's already proven to be ideal otherwise. Recruiting, developing players, winning — Sabins is right there. Learning to manipulate the RPI has got to be next on his list.
Dominion Post
2 days ago
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Steve Sabins knows he has a path to build on WVU's baseball success
MORGANTOWN — After a second consecutive trip to a super regional, WVU baseball coach Steve Sabins stresses his recruiting pitch to recruits hasn't changed. Other than the length of the pitch itself. 'When you're talking about going after guys who maybe have 15 different options with some high-level schools, I'd usually find a way to sneak myself into those conversations,' Sabins said. 'Usually, those conversations were much shorter than they are now.' That's maybe the biggest impact of the Mountaineers' baseball success, which included a program-record 44 wins, a Big 12 regular-season title and three comeback victories to win the Clemson Regional to open the NCAA tournament in Sabins' first season as head coach. Recruiting doors are opening. That's the good news, because Sabins now faces an immediate question: What the heck does he do for an encore? He doesn't hesitate to answer the question. 'We're in a better part of the conversation now,' said Sabins, who was named the 2025 ABCA East Region Coach of the Year on Wednesday. 'More people appreciate our program. More recruits recognize our program. 'It doesn't just stay that way. You have to go out and keep proving it by doing it over and over again. You have to keep beating down the doors. You have to keep earning it.' The talk of recruiting rankings is not a favorite for Sabins, who refers to the notion as a joke. It's relayed to him that Sabins' incoming class of high school prospects and transfer portal additions is ranked right along some of the elite schools in the country. 'It's still a joke,' he fires back. 'Baseball recruiting is so unlike the other sports where you can rank guys by their size or 40-yard dash times or being able to leap out of the gym. 'There's more complexities to recruiting baseball and there's just no way to be accurate in projecting how 500 guys are going to perform at the next level.' Joke or not, Sabins' incoming class will be asked to not only fill a lot of holes, but continue to build on WVU's level of success. It's with that in mind, Sabins says he's found a niche by searching in places maybe other schools don't. WVU's incoming class includes three Division II pitchers. One of them, Ian Korn, was the NCBWA Division II National Pitcher of the Year after going 11-2 with a 1.81 ERA at Seton Hill (Pa.). Dawson Montesa, out of Adelphi University (Garden City, N.Y.) was a DII All-American and Chansen Cole went 7-5 with a 3.39 ERA as a freshman at DII Newberry State (S.C.) This class comes on the heels of Griffin Kirn making the same jump from Division II to WVU's top starter this season and Derek Clark doing the same in 2024. 'That's something we can sell to these guys,' Sabins said. 'We have a track record now where we can tell them that we can take their potential and develop them into top-notch DI pitchers. We believe we have found a niche.' On paper, WVU may have to replace its entire outfield, or at least two-thirds of it. His top two starting pitchers are out of eligibility. The school's all-time home run leader is gone. The three-year starting catcher is likely gone, as it's expected Logan Sauve will be drafted high enough next month for him to bypass his senior season. 'That's the thing about rankings,' Sabins said. 'I've seen where we may be ranked as high as 13th in the nation, well, we have to replace half of our team next season.' Since the invention of the transfer portal, that situation has become an expected reality across college sports. Still, Sabins believes the cupboard is not bare. After hitting .361 this season, Sam White had surgery on his injured shoulder. That may change how pro teams evaluate him for next month's draft. 'Every pro team will look at his medicals and they'll have to make that decision,' Sabins said. 'It could affect his draft status, or some teams may also see what he's accomplished to this point and still like him.' Shortstop Brodie Kresser also had surgery and has the option of returning for one more college season. There are utility men Armani Guzman and Gavin Kelly. 'They are superstars,' Sabins said. 'They are definitely two pieces you can build a program around. They are the future of the program.' It's also quite possible Chase Meyer could develop into one of the top pitchers in the Big 12 after going 9-2 with a 3.94 ERA this season. 'Chase needs to lead the charge for us,' Sabins said. 'He's got to be one of those guys who goes out there with a chance to be dominant each and every time.'
Dominion Post
4 days ago
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Best Virginia awarded No. 3 seed in Charleston Regional for 2025 TBT
MORGANTOWN — Making its sixth appearance in the $1 million winner-take-all The Basketball Tournament (TBT), Best Virginia was awarded the No. 3 seed Tuesday in the eight-team Charleston Regional. The regional runs from July 18-22, at the Charleston Coliseum. Best Virginia, representing a WVU alumni team, will face DuBois Dream, a minor-league organization based out of Pennsylvania, at 8 p.m. on July 18. The two teams also met in the first round in 2023, with Erik Stevenson hitting a game-winning 3-pointer for a 70-68 victory in Wheeling. Stevenson is signed to play with Best Virginia again, as are former WVU players Kedrian Johnson, Jermaine Haley and Wes Harris. Former WVU standout Jarrod West returns for his second stint as the head coach with former WVU assistant Ron Everhart joining the team as an assistant coach. John Flowers, a forward from the 2010 Final Four team, is the general manager for Best Virginia. West's son, Jarrod, a former standout at Marshall and Louisville, will also be playing for Best Virginia. Marshall's alumni team, Herd That, is the No. 2 seed in the same region. If both teams win in the first round, they would meet at 5 p.m. on July 20. Herd That won the most recent meeting between the two teams, 74-61, in Wheeling. Elite Nation, a collection of American-born professionals playing overseas, was awarded the No. 1 seed in the Charleston Regional. TBT is a single-elimination tournament, much like the NCAA tournament. It features the Elam Ending, which creates a target score at the first stoppage of play with four minutes left in the game. The TBT winner splits the $1 million prize. The tournament was first created in 2014, and Best Virginia entered play in 2019. It's played in the tournament every season, except for 2020, due to COVID-19. Best Virginia is 8-5 all-time in TBT.
Dominion Post
20-06-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Former WVU hoops standout Deuce McBride authors children's book
MORGANTOWN — Move over Dr. Seuss, it's time to make room for Dr. Deuce. Former WVU standout and New York Knicks guard Deuce McBride is now an author. On Wednesday, McBride announced on social media the release of his children's book 'Deuce: The Champion of Friendship.' The book can be found on and sells in paperback for $17. The project is a part of McBride seeking to 'build my legacy off the court,' he said on a social media post. The news comes just days after McBride, 24, and his girlfriend, Ana Zortea, welcomed their first child, a girl named Ace. According to the description on Amazon, the 40-page book is, 'powerful themes of empathy, inclusion, and teamwork. Deuce reminds readers that real champions aren't just the ones who win games — they're the ones who lift others up. 'Based on the real-life values of NBA player Miles 'Deuce' McBride, this story is perfect for readers ages 7–11, young athletes, and any child who's ever felt like an outsider.' The message of the book revolves around characters Deuce and Lily, who play basketball at their local court every weekend. Everything changes when they meet Ravi, a shy new kid who's never felt like he belonged. With a basketball tournament approaching, Deuce must decide if he wants to play on the team with the best players or stand alongside Ravi on a different team. In two seasons at WVU, McBride played in 60 games and averaged 15.9 points per game as a sophomore. He opted to enter the 2021 NBA Draft after his sophomore season and was taken by the Knicks in the second round. He just completed his fourth season in New York, helping the Knicks reach the Eastern Conference Finals. He played in all six games against the Indiana Pacers in the conference finals, averaging 18.2 minutes of action and 5.5 points per game. McBride had his best season as a pro in 2024-25, averaging 9.5 points and 2.5 assists per game. He started 10 of the 64 games he played. McBride has one season remaining on his three-year deal signed in 2023 that pays him $13 million.
Fast Company
17-06-2025
- Fast Company
How AI tools collect your data across devices—and how to be selective about what you share
Like it or not, artificial intelligence has become part of daily life. Many devices—including electric razors and toothbrushes —have become 'AI-powered,' using machine learning algorithms to track how a person uses the device, how the device is working in real time, and provide feedback. From asking questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot to monitoring a daily fitness routine with a smartwatch, many people use an AI system or tool every day. While AI tools and technologies can make life easier, they also raise important questions about data privacy. These systems often collect large amounts of data, sometimes without people even realizing their data is being collected. The information can then be used to identify personal habits and preferences, and even predict future behaviors by drawing inferences from the aggregated data. As an assistant professor of cybersecurity at West Virginia University, I study how emerging technologies and various types of AI systems manage personal data and how we can build more secure, privacy-preserving systems for the future. Generative AI software uses large amounts of training data to create new content such as text or images. Predictive AI uses data to forecast outcomes based on past behavior, such as how likely you are to hit your daily step goal, or what movies you may want to watch. Both types can be used to gather information about you. How AI tools collect data Generative AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini collect all the information users type into a chat box. Every question, response and prompt that users enter is recorded, stored, and analyzed to improve the AI model. OpenAI's privacy policy informs users that 'we may use content you provide us to improve our Services, for example to train the models that power ChatGPT.' Even though OpenAI allows you to opt out of content use for model training, it still collects and retains your personal data. Although some companies promise that they anonymize this data, meaning they store it without naming the person who provided it, there is always a risk of data being reidentified. Predictive AI Beyond generative AI assistants, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok continuously gather data on their users to train predictive AI models. Every post, photo, video, like, share, and comment, including the amount of time people spend looking at each of these, is collected as data points that are used to build digital data profiles for each person who uses the service. The profiles can be used to refine the social media platform's AI recommender systems. They can also be sold to data brokers, who sell a person's data to other companies to, for instance, help develop targeted advertisements that align with that person's interests. Many social media companies also track users across websites and applications by putting cookies and embedded tracking pixels on their computers. Cookies are small files that store information about who you are and what you clicked on while browsing a website. One of the most common uses of cookies is in digital shopping carts: When you place an item in your cart, leave the website and return later, the item will still be in your cart because the cookie stored that information. Tracking pixels are invisible images or snippets of code embedded in websites that notify companies of your activity when you visit their page. This helps them track your behavior across the internet. This is why users often see or hear advertisements that are related to their browsing and shopping habits on many of the unrelated websites they browse, and even when they are using different devices, including computers, phones, and smart speakers. One study found that some websites can store over 300 tracking cookies on your computer or mobile phone. Data privacy controls—and limitations Like generative AI platforms, social media platforms offer privacy settings and opt-outs, but these give people limited control over how their personal data is aggregated and monetized. As media theorist Douglas Rushkoff argued in 2011, if the service is free, you are the product. Many tools that include AI don't require a person to take any direct action for the tool to collect data about that person. Smart devices such as home speakers, fitness trackers, and watches continually gather information through biometric sensors, voice recognition, and location tracking. Smart home speakers continually listen for the command to activate or ' wake up ' the device. As the device is listening for this word, it picks up all the conversations happening around it, even though it does not seem to be active. Some companies claim that voice data is only stored when the wake word—what you say to wake up the device—is detected. However, people have raised concerns about accidental recordings, especially because these devices are often connected to cloud services, which allow voice data to be stored, synced, and shared across multiple devices such as your phone, smart speaker and tablet. If the company allows, it's also possible for this data to be accessed by third parties, such as advertisers, data analytics firms, or a law enforcement agency with a warrant. Privacy rollbacks This potential for third-party access also applies to smartwatches and fitness trackers, which monitor health metrics and user activity patterns. Companies that produce wearable fitness devices are not considered 'covered entities' and so are not bound by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). This means that they are legally allowed to sell health- and location-related data collected from their users. Concerns about HIPAA data arose in 2018, when Strava, a fitness company released a global heat map of user's exercise routes. In doing so, it accidentally revealed sensitive military locations across the globe through highlighting the exercise routes of military personnel. The Trump administration has tapped Palantir, a company that specializes in using AI for data analytics, to collate and analyze data about Americans. Meanwhile, Palantir has announced a partnership with a company that runs self-checkout systems. Such partnerships can expand corporate and government reach into everyday consumer behavior. This one could be used to create detailed personal profiles on Americans by linking their consumer habits with other personal data. This raises concerns about increased surveillance and loss of anonymity. It could allow citizens to be tracked and analyzed across multiple aspects of their lives without their knowledge or consent. Some smart device companies are also rolling back privacy protections instead of strengthening them. Amazon recently announced that starting on March 28, all voice recordings from Amazon Echo devices would be sent to Amazon's cloud by default, and users will no longer have the option to turn this function off. This is different from previous settings, which allowed users to limit private data collection. Changes like these raise concerns about how much control consumers have over their own data when using smart devices. Many privacy experts consider cloud storage of voice recordings a form of data collection, especially when used to improve algorithms or build user profiles, which has implications for data privacy laws designed to protect online privacy. Implications for data privacy All of this brings up serious privacy concerns for people and governments on how AI tools collect, store, use, and transmit data. The biggest concern is transparency. People don't know what data is being collected, how the data is being used, and who has access to that data. Companies tend to use complicated privacy policies filled with technical jargon to make it difficult for people to understand the terms of a service that they agree to. People also tend not to read terms of service documents. One study found that people averaged 73 seconds reading a terms of service document that had an average read time of 29 to 32 minutes. Data collected by AI tools may initially reside with a company that you trust, but can easily be sold and given to a company that you don't trust. AI tools, the companies in charge of them and the companies that have access to the data they collect can also be subject to cyberattacks and data breaches that can reveal sensitive personal information. These attacks can by carried out by cybercriminals who are in it for the money, or by so-called advanced persistent threats, which are typically nation or state-sponsored attackers who gain access to networks and systems and remain there undetected, collecting information and personal data to eventually cause disruption or harm. While laws and regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act aim to safeguard user data, AI development and use have often outpaced the legislative process. The laws are still catching up on AI and data privacy. For now, you should assume any AI-powered device or platform is collecting data on your inputs, behaviors, and patterns. Using AI tools Although AI tools collect people's data, and the way this accumulation of data affects people's data privacy is concerning, the tools can also be useful. AI-powered applications can streamline workflows, automate repetitive tasks and provide valuable insights. But it's crucial to approach these tools with awareness and caution. When using a generative AI platform that gives you answers to questions you type in a prompt, don't include any personally identifiable information, including names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, or home addresses. At the workplace, don't include trade secrets or classified information. In general, don't put anything into a prompt that you wouldn't feel comfortable revealing to the public or seeing on a billboard. Remember, once you hit enter on the prompt, you've lost control of that information. Remember that devices which are turned on are always listening—even if they're asleep. If you use smart home or embedded devices, turn them off when you need to have a private conversation. A device that's asleep looks inactive, but it is still powered on and listening for a wake word or signal. Unplugging a device or removing its batteries is a good way of making sure the device is truly off. Finally, be aware of the terms of service and data collection policies of the devices and platforms that you are using. You might be surprised by what you've already agreed to.
