MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Remember that 13th scholarship that Bob Huggins only recently said he thought would go unused next season? Well, perhaps it won't.

Forward Kevin Noreen, the 2010 player of the year in Minnesota and the state's all-time career scoring leader, visited West Virginia last weekend. The Mountaineers are apparently one of about 40 schools who are interested in one of the last available players in the class of 2010.

Noreen, who is from Minneapolis, originally signed with Boston College in November, but asked for and was given his release when the school fired coach Al Skinner after the season.

Noreen is a 6-foot-10 forward who has alternately been described as weighing between 190 and 225 pounds. He is said to have a solid midrange shot as a face-to-the-basket forward, although he obviously will need to get bigger and stronger in order to play in college.

One thing that he won't have to improve on is his academics. Noreen is a 4.0 student who reportedly scored a perfect 36 on his ACT.

Noreen's basketball numbers border on the ridiculous. As a senior at Minnesota Transitions School he averaged 38.6 points, 16.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 3.9 steals and 3.2 blocks as his team won the Minnesota Class 1A state championship.

He also broke the Minnesota high school record for career points with 4,086 and as a senior had 14 games of more than 40 points, including seven when he scored 50 or more. He has played on the varsity level since the seventh grade.

"He's a true warrior,'' MTS coach John Sherman said after Noreen scored 24 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and blocked nine shots in the state title game despite a hard fall early in the game. "He's probably one of the highest IQ basketball kids I've coached and also one of the best competitors. He just goes from buzzer to buzzer.

"He plays 36 minutes when we need him to play 36 minutes. He plays through injury, he plays through sickness. He's had a cold and a temperature all week and he's fought it off.''

Those numbers, though, come with a caveat. MTS is a charter school in south Minneapolis that is located in a strip mall next to a Target. For much of Noreen's career, the school's basketball schedule was ridiculed and the Minnesota State High School League pondered even striking some of the school's games from its records because the opponents were not legitimate.

During Noreen's career, MTS scored 100-plus points in a game more than 70 times.

Still, that sullies only Noreen's statistics, not his abilities. He was, after all, named Mr. Basketball in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune player of the year, signed with Boston College during the early signed period in November and then, after being released from his agreement, was reportedly offered by some 40 schools.

MTS, which finished this past season 30-3, also significantly beefed up its schedule in recent years. Last season the school played six Class 3A and 4A teams, went 4-2 against them and Noreen averaged 28.5 points in those games.

And that number of 40 scholarship offers after his release from BC likely would have been more had Boston College's fellow ACC members not been hamstrung by a league rule that would require Noreen to lose a year's eligibility had he signed with another ACC school after signing with the Eagles.

Because the NCAA's national signing period has passed, Noreen cannot sign a national letter of intent that binds both sides (player and school) to the agreement. He would instead sign a grant-in-aid form that commits the school to providing a scholarship but does not lock the player into the school.

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.