WHILE West Virginia's football team was preparing for LSU's Bayou Bengals this past week, the school's basketball coach was doing what he does best: chasing tigers by the tails.
WHILE West Virginia's football team was preparing for LSU's Bayou Bengals this past week, the school's basketball coach was doing what he does best: chasing tigers by the tails.
It's a contact period for NCAA basketball coaches, so Bob Huggins was making his recruiting rounds.
"Name some place,'' he said, "and I could probably check it off."
He'd just deplaned from a tight squeeze on a Comair jet, which probably wasn't the most comfortable spot for a big man recovering from seven fractured ribs.
But it's been that kind of year for Huggins since making last season's Final Four.
Consider: After making the Final Four, WVU fell to Duke by 21 once there. De'Sean Butler injured his knee. Devin Ebanks jumped early to the NBA.
Huggins fractured the ribs in a Las Vegas hotel fall.
Freshman signee Darrious Curry was found to be medically ineligible. Another signee, 7-foot-1 David Nyarsuk from Mountain State Academy, returned to Beckley and will play for Mountain State University after failing to meet the ACT requirements to play Division I ball.
Then there was the latest incident involving point guard Joe Mazzulla, who was cited, along with teammate Dalton Pepper, for disorderly conduct and public urination. Neither was arrested, and Huggins said at the time the matter was being reviewed and would be handled internally.
Apparently, it has been.
"He's fine," Huggins said of Mazzulla when asked about suspension, etc.
The hurried coach added "it's too late" to replace Nyarsuk with another player before dashing off to his next flight.
nn
Huggins refuses to talk about recruits, but there were two very large young men at WVU's home football game against Maryland.
WHILE West Virginia's football team was preparing for LSU's Bayou Bengals this past week, the school's basketball coach was doing what he does best: chasing tigers by the tails.
It's a contact period for NCAA basketball coaches, so Bob Huggins was making his recruiting rounds.
"Name some place,'' he said, "and I could probably check it off."
He'd just deplaned from a tight squeeze on a Comair jet, which probably wasn't the most comfortable spot for a big man recovering from seven fractured ribs.
But it's been that kind of year for Huggins since making last season's Final Four.
Consider: After making the Final Four, WVU fell to Duke by 21 once there. De'Sean Butler injured his knee. Devin Ebanks jumped early to the NBA.
Huggins fractured the ribs in a Las Vegas hotel fall.
Freshman signee Darrious Curry was found to be medically ineligible. Another signee, 7-foot-1 David Nyarsuk from Mountain State Academy, returned to Beckley and will play for Mountain State University after failing to meet the ACT requirements to play Division I ball.
Then there was the latest incident involving point guard Joe Mazzulla, who was cited, along with teammate Dalton Pepper, for disorderly conduct and public urination. Neither was arrested, and Huggins said at the time the matter was being reviewed and would be handled internally.
Apparently, it has been.
"He's fine," Huggins said of Mazzulla when asked about suspension, etc.
The hurried coach added "it's too late" to replace Nyarsuk with another player before dashing off to his next flight.
nnHuggins refuses to talk about recruits, but there were two very large young men at WVU's home football game against Maryland.
After some digging, I found out via The Kiski School coach Daryn Freedman they were Sim and Tanveer Bhullar, underclassmen at the all-male private school in Saltsburg, Pa.
The brothers, by the way, are 7-4 and 7-2. They're from Toronto and came to the United States with dreams of the NBA. Sim, 17 and a junior, was the taller. Tanveer, 15 and a sophomore, is the, uh, shorter.
The good news for WVU fans?
"Right now West Virginia and Pitt are Sim's top two choices," said Freedman, a former assistant of Kentucky coach John Calipari at Massachusetts and Memphis and of Ron Everhart at Duquesne.
Aaron Brown, a shooting forward from Yardley, Pa., was also in attendance. He, however, already committed to WVU over Houston, Rice, St. Joe's and Temple. The other commitment in the fold for Huggins is Tommie McCune, a 6-8, 220-pound three-star player from Saginaw, Mich.
nnThe Mountaineers have been trying to land visits from some of the nation's top players and one, Dominique Porter, was scheduled to be in Morgantown this weekend. He's a four-star shooting forward from Winston-Salem who also has offers from and interest in Michigan and St. John's.
WVU is also involved in other blue-chip recruits, including ...
Mike Shaw, a 6-8, 220-pound power forward from De La Salle Institute in Chicago. Schools like DePaul, Illinois, Marquette and Notre Dame are also in on him.Ryan Boatright, a 5-10, 150-pound point guard from Aurora (Ill.) East High. Others on him are Wake Forest, Tennessee, DePaul and Miami, Fla.Trey McDonald, a 6-9, 230-pound center from Battle Creek (Mich.) High. Wake Forest, Alabama, Michigan, Iowa and Michigan State are some of the others offering.Jabari Hinds, a 5-11, 150-pound point guard from Mount Vernon (N.Y.) High. Oklahoma State, UCLA and UNLV are also recruiting Hinds.Reach Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827, mitchvin...@wvgazette.com or follow him at http://twitter.com/MitchVingle.
Get Connected