Huggins adds big man to fold

By Bob Hertzel

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia University basketball coach Bob Huggins may have added the last piece to his national championship plan when he landed the 7-footer he has sought to play in the middle.

Huggins final scholarship for 2010-11 went to Sudanese native David Nyarsuk, a 7-1, 230-pound center who will attend WVU next season. He is currently playing at Mountain State Academy.

Huggins previously landed Logan point guard Noah Cottrill, who played at Mountain State last year.

It appears that Huggins now has a “farm system” developing at Mountain State, where his former player, Rodney Crawford, is coach.

“We’re excited about David’s ability to be a game changer at the defensive end of the floor,” Huggins said. “His ability to change shots around the basket, as well as run the floor, will fit well into what we do at both ends of the floor. David is an extremely hard worker, which is what we have prided ourselves on.”

WVU graduates two seniors after this season — forward Da’Sean Butler and Wellington Smith — and it is thought the Mountaineers might lose Devin Ebanks, currently not with the team due to “personal issues,” to the NBA after the season.

If Ebanks were to return, Huggins would have a spectacular front line with Ebanks, Kevin Jones, John Flowers, freshmen Danny Jennings and Deniz Kilicli and incoming freshman Nyarsuk, who has been in the country only two years but has proven himself to be a solid student as well as player.

WVU would have Truck Bryant, Joe Mazzulla and Noah Cottrill to play the point next year with Casey Mitchell, Jonnie West and Dalton Pepper back as shooting guards.



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Award winners for the Cincinnati football game: Offensive champion: quarterback Jarrett Brown, wide receiver Bradley Starks, fullback Ryan Clarke; special teams champion: punter Scott Kozlowski; offensive scout champion: Chris Snook; defensive scout champion: Bobby Weston.

There was no defensive champion named.



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Redshirt senior Donnie Jones, wrestling at 165 pounds, got his final year off to a big start and young Cameron Gallaher got his career off to a big start over the weekend at Washington & Jefferson College Wrestling Open in Washington, Pa.

Jones took first place at 165 and was named the most outstanding wrestler as he begins a bid to follow brother Greg Jones, now an assistant coach at WVU, as a national champion. He won four matches.

So, too, did Gallaher, the Grafton native, who won the title by beating teammate Kyle Rooney, 4-1.

It still hasn’t been decided whether to redshirt Gallaher, a West Virginia state high school champion during an undefeated career, or to allow him to wrestle as a true freshman.

In all, five WVU wrestlers won titles at the event.



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WVU’s seventh-ranked cross-country team earned an at-large bid to participate in the NCAA championships next Monday at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. The women’s race begins at 12:58 p.m.

WVU finished fourth in 2008 at the NCAAs and is coming off a third-place finish in the Mid-Atlantic Regional.



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Gov. Joe Manchin has named Charleston attorney Tom Flaherty to the WVU Board of Governors, replacing Steve Goodwin, who resigned last month.

Flaherty was the lead attorney in WVU’s case to collect the $4 million buyout from football coach Rich Rodriguez when he jumped to Michigan and attempted not to avoid paying the buyout.

This will do nothing to help Rodriguez should he ever attempt to come back to coach at West Virginia.



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Makenzie “Mak” Bristol, Amanda Carpenter, Marina Galente and Hope Sloanhoffer make up the 2009-10 recruiting class of WVU gymnastics coach Linda Burdette, a class she calls “one of the most experienced” she has ever recruited.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.