CHARLESTON — It was just like old times at the Civic Center here as the West Virginia University basketball team toyed with Citadel, 69-50.
Star forward Devin Ebanks was back in a Mountaineer uniform, after missing the opening game and a whole lot of practice for reasons still yet to be revealed. He warmed up before the game, shook hands after it but in between he did nothing but enjoy one of the best seats in the house on the WVU bench.
Then there was the return to the playing floor of guard Joe Mazzulla, who last played in a game on Dec. 9, 2008, against Davidson after having injured his left shoulder at Mississippi. Mazzulla tried to play through the pain for two more games but just couldn’t make it, giving in to season-ending shoulder surgery.
Not yet fully recovered, Mazzulla, however, decided that the time had come to shake off the rust and get himself back onto the floor, playing 15 minutes and while not where he wanted to be putting on a pretty fair show with six assists and no turnovers and one basket.
Even the Mountaineer, Rebecca Durst, wearing a buckskin suit, a coonskin cap and a large smile, returned from a brief absence caused by what was termed “personal issues.”
She did not score, but was quite accurate with her T-shirt sling.
Ebanks did not show in the dark, dingy hallway outside the WVU locker room for interviews following the game and Huggins was adamant that whatever it was, be it team discipline or something involving the NCAA, be kept it an internal matter.
Huggins decided earlier in the day to bring Ebanks in for this game and bring him on the trip to the 76 Classic in Anaheim over the holiday weekend, although he isn’t sure if he will play because he has not been practicing with the team.
“I understand you have a job to do,” he told the media, “but I also understand if it’s your kid, you don’t want your kids business out all over the place. It isn’t anybody’s business. This B.S. that I owe that … I owe that to the kid. I don’t owe that to the season ticket holders or to the Dominion Post, you know. My responsibility is to the kid.
“Everyone has their own opinions of what these kids should do but if it’s their own son, the whole thing changes dramatically. I have always tried to treat those guys like they are my son,” Huggins concluded.
The problem that presents, however, is that it is natural for the public to think only the worst. His players, like it or not, are public figures who have to learn there are consequences for their actions, not just actions that show up in the public record and can’t be concealed.
But one must assume that something changed in the Ebanks situation to allow Huggins to bring him back onto the team, moving them closer to becoming the unit he had hoped to have as he put the Mountaineers together.
Mazzulla’s return was a pleasant addition.
“He looks like the old Joe, scrappy on defense and always making the right play,” said forward Kevin Jones, who had 11 points with eight rebounds. John Flowers led WVU in scoring with 13 points while Wellington Smith tied Jones for top rebounder with eight.
Huggins came to Mazzulla before the game to ask him if he was ready to go and he told him he had practiced for a week and a half and was ready, proving it by playing immaculately.
“Assists are what I’m out there to do,” he said. “That and putting people in the right place.”
“Joe just had to get the rust off,” Huggins said. “He gives us energy when he’s in there.”
The Mountaineers do look like a different team with Mazzulla there as he is a different kind of player than the other point guard, Truck Bryant, who is more of a scorer and less of a defender.
Mazzulla admitted to be nervous and rusty and not yet in game shape, feeling soreness in his legs that he expects to worsen overnight.
As for his shoulder, “that’s not 100 percent and probably never will be,” he said.
Mazzulla said some days it’s 90 percent, some days as low as 70 percent. He has trouble raising his arm above his shoulder and has done most of his shooting in practice right-handed. The layup he hit was shot right-handed from the left side but he also showed he’ll use his left hand with a southpaw scoop shot that missed.
The game was not a shooting clinic for WVU, missing a number of makeable shots. Still, they shot 46 percent for the game but were just 3 of 8 from the free throw line and hit only 8 of 23 from 3-point range.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
Bob Herzel
Like old times
No. 8 WVU tops The Citadel, 69-50
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