By Bob Hertzel
For the Times West Virginian
BUFFALO, N.Y. —
It used to be that you would try to read a person through his body language: Did he look you in the eye, was there a nervous twitch in his hand, did he shake his leg as though he was uncomfortable as he spoke to you?
It was a hit-or-miss type of thing, the kind of thing a psychologist might use in analysis or a lawyer might use in trying to decide whether or not to challenge a potential juror.
Today it is far easier to read a person.
Just look at his or her body art.
Take Devin Ebanks, who at 2:40 p.m. today will walk out onto the HSBC Arena floor along with his West Virginia teammates to face Missouri in a game that will decide which team advances to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Championships.
On his left arm there are a pair of tattoos that tell you all you need to know about the player and the person.
The top one is a picture of a basketball, with the inscription “Make shots, not excuses.”
The second one, written in flowery script, reads: “The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
Words, of course, are just words. They must have meaning to the person wearing them or they are nothing but an ink stain on what probably should be pure, clean skin in the first place.
Ebanks tries to live by the words.
He picked up the tattoos a couple of years ago, just before he came to West Virginia.
“The first one,” he said, referring to “Make shots, not excuses,” “is a phrase my high school coach liked to use.”
He and a teammate liked the phrase.
“He was going to get the tattoo, but I stole it,” Ebanks said, as if it were a pass that had been telegraphed by an opponent. “I got it before he did.”
And he’s glad he did.
“It’s a reminder to me how to play the game,” he said. “It helps keep my confidence up.”
Ebanks admits that there are times during the year, when something bad has happened, that he will take a glance at his shoulder and read what it says.
“It motivates me,” he said.
There are times when he finds himself slipping, when he makes a bad play and then begins to offer an excuse, but he says he usually catches himself, takes the responsibility for the mistake and goes about making up for it.
The result is a player who can be counted upon, a player who may only be a sophomore but who seems to be far more mature, a player who knows what he can do and what he can’t do and who dominates games in a way that few other college players can.
If Da’Sean Butler is the clutch player on this team, the experienced senior in whose hands the ball goes in the final minute, chances are West Virginia possesses the ball in the first place because Ebanks has rebounded it or stolen it or used his long arms at the top of the pass to force a turnover.
That he can do it at all is something of a story, for there was a time when Ebanks was not headed for WVU. He had signed at Indiana and was sure that was where he would be. Then the Kelvin Sampson scandal broke, Sampson having contacted a lot of recruits illegally.
Ebanks was one of those athletes, his name coming up over and over in the transcripts that hung Sampson and drew probation for Indiana.
Ebanks decided he’d transfer and the list of suitors was big time, Memphis and John Calipari courting him along with Texas and Rutgers and, of course, West Virginia.
When he came to WVU for his visit his host was Butler, who is not only one of the best players the Mountaineers have but one of the best recruiters.
Butler put his best foot forward, but when Ebanks left he thought it was nothing more than a good effort that would bang off the back rim.
“I didn’t see him coming (to West Virginia),” Butler said. “He was as relaxed as he could be, just joking around. I did not see it.”
It reached the point that he even went to Huggins and told him that he didn’t believe Ebanks was coming to West Virginia, but Huggins has this way of getting the recruits he wants, even if he is up against Calipari and those like him.
In the end he came to West Virginia and if the Mountaineers are to win this NCAA Tournament, rest assured he will be a huge part of it with his ability to do everything that is necessary to do on a basketball court.
Of course, if he should happen to mess up, rest assured there will be no excuses, no surrender.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
