Ebanks Named Big East Player of Week; Blackshear to Louisville

After his 22-point, 17-rebound, 7-assist performance in West Virginia’s 90-84 OT victory over Seton Hall Saturday, Devin Ebanks was named the Big East Player of the Week.

The 6-foot-8, 205-pound Ebanks, who sat out the first three games of the season because of “personal” reasons, averaged 18 points and 15 boards in wins over Mississippi and Seton Hall for the unbeaten Mountaineers.

“I told him the other day he had 14 points and 13 rebounds. If he had thrown the ball out of bounds three more times he would have had a triple double. I’ve been on him about taking care of the ball and he did that [against Seton Hall],” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said, according to Jerry Carino of Gannett New Jersey.

Ebanks is expected to jump to the NBA after this, his sophomore season, and Pirates coach Bobby Gonzalez told Jeff Goodman of FoxSports.com that he’d take the Long Island City, N.Y. native 2nd or 3rd.

“No one in our league has anyone like him,” Gonzalez told Goodman.

“I’m not trying to push him out of door, but if I was an NBA GM I’d take him second or third. He’s a freak. He’s 6-9 and is ridiculous. He did whatever he wanted against us [Saturday].”

NBADraft.net has Ebanks going No. 10 to the Clippers and Draftexpress.com says Ebanks goes No. 13 to the T-Wolves

Maybe Gonzo hopes to be an NBA GM one day because he used that “push him out the door” line last year about UConn center Hasheem Thabeet, who did go No. 2 in the 2009 Draft.

“Thabeet, to me, might be the best player in the country,” Gonzalez said in February after the Huskies beat the Pirates 62-54 in Newark. “I don’t know who has a better player than him, who has a more dominant guy than him in the country. He, to me, is the No. 1 player in America. In my opinion from what I have seen, you know I am not trying to push him out the door, have him go pro, but if I was an NBA franchise I would take him No. 1 in the draft.”

BLACKSHEAR TO LOUISVILLE

Wayne Blackshear, a 6-5 shooting guard from Chicago Morgan Park, committed to Louisville Friday, giving Rick Pitino a nice Christmas present.

Blackshear is the No. 5 shooting guard in the Class of 2011 and No. 18 player overall, according to Rivals.

He dropped 37 points and 13 rebounds in Morgan Park’s season opener, had 34 and 10 against St. Rita and 42 and 18 in a game against East Aurora.

Blackshear chose Louisville over DePaul, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Marquette, Michigan State, North Carolina, SIU, Tennessee, Texas, UNLV and USC.

“It was a family decision,” Kevin Thomas, Blackshear’s stepfather, told ESPNChicago.com. “We just felt everything at Louisville was just right for Wayne. He felt the same. He was extremely excited. He’s knows it’s a big deal — the recruiting process.”

BIG EAST NOTES:
 

• After three wins from BIG EAST teams Sunday, the conference now has a 150-33 nonconference record (.820).

 

• Thirteen of the 16 BIG EAST teams have at least nine wins this season. The only other conference approaching that number is the Big 12, which has 10 nine-win teams. There are 10 Division I conferences that don’t have a single nine-win team.

 

• The BIG EAST has two of the six remaining unbeaten teams in Division I (Syracuse is 12-0 and West Virginia is 10-0).

 

• The BIG EAST Rookie of the Week is Syracuse guard Brandon Triche, who scored 27 points in the Orange’s win against Oakland.

 

• Monday’s schedule has two games involving BIG EAST teams – both on television. DePaul visits Pittsburgh for both teams’ BIG EAST opener at 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPNU and Rutgers puts its six-game winning streak on the line at North Carolina (8:30 p.m., ESPN2).

(Photo courtesy West Virginia Athletics)

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