West Virginia sophomore forward Devin Ebanks has yet to play this season for what are being called “personal” reasons and head coach Bob Huggins says he isn’t sure when Ebanks might return.
“I don’t know,” Huggins told The Dominion Post.
No. 8 West Virginia meets The Citadel Tuesday night in Charleston, West Va., before traveling to Anaheim to face Long Beach State Thursday in the 76 Classic.
The 6-foot-9 Ebanks, a Long Island City, N.Y. native, is one of the keys to West Virginia’s chances to make a deep run this year. The Mounties were picked second behind Villanova in the Big East preseason coaches’ poll.
Without Ebanks, freshman big man Danny Jennings of Staten Island had nine points and 12 rebounds in a season-opening win over Loyola.
“Danny wants to be good and I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself,” Huggins told MSNsportsNet.com. “That’s something we’ve got to work through. I think he has to understand there weren’t a whole lot of guys that came in here day one and be a great player. If you go back through there have been very few.”
Ebanks isn’t the only player missing, either.
Junior point guard Joe Mazzulla has also yet to play. He was out most of last season because of shoulder surgery.
“I don’t know that either,” Huggins told The Dominion Post when asked when Mazzulla might return. “He’s been practicing. It’s just we’re trying to be as careful as we can be with him.”
Freshman big man Deniz Kilicli must also sit 19 more games because of an NCAA-mandated punishment related to his participiation with a Turkish professional club.
“Of course, we feel a little shorthanded, because Devin was one of our leading scorers,” Brooklyn native Darryl “Truck” Bryant told The Dominion Post. “He’s definitely one of our guys we go to down the stretch. We’re a little bit shorthanded, so we just have to improvise from here on out until we get him back.”
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