And then there was one.
With the suspension of Darryl “Truck” Bryant from the West Virginia University basketball team yesterday for the good old catch-all “violation of team rules”, and with Lil’ Joe Mazzulla suspended indefinitely on April 24 for the same reason, Bob Huggins has one point guard left on his roster.
Will Thomas.
That’s the same Will Thomas that played a grand total of 72 minutes last year, for a team that was without Mazzulla due to injury for 28 of their 35 games.
And the same Will Thomas that many people expected to transfer out of the program, much as 6-foot-10 bench furniture Dee Proby did earlier this week (Oklahoma City University, here we come!)
Where’s Jerry West (or even Jarrod West) when you need him?
Mazzulla’s suspension stemmed from his second arrest in less than a year, this time for domestic violence at the oh-so-creatively-named De Lazy Lizard (which is on De High Street in de city of Morgantown, for de curious among you).
Truck was charged with four misdemeanor traffic offenses, including failure to maintain control, leaving the scene of an accident, failure to give information and failure to report an accident immediately, according to an Associated Press report.
He was charged later by police and paid a $4,200 personal recognizance bond.
Where does this leave West Virginia, picked in the top ten of many early preseason rankings?
Well, Huggins said back in June that Mazzulla, who is working out in Morgantown this summer, “was taking the right steps” towards reinstatement.
I don’t anticipate Bryant getting a major punishment, although I’m sure he’ll spend a lot of hours on Huggs’ vaunted treadmill during the early weeks of practice.
If one of those players is not on the floor, you’re basically looking at the same scenario as last year: the one remaining guy starts and plays as many minutes as possible.
Then, you have another reliable, smart player share
see GUARDS page 6
the load.
It was Alex Ruoff last year; I’d say DaSean Butler or Devin Ebanks would be the guy in that scenario this year.
But assuming both players are kept off the floor for at least the first few games of 2009, expect to see a lot of the skilled Ebanks handling the ball.
Butler’s the bigger piece of the two, so you don’t want to take away more of his scoring than you have to by making him carry the load.
Point guard isn’t the ideal place for the 6-foot-9 Ebanks, either, a player with good post moves who averaged eight rebounds a game as a freshman, but you work with what you have.
Oh, and by the way, Sarah Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska came a day before Truck’s arrest.
Could the former Wasilla High great, who ran the point for the Alaskan state champs in 1982, be headed to Morgantown to give Huggs some more depth?
Coincidence?
You betcha.
Michael Minnich may be the only recent West Virginia University alum to never set foot in De Lazy Lizard.
He can be reached at mminnich@newstribune.info.
Barton, Md. —
