Published: July 19, 2008 12:05 am            

WVU’s Ebanks adapts to college life

GREENTREE, Pa. — Devin Ebanks doesn’t realize it and he certainly doesn’t promote it, but all it takes to turn heads and get people to point fingers is for him to enter a gymnasium.

Even at the Greentree SportsPlex in the backyard of Ebanks’ soon-to-be Big East rival, the Pitt Panthers.

“I don’t really pay attention to it,” he said. “I come from New York and New York is a media capital. The attention isn’t new to me. I’m used to it.”

Everything else, though, is changing for Ebanks, the ballyhooed West Virginia basketball recruit ranked as high as the ninth-best prospect in the Class of 2008.

“It’s a whole different thing now, on a whole new level,” he said. “Transition-wise, it’s a little hard to get used to the whole thing, from workouts to getting used to college life, period. It’s a constant adjustment.”

The 6-foot-9, 205-pound forward from Long Island, N.Y., already is enrolled and taking classes. On Monday and Wednesday nights, he plays with many of his new WVU teammates, as well as players from schools like Pitt, Duquesne and Robert Morris, in the Pittsburgh Basketball Club’s Pro-Am Summer League.

The SportsPlex has been the site of his first introduction to the whole new level.

“It’s not that it’s so much harder than what I’m used to,” he said. “The game speed is so much faster. I’ll get used to it pretty fast because I like to play fast anyway.”

Ebanks committed to Indiana University in August 2007 and signed a national letter of intent during the early signing period that November. Former Hoosiers coach Kelvin Sampson resigned late in the regular season and Ebanks was granted a release from his letter of intent.

He visited Memphis, Texas, Rutgers and WVU and eventually signed with the Mountaineers in May, primarily because of his affection for coach Bob Huggins.

“He’s one of the top five coaches in the history of the game,” Ebanks said. “He’s going to be tough on me and that’s what I need to get to the next level.”

Ebanks, who averaged 23 points, 10 rebounds and five assists as a senior at St. Thomas More, a prep school in Oakdale, Conn., is the highest-rated prospect to come to campus since Jonathan Hargett arrived in 2001.

Hargett came with NBA aspirations and, indeed, was at WVU for just one season, though for all the wrong reasons. Troubled by a bad knee and ultimately dismissed after it was learned he was taking money from a third party, Hargett was a famous failure because of his inability to connect with the coaches and players.

Ebanks has professional dreams, too, and no one will deny the potential. Not with the skillful dribbling, the controlled jump shots and the inimitable ability to run the floor and finish fast breaks.

“I think Ebanks can be one-and-done with one full year of Huggins coaching him,” junior point guard Joe Mazzulla said.

“Joe Alexander was obviously a great player and a great athlete, but he didn’t completely listen to Huggs the first half of the season and sometimes it showed.

“The last 10 games of the season, he looked Huggs in the eye every second and listened to everything he said. He and Huggs built that trust and you see what happened.”

Ebanks saw it, liked it and welcomes the same treatment so that he might enjoy the same result.

“I want him to push me,” he said. “It’s going to be uncomfortable at times, but I’ve got to work through it. The only way to get to the next level and to be the best I can be is to have somebody on me 24-7.

“Right now, I’m ready to go play and show what I can do. If it turns out one-and-done, that’s great. If it turns out four-and-done, that’s great, too.”

        

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