WVU Football News

7-footer David Nyarsuk

By Geoff Coyle for wvillustrated.com

November 18, 2009

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – David Nyarsuk’s national letter of intent to play basketball with the West Virginia University Mountaineers arrived in Morgantown Wednesday morning, and the coaching staff that received it could not have been happier.

“David’s a young man that wants to be here, he’s excited about being here, and we’re excited to have him,” says assistant coach Larry Harrison. “He solidifies our big men for the future. We think David’s another piece to help us compete for a national championship.”

The term “big man,” when used to describe Nyarsuk, is an understatement. At 7-foot-1, he is enormous. Many players with that kind of size have a hard time running the floor, getting to their spot, rebounding out of position or making plays on defense. But according to everyone who knows him, this is not the case for Nyarsuk.

“He blocks shots, he changes shots, he changes the game around the rim,” says Harrison. “You’re not going to get a lot of clear looks at the basket when he’s around because he is active, he really goes after the ball and plays really hard.”

Harrison says that Nyarsuk is already close to the defensive player they want him to be for the Mountaineers, but he still needs work on his production as a scorer on the offensive end. To Harrison, this is nothing new for an incoming freshman.

“Sometimes [freshmen] are not as far ahead as we would like, but defensively he’s definitely not a raw talent and offensively, he can score. He’s not a big-time scorer, but he can do the jump hook and little short jump shots and things like that.”

Harrison acknowledges that Nyarsuk will need to bulk up, especially in his lower body, before he can be the real presence they think he can be. With that in mind, Nyarsuk became very impressed with what he saw out of WVU’s strength program to develop him into a stronger player.

“That’s one of the things that he liked about our program,” says Harrison. “We showed him the difference in our guys, from the time that they got here until now, how their body has changed. He’s very excited about getting here and working on that so he can get stronger.”

He’s very excited to come to Morgantown for a number of other reasons, as well. Rodney Crawford, his head coach at the Academy at Mountain State University in Beckley, played for Coach Huggins at Cincinnati in the early part of the decade. He says Nyarsuk’s visit to WVU all but sold the Sudan native that his future would be played out on the court at the WVU Coliseum.

“He loved the whole atmosphere when he went up to the football game and seeing the midnight madness, he loved the whole atmosphere,” says Crawford. “Coach Harrison and Coach Huggins, he completely fell in love with those guys and that was the determining factor.”

Of course, it is easy to fall in love with a coaching staff if your current coach is pushing you to do so, but Crawford says he left the decision completely up to Nyarsuk.

“One thing that I can do in regards to Coach Huggins is endorse him as being a true, genuine, good person,” he says. “I’d never sway anybody who doesn’t want to go where Huggins is, I would never force them to do that, but when that interest is there, I can attest to the fact that he’s a great person.”

Crawford admits that when Nyarsuk showed interest in the Mountaineers, he found himself pulling for his former coach to land his current standout athlete.

“You can never guarantee playing time or anything, but one thing is for sure; he’ll be with a good coach in Coach Huggins and some really good people in Morgantown. That in itself was something I kind of hoped for just to make sure that he gets taken care of.”

This is Crawford’s first and only season that he will be spending with Nyarsuk, as he came to Mountain State after his former team closed its doors following his junior season. Even now, knowing that his top center is preparing for a future at a major college program, Crawford is convinced he can get Nyarsuk to focus on the task at hand; his senior year of high school.

“In David’s situation, he’s come so far in a short amount of time. His head is extremely grounded, he worked extremely hard, especially in the classroom. He has the foundation to get better, to grow with his tools both on and off the floor.”

Crawford will get him started in the right direction; Huggins will bring it all together.

Briefly:

The Mountaineers are still recruiting, despite reports that Nyarsuk would be the team’s last scholarship athlete for next season. Highly sought after forward Tobias Harris will be signing his national letter of intent with one of the five programs remaining on his list.

When speaking to wvillustrated.com last night, Harris said all five of the schools are still in the running and he has no intentions of narrowing the list before making a decision.

One would have to assume that if he is signing tonight, he already has a pretty good idea as to which school he is choosing, even if that school is not yet aware of it.