Butler and Smith are seniors. That makes two. The money is on Ebanks leaving for the NBA at the end of this season. In all liklihood, we will have three available scholarships, but technically, only two are a given.

but if he wants to come to WVU there will be room for him one way or another.

everyone is looking forward to this year, but if forced to look into the future 2011 looks to be particularly exciting.

I’m not saying we won’t be good or competitive next year, but we stand to lose our two best players (Ebanks and Butler by a mile) with no real (unless we DO get Harris) impact freshman incoming.

But if you look at 2010, we will graduate 5 seniors. Usually this would be a huge problem, spurring a rebuilding year. However, more than likely it will be just the opposite. May 2010 will mark the graduation of the last players from the John Beilein era.

We will be losing good players, but by my account two of those seniors (West and Thoroughman) will get little, if any playing time. The other three, Mitchell, Flowers, and Mazzulla are replaceable. (note: before a riot starts, notice I didn’t say easily)

Dalton Pepper will be heading into his junior year, and should be more than capable of being a Huggins type of 2 guard. Flowers won’t be sorely missed having senior Kevin Jones, Juniors Jennings and Kilicli. Nyarsuk, the focus of this article, will be a sophomore. He really excites me. After a year in the Huggins system and weight room, I wouldn’t be surprised to have Thabeet clone with a better offensive game. Bryant should play his best ball as a senior. Cottrill will be able to come off the bench as a guard with a year under his belt.

Throw in the outside (can i emphasize outside) shot of having Tobias Harris around for a second year (if he comes at all, which is up in the air) and you’re looking at a deep, talented, and experienced team. Even without Harris, its still a very, very good team. Then realization sets in that Huggins still will have 5 scholarships to play with.

(Assuming no Harris) an impact (one/two and done?) guard and wing in the 2010 class could propel WVU into a top 5 preseason team in 2011. Then, Huggins can look for three other guys that will be four year players down the road.

The era of elite WVU basketball seemingly has come.