Post by elp525 on Aug 13, 2011 11:51:39 GMT -5
August 12, 2011
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - As West Virginia's basketball team tours Italy and attempts to bond and get a head start on the season, it is doing so without one of its best freshmen.
Point guard Gary Browne did not make the trip because of issues with the NCAA's initial eligibility center. In other words, he hasn't yet qualified.
"All I know is that it's a problem with the NCAA and his eligibility,'' said Mike Fragale, WVU assistant athletic director for communications. "It had to have come up at the last minute because he practiced right up until they left.''
Indeed, Browne not only enrolled in school this summer and played with most of the Mountaineers in a Pittsburgh summer league, he took part in the NCAA-permitted 10 practices prior to leaving for Italy. The last of those was Saturday and the team departed on Monday.
But in the first two games of the trip on Wednesday and Thursday, both lopsided victories, Browne did not play. He apparently has gone home to Puerto Rico while the team is away and while his eligibility issues are sorted out.
Should Browne be declared ineligible it could be a big blow to the Mountaineers. Coach Bob Huggins brought in three point guards this summer and none are on the Italian trip. Jabarie Hinds, the most highly rated player in the recruiting class, has not yet enrolled because of eligibility problems, although Huggins has repeatedly said he expects Hinds to be in Morgantown by the start of the semester on Aug. 22. That's the day after the team returns.
The other point guard brought in is Juwan Staten, but he's a transfer from Dayton who must sit out this season.
Browne is a Puerto Rico native who moved to the United States to play his senior season of high school in Jacksonville, Fla. He was one of the final recruits added to Huggins' recruiting class, which includes six freshmen, a junior college transfer and two Division I transfers. The Mountaineers have only three players returning who saw any real action last season - Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant and Deniz Kilicli.
After playing those first two games in Italy, the Mountaineers don't play again until a Wednesday scrimmage with Illinois at a U.S. military base. There are then two more games next Friday and Saturday before the team returns.
By Dave Hickman
The Charleston Gazette
MORGANTOWN - As West Virginia's basketball team tours Italy and attempts to bond and get a head start on the season, it is doing so without one of its best freshmen.
Point guard Gary Browne did not make the trip because of issues with the NCAA's initial eligibility center. In other words, he hasn't yet qualified.
"All I know is that it's a problem with the NCAA and his eligibility,'' said Mike Fragale, WVU assistant athletic director for communications. "It had to have come up at the last minute because he practiced right up until they left.''
Indeed, Browne not only enrolled in school this summer and played with most of the Mountaineers in a Pittsburgh summer league, he took part in the NCAA-permitted 10 practices prior to leaving for Italy. The last of those was Saturday and the team departed on Monday.
But in the first two games of the trip on Wednesday and Thursday, both lopsided victories, Browne did not play. He apparently has gone home to Puerto Rico while the team is away and while his eligibility issues are sorted out.
Should Browne be declared ineligible it could be a big blow to the Mountaineers. Coach Bob Huggins brought in three point guards this summer and none are on the Italian trip. Jabarie Hinds, the most highly rated player in the recruiting class, has not yet enrolled because of eligibility problems, although Huggins has repeatedly said he expects Hinds to be in Morgantown by the start of the semester on Aug. 22. That's the day after the team returns.
The other point guard brought in is Juwan Staten, but he's a transfer from Dayton who must sit out this season.
Browne is a Puerto Rico native who moved to the United States to play his senior season of high school in Jacksonville, Fla. He was one of the final recruits added to Huggins' recruiting class, which includes six freshmen, a junior college transfer and two Division I transfers. The Mountaineers have only three players returning who saw any real action last season - Kevin Jones, Truck Bryant and Deniz Kilicli.
After playing those first two games in Italy, the Mountaineers don't play again until a Wednesday scrimmage with Illinois at a U.S. military base. There are then two more games next Friday and Saturday before the team returns.
