The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

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November 18, 2009

Mountain State Academy senior signs to play at WVU

By Dave Morrison

Back home in the Sudan, David Nyarsuk would have to travel miles to find a basketball court.

“At my school, we didn’t have a basketball court,” he said Tuesday. “So I had to go to the city to find a court.”

He doesn’t have that problem anymore.

The 7-foot-1 Mountain State Academy senior signed with West Virginia University Monday evening.

“I liked the people,” he said. “I liked the coaching staff, the campus, the school. It was the right place for me to go. Coach (Huggins) is a great coach and he has put a lot of people in the NBA.”

Nyarsuk hopes it will be a permanent home. He shuffled from The Patterson School in North Carolina, which is now closed, to MSA this season.

Mountain State Academy coach Rodney Crawford, a former Huggins player at Cincinnati, believes Nyarsuk has a chance to play for the Mountaineers as a freshman.

“It’s really up to him,” Crawford said. “He is a tenacious defender, a tenacious rebounder and he can run the floor. And that is what separates him from other big men. He’s strong, but he’s going to have to get stronger in his hands so he can handle those rebounds and passes because he’s moving up to an elite conference.”

Nyarsuk got his introduction to basketball on television.

“I just loved it from the start,” he said. “But back in my country, you had to go miles to even play. But when I played, I played well and soon people were telling me that I have to come (to the U.S.).”

Nyarsuk came to the U.S. two years ago, and his guardian is former Wisconsin standout Duany Duany.

“I knew I had to get to (the U.S.), but I didn’t know how,” Nyarsuk said. “He helped me get here and has been good to me.”

Crawford said Nyarsuk has a massive upside.

“He can be on the level of a (Hasheem) Thabeet (the former 7-3 UConn star now with the Memphis Grizzlies who was known as a shot blocker),” Crawford said. “He can get to that level and the best case scenario is that he will be to West Virginia what Thabeet was to UConn.”

Nyarsuk is the third player with MSA ties to sign with the Mountaineers. Deniz Kilicli is now with WVU and Noah Cottrill, who is finishing his high school career at Logan, signed last week.

Mountain State Academy (4-0) is home Saturday to face Imani Christian Academy of Pittsburgh at 7 p.m.

— E-mail: demorrison@register-herald.com

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