6-foot-7 swingman Darrious Curry of Houston, Texas signed a grant-in-aid yesterday to play at WVU next season. Curry will look to the fill a void on the wing that needs to be filled with the losses of Da’Sean Butler, Wellington Smith and Devin Ebanks. Curry played this past season at Stratford High School after spending the previous three years at Elsik High School.

The 200-pound southpaw averaged 19 points, seven rebounds and a pair of assists in his senior campaign. The previous three seasons, he averaged 10, 20 and 15 points at Elsik.

“Darrious fills a void that we have at small forward with the losses of Da’Sean and Devin,” Huggins said. “We lost all of our size on the wing and our size is critical to our success. We wanted to add more size to our perimeter.”

Curry had originally committed to UTEP, but he was released from his national letter-of-intent after head coach Tony Barbee left to take the same job at Auburn. After that, “things started to happen at a pretty rapid pace”, according to WVU assistant Erik Martin.

A Kenner, La., native, Capers is a converted tight end and relatively small for NFL tackle standards at 308 pounds. Capers has only been a tackle since 2007. While he is still raw, Capers has above average athleticism for an offensive lineman because he has experience playing a skill position. He had an impressive 30.5 inch vertical jump during last month’s NFL Combine.

He will need to develop, but Capers should have a chance to earn playing time down the line. A year ago, the Redskins won just four games in large part because of a woeful offensive line.

Former WVU quarterback Jarrett Brown somewhat surprisingly went undrafted. Brown did latch on with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent. There was a strong consensus that Brown would be drafted because of his potential. Brown has a strong arm and at 6-foot-3, 224 pounds, his stature is strong for a quarterback. One of Brown’s top targets from a year ago, wideout Alric Arnett, also was not selected. However, Arnett did sign a free agent deal with the Denver Broncos.

18 players were drafted from the Big East Conference. Louisville was the only conference team to not have a player drafted.

Yet in still, Smith has made the decision pay off and shown an ability to put the ball precisely where it needs to be on passes of longer distance. Before Saturday’s scrimmage, during a pass skeleton drill, Smith was particularly sharp.

For his performance in the drill, Smith earned much praise from Stewart. Smith looks to be fine-throwing quarterback, but it’s hard to tell how much all this means until he can move around better and take hits.

Coley White is still getting all the reps at quarterback and looked average but certainly improved Saturday. He doesn’t have the same capabilities and touch of Smith, who is WVU’s likely choice as a long-term solution at quarterback. With his ability to make a number of different difficult throws, Smith is drawing comparisons to an gun-slinging Mountaineer quarterback.

It’ s still early, but what Smith has shown has Stewart smiling about the present and future of his football program.

“I have decided to enter my name into the 2010 NBA draft. I spoke to my mother and the coaching staff, and we have decided that I should explore my options to pursue a dream that I have had since I was a little kid,” Ebanks said in a press release. I want to thank West Virginia University, my coaches, my teammates and all the great fans.”

Ebanks ends his career as a Mountaineer with averages of 11.2 points and 7.9 per game. He contributed 12 points and 8.1 rebounds in his sophomore season.

Ebanks was also considered to be the Mountaineers’ top defender on this season’s Final Four team. He guarded everybody from the likes of Villanova’s Scottie Reynolds and Kentucky’s John Wall to Syracuse’s Wes Johnson and Ohio State’s Evan Turner. At 6-foot-9, Ebanks’ defensive versatility and rebounding prowess make him a likely first round selection.

“I certainly enjoyed coaching Devin for two years,” said WVU head coach Bob Huggins. “He was extremely coachable and was a great teammate. We certainly wish him the best for a long and prosperous career.”

The first round hopeful’s’ biggest weaknesses are an ability to score outside of the paint and off the dribble. He hit only 3-of-30 3-point attempts this past season, and 8-of-70 over two years. Ebanks never scored more than 22 points or hit double-digit field goals in a game at West Virginia. Still, the 215-pound wing shot a respectable 46.3 percent from the floor over two years. Many of Ebanks’ baskets come off sharp cuts and curls.

If Ebanks can figure out how to get to the free-throw line more consistently, he’d be much better off. The Long Island City, N.Y., native was a 73.6 percent shooter from the charity stripe at West Virginia.

ESPN’s Chad Ford projects Ebanks as a mid-to-late first round pick. NBAdraft.net rates him the 17th best prospect in this year’s draft, while draftexpress.com has him much further down at 29th.

Duke then narrowly took care of Butler for the National Championship in a title game for the ages.

Still…..

It’s hard to put the recently completed WVU men’s basketball season into full context as 72 hours haven’t even passed since it was over. But what Bob Huggins’ team was able to accomplish by winning 31 games, including a Big East Tournament title and a Final Four berth was a memorable and remarkable season. The Mountaineers finished with their second highest postseason ranking in school history at No. 3, coming directly behind the two teams who played for last night’s National Championship.

Although Butler and Wellington Smith will no longer be around, the bulk of West Virginia’s roster should be returning. Will sophomore forward Devin Ebanks be one of them, or will he opt for the NBA Draft instead? That will be interesting to see, along with what happens to Butler’s rating as a pro prospect and how fast point guard Truck Bryant can recover from a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot.

The win didn’t come in the same fashion so many others have for WVU this season. Instead, Bob Huggins’ team relied on 3-point shooting and the length of its 1-3-1 zone. Had Kentucky been able to make a few jump shots, the outcome may have been different. Instead, the youthful Wildcats missed their first 20 3-point attempts and 28-of-32 from beyond the arc.

Meanwhile, West Virginia didn’t hit a single two-point field goal in the first 20 minutes. The Mountaineers still held a two-point halftime advantage because they hit eight 3-pointers and committed only three turnovers while forcing 10.

WVU has proved it can win in a number of different styles throughout its current 10-game winning streak, but Saturday’s at the Carrier Dome may been the most bizarre.

Joe Mazzulla poured in a career-high 17 points and was named the region’s Most Outstanding Player, while leading s.corer Da’Sean Butler hit all of his field goals in a first-half  span of 4:10. The Mountaineers also lost the rebounding battle, 51-36.

Jones and Butler joined Mazzulla on the all-region team, along with Kentucky’s John Wall and DeMarcus Cousins.

WVU meets Duke Saturday at 8:47 in Indianapolis for a berth in the National Championship.

Harris worked for more than two decades at The Washington Post and is the co-founder of The Politico. Harris is also the author of The Survivor, a New York Times best seller on Bill Clinton.

He is the current editor-in-chief of Politico

Here are some tidbits I found interesting throughout the discussion he led.

– More than 10 million people visited Politco last year making it the 10th most popular newspaper site on the web

– Politico has an editorial staff of approximately 80 people and more journalists covering the White House than any other news organization

– Harris believes the first order of business for people in journalism has got to be optimism.

He also said…

– old order in journalism is crumbling

– something (us listeners and future journalists) will create the new order with our ideas and journalistic values

– Harris’ broad take in change in media: we have moved from an institutional age of media to an entrepenuerial age of media

– An important facet of the institutional age is that a small number of people had enormous power to set the agenda on politics and the workings of washington

– These people include journalists from the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Washington Bureau Chief and top political writer for Associated Press

– In this new age of the internet, everyone is his/her own editor

– Millions of individuals now have the role of those 30-40 people described just above

– Harris grew up in insitutional age and liked it but believes the new age can be better

– Harris doesn’t have a facebook or twitter page

– He started internship at wash. post two days after graduating college

– Harris didn’t welcome changes in media but knew to find a way to reckon with them

– In this new age, journalists are not commodities- in the old age, nobody would admit it but they were to an extent…journalists are franchise players now

– Politico is narrowly defined and a rich site covering national politics and mainly congress and the white house

– Impact (stories that drive impact and get feedback) and efficiency

– If you come to politico you know what you’re going to get- don’t come for business or sports news

– There are problematic trends in the journalism field but Harris believes a new order will emerge

– He said the challenge is how to vindicate those traditional journalistic values we believe in during this news age

TRADITIONAL JRL VALUES INCLUDE:

– A commitment to accuracy, fairness, eliminating public interest (add optimism says harris…you have to believe there’s a robust and promising future)

– One of the trends of new age media is the tendency to present political news through an ideological prison…harris wants politico to avoid that and not lean toward favoring democrats or republicans

The picture above is somewhat gives you a glimpse of how the game went, as West Virginia consistently beat the Tigers’ press and dictated the game at its preferred favor.

Leading up to the contest, the Mountaineers talked about how Missouri wanted its press to affect the opposition mentally, but patience was a virtue for WVU in this instance.

Butler scored 19 of his 28 in the first half, and the Mountaineers built a 30-25 advantage. Although WVU was never ahead by double-figures outside of the last 30 seconds, Mizzou was unable to grab the lead at any point. Devin Ebanks and Kevin Jones contributed their usual steady play with 14 points and seven rebounds and 13 points nine rebounds, respectively.

WVU has won eight straight games dating back to a Feb. 27 come-from-behind victory against Cincinnati. The Mountaineers will meet Washington on Thursday night in Syracuse, N.Y., for a berth in the Elite 8. The Huskies are winners of seven straight after playing underwhelming basketball for a good portion of the season. Don’t think they will apologize for being here just because they didn’t live up to expectations at a time.

Missouri coach Mike Anderson has adopted the ‘fastest 40 minutes in basketball’ label from former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson. The Tigers will likely press for the entire contest and the Mountaineers believe they have what it takes to not only deal with it, but beat it.

At yesterday’s press conference, WVU was as loose as they’ve been at any point this season. While many of the questions were directed at comparing the Big East and Big 12, the entire West Virginia starting five appeared to be an extremely relaxed bunch.

While WVU handled Morgan State for a 27-point win to get to this point, the Tigers knocked off Clemson 86-78 in their first round game. Missouri’s pressure bothered Clemson and forced 20 turnovers. However, the Mountaineers pride themselves on rebounding and Missouri isn’t a strong team on the glass.

The big key will be tempo, as West Virginia will look to play a slower game and grind it out in half-court sets. Missouri wants to play fast and have the game in the high 70s or low 80s. This should be an interesting battle with the winner heading to Syracuse to meet Washington on Thursday.

While I was hesitant to join twitter, I have enjoyed my experiences with the social networking phenomenon thus far. I was quickly able to find and add many followers who I either know or cared to know what they have to tweet about. It is a different type of social networking site and it’s still taking time for me to get used to where everything is on the site and how it works.

I like how you can find just about anyone you want and the latest tweets of your followers pop up immediately almost like facebook’s news feed.  I was more fascinated with facebook when I first began using it, but I also didn’t wait more than a year after it became to popular to get an account. I don’t like twitter’s character max being as short as it is, but  I believe I will continue to learn more about the site and continue to add followers and help promote my blogs on my page.