The Mountain State debut for Deniz Kilicli, who committed to WVU in October, didn’t go very well back in November, but he’s been coming around lately and starting to solidify a lot of the faith people had in him at the beginning.

“I’ve played basketball 11 years. I learned to play basketball in Europe,” Kilicli said. “It’s hard to get used to it so quick. I think I’m going to get better and better every day.”

Kilicli isn’t about to forget that his European training helped make him the versatile big man he is today. He said that when he was young, all players ran the same drills for their first few years of organized ball — whether they were point guards or centers.

Fulford said Kilicli’s training has made him a unique player.

“He’s a dominating post player that can step out, knock down jump shots. He can shoot the 3,” Fulford said. “He can take you off the dribble. He’s just got a skill set that you don’t find in big guys.”

The point is then made Kilicli is sometimes guilty of trusting his skills too much, which takes away from his potential to be a physical force. That, he said, is why he chose WVU and Bob Huggins.

“I told myself, ‘He’s going to make me a beast,'” Kilicli said.

Plus, Huggins has much experience turning collegiate big men into NBA-ready players. Just ask Kenyon Martin. Martin, a 6-foot-9 forward, was selected with the first pick of the 2000 NBA draft. Huggins, the NCAA’s sixth-winningest coach, has had 16 of his players advance to the NBA. That’s a pretty good rate during Huggins’ 26-year career.

“His dream when coming here is he wants to play in the NBA,” Fulford said. “That’s why he chose West Virginia. Coach Huggins has the reputation of putting guys in the NBA.”

– The 2010 recruiting class has its second promise as guard Byron Allen joins guard Noah Cottrill. Allen is the second Oak Hill player to pick WVU (’09 forward/center Dan Jennings), which is a pretty good pattern to develop. I’ve been given two comparisons for Allen, a versatile player who can play offense and defense at different positions and seems happier defending and rebounding and passing than he is scoring.

The first comparison was Georgetown guard Jessie Sapp, who’s given WVU fits the past few years, including his game-winning basket in the Coliseum last year. The second was another WVU trouble-maker, former Syracuse guard Josh Pace, who was the master of the floater as well as an all-around package. Either is a compliment.