I was in the food store yesterday when my phone rang and delivered the news Devin Ebanks was going to stay in school. My first reaction was a brief heart palpitation.

Ebanks is going pro? What?

Let’s just say my history with WVU players who tell me they won’t enter the draft and then enter the draft isn’t great and lends me to those tense and confusing moments. My second reaction was a chuckle.

Sign of the times, huh?

Really, this is WVU, which isn’t exactly an NBA factory, and yet is now telling the world who isn’t entering the draft. The third reaction?

Why?

No, really. Why? Ebanks had already said a few times he was coming back, and he seemed not only convincing, but adamant. No one I spoke to thought he was going anywhere. There had to be a reason to announce he truly wasn’t going anywhere, especially with the April 26 declaration deadline still a while away.

Some fun and interesting theories came to mind.

1) I was talking about this with a friend, who seems to get these things pretty well, and he said, “Huggins really is a master marketer, isn’t he?” Good point, I thought. We’re in a brief dead period (April 13-16) during a contact period (April 9-22). If Huggins and his assistants can’t talk to prospects right now, he used a simple two-paragraph release yesterday to indirectly tell everyone “We recruit NBA talent.” Well played, sir.

2) The late signing period begins tomorrow and the difficult-to-get-in-touch-with Casey Mitchell is supposed to sign pretty soon and officially join the 2009 recruiting class. But what if there was some negative recruiting and the other pursuers for the heavily pursued Mitchell were making a late move and suggesting Ebanks was going to enter the draft? What if anyone was using the alleged and ultimately incorrect status of Ebanks to sway any WVU prospects? Of all WVU’s players, Ebanks has the greatest long-term intrigue that could possibly affect recruits as far off as the recruiting class of 2011. For now, that’s disarmed.

3) Maybe there was a serious conversation between Ebanks and Huggins about entering the draft and the result was to stay in school. No, that’s not very exciting, but it may be as simple as that. There may have been no conversation, either, and Ebanks and/or Huggins simply wanted to put it on the record, though one wonders if similar proclamations will come for Da’Sean Butler, Wellington Smith, John Flowers, etc.

4) Perhaps there was some pressure on Ebanks and some, shall we say, outside forces were attempting to impose their influence. This was a polite way to tell them to step back.

5) I’m bored and there isn’t much else to discuss.