Mount Vernon (NY) forward Kevin Jones announced his decision to attend West Virginia earlier this afternoon at a press conference. Jones was strongly considering Indiana, but ultimately chose the Moutaineers over the Hoosiers and Pittsburgh.

Ultimately, it was Bob Huggins and his ability to develop players like Jones in the past that gave the West Virginia the edge. Kevin’s brother Gerard offered the following comments to Adam Zagoria of the Zagsblog and NYChoops.net:

“Bob Huggins does the best job with tweeners like Kevin and getting them prepared for the next level,” Gerard Jones said. “With Huggins’ resume of developing players Kevin’s size and making them productive, we had to go with his resume.”

On a brighter note, Tom Pritchard, Matt Roth and Terrell Holloway have all signed and their letters have been received by Indiana according to John Decker of Hoosier Nation.

Devin Ebanks, the prized recruit of the class, is also signed, sealed and delivered according to Terry Hutchens of the Indianapolis Star.

Additional coverage:

• C-J Recruiting Blog
  
• The Hoosier Scoop
• Hoosiers Insider
• Huggs lands a big one

For those of you still sulking at the news of Tyler Zeller’s commitment to North Carolina, maybe there’s hope for you yet as it relates to IU’s 2008 recruiting class. (By the way, if you fall into the aforementioned category, check out this link and scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Kevin Jones, the 6’7″ forward from Mt. Vernon (NY) and the No. 79 player in the 2008 class according to Rivals.com, is still considering the Hoosiers. He’ll make a decision sometime before the end of the early signing period on November 21.

His brother Gerard, who is handling his recruitment, offered up the following comments to our good friend Jody Demling of the Louisville Courier-Journal regarding IU’s chances:

“They definitely will be considered. Indiana is still very high on Kevin’s list of schools. There was a quote from me that was taken a little out of context about the situation that said we were wavering. We’re just looking at them closer. Kevin enjoyed the trip there and loved the fans. That’s Hoosierland and he loved those fans. But we had to look at it close because it’s a big decision. That’s not to say they lost any footing. We spoke with Kelvin Sampson and Kevin likes him a lot. We knew Rob Senderoff a lot longer because he’s from New York. He got to know our family and the history of the (high school) program. But again that’s because he was already from up here. But Kevin likes Coach Sampson a lot.”

Shortly after Rob Senderoff’s resignation, I had a feeling Senderoff leaving could hurt IU’s chances of landing Jones. However, it’s encouraging that Kelvin Sampson is picking up right where Senderoff left off.

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