MORGANTOWN - There are a whole bunch of people who should be angry as all get out about Deniz Kilicli being forced by the NCAA to sit out the first 20 games of West Virginia's basketball season.

For starters, try Bob Huggins, who, while he certainly has no shortage of talent to coach this winter, still could have used a 6-foot-9, 265-pound freshman with a space-eating body and soft hands.

"I think he is potentially a first-team All-Big East kind of guy,'' Huggins said. "I think he has that kind of talent.''

Or how about West Virginia's growing basketball fan base, which is so excited about the No. 8 Mountaineers that more than 7,000 turned out for a meaningless exhibition game Sunday afternoon? Just as a frame of reference, as recently as 2004 WVU was in the midst of a six-year stretch in which the average attendance for regular-season games at the Coliseum struggled to approach that number. Think those folks don't want to see another weapon in Huggins' arsenal?

Or how about the other Mountaineers, who have quickly taken a shine to the Turkish import?

"Wow,'' said senior forward Da'Sean Butler. "What a player he is.''

Oddly enough, though, the one guy who for some reason doesn't seem fit to be tied over Kilicli's ridiculous suspension is, well, Kilicli himself.

"I've got three years to go [after this one],'' Kilicli said. "It's just a game. And the 20th game and the first game are the same.''

True, but there seems no doubt that were Kilicli to take part in the bulk of those first 20 games he would be a whole lot better for it come the 21st, which is a Big East showdown with Pitt on Feb. 3. But because two years ago Kilicli unknowingly played on the same Turkish club team with someone else who was getting paid, the NCAA decided he should be taught a lesson. So while Kilicli can practice and play in exhibition games - Sunday's 104-82 win over Mountain State University and then on Dec. 5 against the University of Charleston - he will be permitted no meaningful contribution to the Mountaineers for nearly three months.

It's all just so unfair, isn't it?

"No, actually,'' Kilicli said. "I mean, if something happens it happens. You've got to do it. And this is the NCAA rules. Nothing is unfair, I think. It's just giving me much more time to practice and get better, I think.''

For starters, try Bob Huggins, who, while he certainly has no shortage of talent to coach this winter, still could have used a 6-foot-9, 265-pound freshman with a space-eating body and soft hands.

"I think he is potentially a first-team All-Big East kind of guy,'' Huggins said. "I think he has that kind of talent.''

Or how about West Virginia's growing basketball fan base, which is so excited about the No. 8 Mountaineers that more than 7,000 turned out for a meaningless exhibition game Sunday afternoon? Just as a frame of reference, as recently as 2004 WVU was in the midst of a six-year stretch in which the average attendance for regular-season games at the Coliseum struggled to approach that number. Think those folks don't want to see another weapon in Huggins' arsenal?

Or how about the other Mountaineers, who have quickly taken a shine to the Turkish import?

"Wow,'' said senior forward Da'Sean Butler. "What a player he is.''

Oddly enough, though, the one guy who for some reason doesn't seem fit to be tied over Kilicli's ridiculous suspension is, well, Kilicli himself.

"I've got three years to go [after this one],'' Kilicli said. "It's just a game. And the 20th game and the first game are the same.''

True, but there seems no doubt that were Kilicli to take part in the bulk of those first 20 games he would be a whole lot better for it come the 21st, which is a Big East showdown with Pitt on Feb. 3. But because two years ago Kilicli unknowingly played on the same Turkish club team with someone else who was getting paid, the NCAA decided he should be taught a lesson. So while Kilicli can practice and play in exhibition games - Sunday's 104-82 win over Mountain State University and then on Dec. 5 against the University of Charleston - he will be permitted no meaningful contribution to the Mountaineers for nearly three months.

It's all just so unfair, isn't it?

"No, actually,'' Kilicli said. "I mean, if something happens it happens. You've got to do it. And this is the NCAA rules. Nothing is unfair, I think. It's just giving me much more time to practice and get better, I think.''

It's all very noble on Kilicli's part to take his punishment for a crime he didn't know he had committed. It's much nobler, in fact, than the NCAA bringing the hammer down for something so ridiculously petty.

"Here's a kid who's over in Turkey, doesn't speak English and, I would venture to say, that probably the NCAA manual is not required reading in Turkey. It's probably not on the best-seller list,'' Huggins said. "And for them to think that a 16-, 17-year-old kid that doesn't even speak English is supposed to know that if there's a pro on your team you're not supposed to play, it's just a shame. This is not a guy they went out and recruited and tried to bring over. He played on his town team. He just wanted to play basketball. It's not anything that anybody in this country wouldn't have done.''

Huggins admits that sitting out 20 games is going to be a setback for Kilicli.

"And it's going to be a challenge for us to keep him engaged. It's hard when you start playing games,'' Huggins said. "For instance, we go [December] 23rd, the 26th and New Year's Day and two days after that. You don't practice on those days, so he doesn't really get a workout. We're going to have to do a good job of bringing him in and doing a lot of individual stuff with him.''

The best Huggins can hope for is that by the time Kilicli is eligible to play in the final 10 games of the regular season - and then beyond that in the postseason - that he will have a chance to work in quickly.

"But that's hard because hopefully we'll be playing for a Big East championship and then a Big East tournament championship,'' Huggins said. "It's easier said than done, but [if we can] then I think he's a guy who, come March, is really going to be able to help us. He can do some things that we don't have anybody else that can do.''

It would be nice to have Kilicli doing some of those things now. It would also be fair. But the NCAA sometimes blurs the line between fair and silly.

Not that Kilicli is going to complain, though.

"This is the NCAA rules and I think I'm violating it,'' Kilicli said, sounding absolutely Eastern European by pronouncing it "Wiolating.'' "That's why I'm getting 20 games. It wasn't me [who was paid], but it's still a violation of NCAA rules.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.