Esa Ahmad, a junior forward for West Virginia has been suspended for the first half of the upcoming college basketball season. Ahmad must sit out the first half of the season for failing to meet NCAA eligibility requirements. Rumors of an Ahmad suspension began to fly this summer. West Virginia made the suspension official yesterday. Ahmad has been a breakout candidate among many when looking at the Big 12. While he may not have been expected to land on any All-American teams, an All-Big 12 team was expected for the junior.

With the suspension Ahmad will miss most non-conference games and a few games of conference play. Last year he averaged 11.3 points, second on the team and 4.3 rebounds which was third. West Virginia was expected to be the one team capable of pushing Kansas in the Big 12 this year. With Ahmad missing the first handful of games in conference it could hurt that chance. Bob Huggins has done a good job of plugging guys in after losing stars to keep this Press Virginia machine going since adopting the style a few years ago. Ahmad has played a lot of small ball four for the Mountaineers and will need their new incoming bigs to be ready from the jump.

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