Farrakhan back in the spotlight after eligibility ruling
Though the court ruling that significantly altered college basketball last week had RaeQuan Battle’s face front and center, fellow WVU newcomer Noah Farrakhan was also cleared to begin his career with the Mountaineers, just the most recent stop on a long and winding basketball journey for the talented guard.
The former five-star, high school phenom, made his debut with West Virginia last week where his presence was felt immediately. Farrakhan put up an efficient 15 points, four assists, and a steal in under 20 minutes, having no trouble getting back to business despite his prolonged absence due to NCAA eligibility issues.
“It’s instincts. When you play the game for so long and approach it with confidence, a lot of things come at you easily,” said Farrakhan.
Playing for so long is an understatement indeed, as he’s been in the spotlight for some time now, celebrated by accounts like Overtime and Slam for his play at IMG Academy and Nike’s EYBL during high school, where the journey began. Though the move to West Virginia is his most recent new beginning, there have been quite a few of those for Farrakhan, who left his friends and family in New Jersey to play basketball at IMG after his sophomore year of high school.
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“Leaving them at such an early stage in my life and not really getting a chance to see what their experiences were like, because those are your friends, your day ones, so not really getting a chance to grow with them was pretty tough. But at the same time, when you have a goal, you have a dream, you have aspirations of doing big things in life, that pretty much took over and it was just like this is what I have to do,” said Farrakhan.
Farrakhan’s aspirations were realized after a successful high school campaign that left him with numerous division one offers.
He began his collegiate tenure with East Carolina for a one-year stint, before transferring to Eastern Michigan where he found more success in his sophomore season, leading his new team with nearly 17 points per game.
After one more year with EMU, Farrakhan once again found himself looking for a new home, and after building a relationship with WVU’s Jay Kuntz, decided on West Virginia, noting the staff had lots of “basketball guys” who were experienced as players and had been around the game for years.
“It was a pretty easy decision, Coach Jay came to me in the summertime and recruited me throughout the summer. They made me feel at home, especially the coaching staff. The young staff was very relatable,” said Farrakhan.
Now, settled into his new home and getting a surprise jumpstart on his eligibility, Farrakhan finally gets to do what he came to Morgantown to do… hoop.
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