WEST VIRGINIA BASKETBALL

INSIDE: WVU notebook 4B MORGANTOWN - Darryl "Truck'' Bryant certainly isn't one to shy away from a challenge, which is why playing host to Connecticut Tuesday night at the Coliseum is so intriguing. West Virginia's freshman point guard figures it's time to find out a few more things about the Mountaineers and there's no better way to accomplish that than by playing a team that, until losing to Georgetown a week ago, was No. 2 in the country. "At this point I think it's great playing Connecticut just to see where we're at,'' Bryant said. "We'll definitely see how good we are.'' Of course, perhaps a month or so ago this was not a game in which Bryant figured to have much of an influence. Oh, he would have played. Maybe he would have played a lot. In the first handful of games this season his minutes were like a yo-yo - up one game and down the next. Now, though, things are a lot different. Now Bryant is on the floor every minute he and coach Bob Huggins can possibly afford to keep him out there. With injured Joe Mazzulla looking more and more like he could have seen his last action of the season, Bryant is now the Mountaineers' only real option at point guard. So when Bryant walks away from one game wearing a boot on an injured ankle or shows up at a practice with a heavily taped thumb, it's reason for concern. Nearly as significant, though, is this: When an arena scoreboard flashes Bryant's name and shows him with two fouls or three or even four, it's now a big deal. And Bryant knows it. He knew it on Saturday during a 92-66 win at Seton Hall when his foul total marched inexorably upward. "Yeah, it's always in my mind,'' Bryant said. "I try my best to stay out of foul trouble, but it's going to happen in some games. I can't help it. [At Seton Hall] I survived for a while, but it finally caught up with me. But Alex [Ruoff] and Da'Sean [Butler] picked it up. They went on a run, actually.'' True, Bryant was the only Mountaineer who didn't come out of Saturday's Big East -opening win until he picked up his fourth foul with about 61/2 minutes to play. When he went to the bench, West Virginia led 68-55 and with Jeremy Hazell beginning to go off - he was in the midst of a stretch in which he scored nine of his game-high 29 points in a four-minute span for the Pirates - the game was still somewhat up for grabs. But even with Bryant out and with forward Butler and shooting guard Ruoff forced to do the bulk of the ball-handling, West Virginia went on an 11-2 run, extended the lead to 22 points and the game was over. "That was good, knowing that even if I do go out the rest of those guys can pick it up,'' Bryant said. Still, that's not to even hint that Bryant is expendable. Sure, there are guys who can fill in and make things work, but West Virginia certainly doesn't get better when Ruoff has to move away from the two guard or Butler has to come all the way out from small forward. Those are stop gaps that work with a lead or against lesser competition, but they aren't much of a long-term solution in a close game with Connecticut or Pitt or Georgetown or ... well, name almost any team in the Big East . Against Seton Hall, when Bryant picked up his fourth foul, Huggins stood up and began walking down his team's bench, looking down the line of players with almost a bewildered look on his face. It was as if he were saying, "OK, what do we do now?'' He wasn't, of course. He was just trying to figure out the next best option. "It wasn't a question of who was going to handle the ball because Da'Sean was already out there and he's our backup point guard right now,'' Huggins said. "It was a question of what we were going to do defensively.'' That's the thing. When Bryant goes out there are always questions now that he's the only point guard. So everyone is concerned about keeping him in the game. But there's really not much anyone can do about keeping Bryant out of foul trouble except Bryant himself. Although Huggins does mention it to him occasionally. "Only about once every 10 or 15 minutes,'' Huggins said dryly. Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickman1@aol.com