By Bob Hertzel
MORGANTOWN — During his coaching career, Bob Huggins has pulled off more than a couple of miracles, but try as he might, he can’t take two players and merge them into one.
Just the other day he was talking about his point guard situation, where he possesses both Darrell “Truck” Bryant, his starter as a freshman for most of last season, and the veteran Joe Mazzulla, who would have been the starter had he not been injured in the Mississippi game, effectively ending his season with shoulder surgery.
Speaking of the two, Huggins noted that Mazzulla was more advanced as a defensive player than was Bryant and that Bryant was more advanced as an offensive player.
“If I could put them together I’d have a helluva point guard,” he said.
Before the Mountaineers went through their Tuesday practice as they ready themselves for what promises to be one of the most spectacular seasons in school history, having been selected to finish second in the rough, tough Big East, Huggins point was put first to Bryant.
He smiled knowingly.
“Honestly,” he said, “Joe is better on defense. I admit that.”
And when the same statement was run by Mazzulla down at the other end of the Coliseum court, his reaction wasn’t much different.
“I don’t lie to myself. That’s true,” he said.
That would result in a situation where the competition for the starting point guard job is spirited.
Or is it?
“I don’t see it as competition,” Bryant said. “I see it as two guards working hard.”
“It’s not so much competition,” Mazzulla said. “We’re just playing as hard as we can every day and making each other better.”
The truth is, there could be a times, especially early in the season, when both might be on the floor.
Sharpshooter Casey Mitchell is penciled in to play the shooting guard spot after having been the top junior college scorer in the country at Chipola (Fla.) J.C. last year, but he’s still learning the system, especially defensively.
It’s doubtful Huggins would want to pair him with Bryant right away and not have the kind of defense on the floor that he believes is necessary to win.
But he could pair Bryant and Mazzulla together, which in a way would give him both their skills.
Of course, the best thing would be for Bryant’s defense to get better and Mazzulla’s offense to improve, which is what both are aiming for.
“My defense has improved a lot since last year,” Bryant said, a statement with which Huggins concurred.
That, he admitted, is something he never would have dreamed saying while he was in high school, where he was an offensive player at St. Raymond’s High in the Bronx, N.Y.
“But if you are trying to get to the next level you have got to keep progressing,” Bryant said. “Honestly, before the end of the year my defense should be somewhere right there.”
“It better be by the end of the year,” Huggins said. “If not, it will be too late.”
Both players, of course, are coming off suspensions during the off-season for alcohol-related incidents, but that is only serving to drive them even harder.
Between the incident and the injury, Mazzulla is a different man.
“What happened last year meant a lot to me,” Mazzulla said. “I see a lot of things differently, I’m ready to play.”
As is Bryant, who says he still has a bad taste in his mouth from the season-ending loss to Dayton in the first round of the NCAA tournament despite Bryant’s 21 points, he feels the same.
“I don’t want to practice,” he said. “Let’s play the games.”
Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
