MORGANTOWN - There aren't a lot of circumstances that will get in the way of West Virginia coach Bob Huggins when he's trying to get a point across.

So when West Virginia was playing the No. 15 team in the country Wednesday night that had plenty of video of the Mountaineers proving they had plenty of work to do when the idea was breaking a full-court press, he started five sometimes stone-handed forwards.

Devin Ebanks, listed at 6-foot-9 and as the team's second-leading rebounder, was one of the guards, and the other, Da'Sean Butler, stands at 6-7. They were both preseason All-Big East forwards. Under the basket was the line of Kevin Jones (6-8), Wellington Smith and John Flowers (both 6-7).

Meanwhile, point guard Truck Bryant had started all eight games this season, and 36 of the 43 he'd played in his Mountaineers career. He tweaked an ankle in practice Sunday and missed a few earlier in the week, but he was healthy enough to play 17 minutes against the Rebels, including the final 11.

It's not difficult to read between the lines there.

This Truck simply wasn't going to start.

Huggins' take when asked if he was comfortable starting five ''bigs'' against a top-15 team loaded with undersized, but still slick and quick guards?

''Obviously,'' he said, adding how much easier it is to switch on defense with that particular long lineup. That may be true, but it still defies conventional wisdom, and it was a seemingly risky proposition, considering the way West Virginia played hot potato with the basketball in its last outing against Cleveland State.

And it looked bad early. West Virginia, the sixth-ranked team in the country, turned the ball over on four of its first six possessions before guard Casey Mitchell came in at 16:59 mark.

''I'm sure he was sending a number of messages,'' said Ole' Miss coach Andy Kennedy, a former Huggins aid who has no doubt seen this tactic or one of its ilk any number of times.

Funny how things work out for coaches with track records of success like Huggins, who won his 648th game to break a tie with Gene Bartow on the all-time coaching victories list.

The Mountaineers wound up winning, in part, because of the hot 3-point shooting of their center, who like everyone else former coach John Beilein invited to Morgantown, was recruited as a shooter.

Smith, who sometimes has a quick hook because of the look of fatigue Huggins sees in his face, hit four 3-pointers in the first 4 minutes of the second half - themselves two points off his career single-game high for scoring - to key a 19-10 run to start the second half, as the Mountaineers rolled to a 10-point victory.

''Wells has shot it well all year, really,'' Huggins said. ''I told him, 'if you can step into them, shoot them. If you can't step into it, you're going to come over here and sit with me.'

Later, Huggins said, ''the greatest motivator coaches have is that bench.''

That statement alone, as much as the multiple injuries this team has been forced to deal with, tells you why seven different players have started two or more games this season.

Smith, whose 19 points obliterated his career high, hit one big shot after another, and even he still wasn't sure what the coach was thinking of him.

After two went in, was he asking for a third, a fourth?

''I never ask for it,'' Smith said. ''And I don't want to force any extra jump shots either, because I know I still have a short leash with Coach.''

At this point, it seems, everyone does.

Jim Elliott can be reached via e-mail at: elliott@theintelligencer.net