Truck Bryant breaks his foot, done for the tournament

Truck Bryant, West Virginia's starting point guard, is done for the season after breaking the fifth metatarsal bone in his right foot Tuesday in practice.

Tough break (no pun intended) for Bryant and the Mountaineers. He had been starting and averaging 9.3 ppg and 3.1 apg.

But it may not be as damaging of an injury as you think.

Truck Bryant will miss the rest of the tournament after breaking a bone in his foot.
(photo credit: Buzzy Bloggers)

West Virginia has just two point guard on their roster -- Bryant and Joe Mazzulla. Bryant starts and scores more than Mazzulla, but in the last four games it has been Mazzulla that has been playing the majority of the minutes.

Mazzulla has become a relatively inefficient offensive player as he continues to deal with a shoulder injury that forced him to shoot free throws with his right hand earlier in the season (Mazzulla is a lefty).

But Mazzulla brings more to the table than just the numbers he puts up.

Mazzulla is a leader for the West Virginia team. He's tough, he defends, and he makes good decisions with the ball. He can't shoot and he's not a big time scorer, but this team doesn't necessarily need scoring. They have guys like Da'Sean Butler, Kevin Jones, and Devin Ebanks for that.

They need a facilitator. They need direction. They need a coach, a leader, on the floor.

Mazzulla provides that.

While losing Bryant is clearly going to hurt this team, if one of the point guards had to get hurt, the Eers can manage better without Bryant than they can without Mazzulla.

For those that enjoy coincidences and the like, in 2000 -- when the Final Four was also held in Indianapolis -- Bob Huggins, then the coach of Cincinnati, lost Kenyon Martin to a broken leg.