SYRACUSE — The big story leading into the Sweet 16 for West Virginia was the loss of its starting point guard, Darryl “Truck” Bryant, who broke a bone in his foot in practice before the team arrived here.
The big story in last night’s 73-66 win over Kentucky that sent West Virginia to the Final Four for the first since 1959 was Bryant’s replacement, Joe Mazzulla, who was named the game’s MVP after scoring a season-high 17 points.
Mazzulla entered last night’s game averaging only 2.2 points per game this season and was hardly viewed as an offensive threat by the Wildcats, whom he stunned with his performance while playing with such will it seemed like he was intent on carrying the Mountaineers to Indianapolis.
“Mazzulla got some layups that were just — oh man — backbreaking,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “He played so well and ran their team.”
Mazzaulla, a scrappy junior from Rhode Island, injured his shoulder in a collision last season and had a complicated surgery he wasn’t sure he’d come back from, making this ride even more special for him.
“He didn’t know if he’d ever play again,” West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said. “I remember he came into my office one day and had tears in his eyes and he said, ‘Huggs, what will I do it I can’t play again?’ ”
Fortunately for Huggins, Mazzulla and the rest of his teammates, he didn’t have to worry about that worst-case scenario.
“These guys [Huggins and his teammates] never gave up on me,” Mazzaulla said. “It was easy for Huggs to send me to the end of bench and wait until I was healthy, but he gave me a role and that helped my perseverance.”
Bryant, the Brooklyn product out of St. Raymond’s, said after the game that he was having a special shoe made for his broken foot and was planning to play in the Final Four.
But the way his replacement played last night, it might be hard to nudge Mazzulla out of the lineup, and that’s quite a big story.
