We can talk about the game. Let’s talk about Bob Huggins instead. That was quite a scare last night.

Huggins was rather calm throughout the first half, even as his team started with 8-0 and 12-2 deficits. He never called a timeout. Honestly, his team was energetic and probably too fast. The Mountaineers sped up Texas, but it was Texas making shots and WVU missing them. He was animated in one media timeout, but no more than usual, and Longhorns coach Shaka Smart is the one who got the technical foul for jumping on the officiating.

But scoring the first 15 points in a 21-3 run and going from down seven to up 11 will calm a man. Honestly, on a night when WVU was without Esa Ahmad, it was freshmen Lamont West, Sagaba Konate and even Magic Bender who gave the roster a boost. The Mountaineers weren’t flat, but the freshmen brought their teammates to another level.

This was Sustained Good WVU, which we hadn’t seen in a good while. The Mountaineers didn’t score for the first three minutes and trailed by 10 points for just the fifth time in 28 games. Yet they finished with a their highest point total and biggest lead at halftime in a Big 12 game.

Ever the intellectual, Huggins called his use-it-or-lose-it timeout with 26.2 seconds to go in the first half and drew up a play. (It sure seemed like Screen the Screener with Brandon Watkins working to spring West, except that Jevon Carter saw a gap and went after it.) As the huddle broke, Huggins slowly slumped down to his knees. He was pretty clearly stunned, but he also had the wherewithal to lower himself to his knees. He didn’t drop in a heap.

This was alarming. The reaction from the assistants and the coaches quieted everyone who was looking that way. It didn’t last very long, and Huggins was still remarkably composed. Certainly he was surprised and rattled, but he looked pretty calm for a guy with a known heart condition who was just taken to his knees.

“I guess I got a little lightheaded, which I do when I get up too fast sometimes,” Huggins said. “It’s probably old age. A lot of it is some of the medication I take.”

He was helped to his feet and looked in the direction of his wife, June, who sits in the front row behind the bench. His players noticed Huggins pointed to an official and joked, “You did this to me.” Only then did they know he was all right.

“That was hard,” Carter said. “I really can’t put into words how I felt. I was just glad to see he was OK.”

Huggins was handed a bottle of water and sat on his stool while others checked on him. Cautious applause from all directions, including from the Texas sideline, broke the tension.

Beetle Bolden, making his his first appearance of the game, then missed a 3-point attempt from the left side. The Mountaineers were ahead by 14 points after trailing by 10, but that was secondary.

“Honestly,” Huggins said, “the defibrillator went off. That’s the second time it’s gone off. It goes off, and what it does is shock your heart back into rhythm. I’m like 99.9 percent of the other guys my age in America — I’ve got (atrial fibrillation).”

The half ended. He walked across the court and toward the tunnel that takes the team to its locker room. Smart stopped whoever he could, and the guess is here he was wondering what those people were told about Huggins. Remember, Smart rather admires Huggins. I was writing — re-writing, as it were — but I kept an eye on Huggins’ wife. I figured if something was happening, she’d be told. Her husband was seemingly back to normal, though.

“We told him not to yell or anything, and he’s like, ‘Stay in line and don’t let your man drive and I’ll be fine,’” Macon said.

Visitors stopped to talk to his wife, and she was never paged and never left her seat. Huggins emerged from the tunnel just before halftime ended, his arm around an acquaintance and a smile on his face.

“I talked to a couple people,” Huggins said, “but I didn’t get hooked up to any machines or anything.”

(Aside: I can’t speak for what happened with the information provided to various media last night, but I gave you what I was given. I wish it was more thorough or representative of the situation. There shouldn’t have been two different stories. There shouldn’t have been something for this side and something else for that side. I understand Huggins felt “lightheaded,” but I also know that a defibrillator going off is something a bit more serious. Telling me Van Gogh had an earache is true, but it’s also only part of the story. And yes, I know there were television and radio accounts to explain things, but there were also people covering the game and more than 10,000 people at the game who wanted an idea what was happening. A simple tweet would have covered everyone and everything.)

This is the second time Huggins has fallen this season, but this is pretty different from what happened against Oklahoma State, when he was felled by his weakened hip that needs replaced and a loss of balance. This is even different than the medication-related fall in Las Vegas almost seven years ago, although the meds were involved again, which shows you the maintenance Huggins must observe.

Good news? His defibrillator is working. It did what it was supposed to do and regulated his heartbeat. The side-effect is that it comes out of nowhere and can take you down in a hurry. Imagine getting clubbed across the chest and not expecting it and having a history of heart issues. That’s a lot, so, yeah, take a knee. It’s OK. I’m not a doctor, but I’ll assume he was reassured at halftime that he was OK. I’ll also assume he’ll get looked at pretty closely pretty soon — if it hasn’t happened already. Maybe he’ll get a chance or orders to relax for a little bit. The Mountaineers travel Friday and play Saturday against TCU and Monday against No. 9 Baylor.

Bah, who are we kidding? He’ll be running practice at 3 p.m. I bet that sometime before the NCAA tournament, he’ll make a joke about Ahmad’s back or or playing for the third time in three days or something relevant and say, “My defibrillator went off in a game and knocked me to my knees, and I coached the whole game. The least they can do is try.”

WVU is tied for second place with Iowa State, which won in overtime against Grown-Ass Texas Tech. The Cyclones look pretty good lately with four straight wins and a 5-1 record since losing to the Mountaineers. The loss? A ridiculous setback at Texas after a win at Kansas. Makes WVU’s misstep at home against Oklahoma State seem palatable.