PHOENIX - Ask West Virginia's players about the darkest moment in Bob Huggins' life and this is what you get:

Laughter.

Giggles, really. Everyone looking at each other and trying not to just bust a gut.

Heads are bowed, not in reverence but an attempt to mask the fact that they find it hilarious.

You've heard the phrase, "As serious as a heart attack?''

How about, "As entertaining as a heart attack?''

As side-splitting? As comical? As downright amusing?

But there's nothing dark here. No glee in another's pain, even if it involves a guy who now seemingly prides himself in the practice torture of others. It has nothing to do with laughing at the thought of Huggins' 2002 heart attack that nearly killed him.

It has everything to do with laughing with him.

"Sometimes he'll be a little, let's say [he's in] one of his more fiery moments in practice. Maybe somebody misses a blockout or somebody didn't get inside position on the offensive rebound,'' Jamie Smalligan said Wednesday. "He'll look at you and just say, 'I was dead on the floor for two minutes and I could block that guy out,' or something like that. It's normally a joke for him.''

It has become a joke for the players, too, which is why they were doing everything in their power to avoid laughing out loud when asked about Huggins' health Wednesday as they prepared for tonight's NCAA tournament Sweet 16 game against Xavier. Huggins is no different. He laughs just as long and as loud, perhaps more so, when recalling his near-death experience.

"It's like New Year's Eve. Same thing you do New Year's Eve. You say, 'I'm going to do this,' and about the 3rd of January you're back doing what you did before,'' Huggins said. "I haven't really changed all that much. I mean, I would love to sit here and tell you that I probably eat better, but look at me. That's obviously not the case.''

But for whatever mileage Huggins now manages to get out of the incident - which happened while he was at the Pittsburgh airport during a trip while he was the coach at Cincinnati - he still looks back on it now in his more serious moments and is amazed that he's around to talk about it. In fact, he recalled Wednesday that he pretty much took part in his own immediate treatment that Saturday morning, directing the ambulance he was in to a closer hospital.

"I was in the back of the ambulance and I was kind of in and out of consciousness and I knew I wasn't doing very well. And I kind of sat up and the paramedic, I guess, was there and I said, 'You know what's the ETA?' '' Huggins recalled. "And he did whatever they do, radioed the driver, and he said 22 minutes. I said, 'Man, I'm not going to make 22 minutes.' They pat you on the leg and say, 'I've never lost a patient.' I said, 'You aren't dealing with no 75-year-old lady now. I've dealt with pain. I'm not going to make it.' "

That did the trick. He'd talked the crew into changing course for a closer hospital.

Stunningly, two weeks later he was back for the opening of Cincinnati's 2002 basketball practice in mid-October.

We bring all of this up because there always seems to be a story line wherever the Huggins road show goes. This week it was health. Last week, when hoity-toity Duke was the opponent, it was a good vs. evil story line.

You can guess who was good and who was evil.

"Hey, I understand to make a good story, there's got to be white hats and black hats,'' Huggins shrugged Wednesday when that line of questioning arose again. "Otherwise we never would have had a cowboy movie. That's the way it is.''

And, if need be, Huggins is perfectly fine wearing the black hat. Shoot, he thrives in the black hat. Truth be told, if all of a sudden he was cast in any other role he'd probably have to do something to irritate the masses, just so he could revert to the status quo.

Maybe that's why he so loves joking about his brush with death 51/2 years ago. The last thing Huggins wants is sympathy or to be cast as some sort of heroic survivor. It just doesn't go with the image. Can you imagine a nation full of basketball fans actually rooting for Bob Huggins? Perish the thought.

So even when he talks seriously about something dear to him - his life - he can't help but eventually turn it into something to laugh about.

"You know, honestly, I don't think about [the heart attack] very much, which is kind of hard. But, you know, I just believe with all my heart, when God says it's your time, it's your time. You don't get to debate that,'' Huggins said. "He decided for whatever reason it wasn't my time. He had some things that he wanted to do still.

"But a couple years ago, Frank Martin [now the coach at Kansas State] was my assistant and Frank went through a very traumatic experience. And he asked me, 'How do you deal with it?' And I said, 'Frank, if you're going to die, you're going to die. We don't get to debate that.' He said, 'You know, I'm really glad I called you.' ''

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickm...@aol.com.