MORGANTOWN - Greg Isdaner is dying to become the Bubble Boy. And at the Puskar Center he has the perfect place to do it.

It's the strange-looking contraption over to the side of the weight room, looking for all the world like a cross between a Plexiglas-enclosed deejay's booth and some NASA way station.

"Is it working?'' Isdaner said. "I wanted to sleep in it all summer, but it wasn't working.''

It is working indeed, the school's futuristic Hypoxico Chamber, a booth the size of a walk-in closet designed to simulate the type of high-altitude conditions West Virginia will experience Thursday when the Mountaineers play at Colorado.

And while both coach Bill Stewart and strength and conditioning guru Mike Joseph all but dismiss the impact it could possibly have on this one game, there are some who are so intrigued by it that it has become almost an obsession.

Not surprisingly, most of them are offensive linemen.

"I don't know all the science behind it, but I want to get in there and see what it's like,'' tackle Ryan Stanchek said. "It can't hurt, right?''

No, it can't. Even Stewart and Joseph admit that.

But the notion that it can help in any way other than from an informational standpoint - "Step inside, guys, and see what it's like'' - is pretty much nonsense.

"You have to do it consistently because your body is always going to adapt to the air and the environment you're in,'' Joseph said. "So if you're not in it all the time it's not going to make that much difference.''

And, of course, putting 50 or 60 guys in a closet for a week isn't terribly practical, is it?

MORGANTOWN - Greg Isdaner is dying to become the Bubble Boy. And at the Puskar Center he has the perfect place to do it.

It's the strange-looking contraption over to the side of the weight room, looking for all the world like a cross between a Plexiglas-enclosed deejay's booth and some NASA way station.

"Is it working?'' Isdaner said. "I wanted to sleep in it all summer, but it wasn't working.''

It is working indeed, the school's futuristic Hypoxico Chamber, a booth the size of a walk-in closet designed to simulate the type of high-altitude conditions West Virginia will experience Thursday when the Mountaineers play at Colorado.

And while both coach Bill Stewart and strength and conditioning guru Mike Joseph all but dismiss the impact it could possibly have on this one game, there are some who are so intrigued by it that it has become almost an obsession.

Not surprisingly, most of them are offensive linemen.

"I don't know all the science behind it, but I want to get in there and see what it's like,'' tackle Ryan Stanchek said. "It can't hurt, right?''

No, it can't. Even Stewart and Joseph admit that.

But the notion that it can help in any way other than from an informational standpoint - "Step inside, guys, and see what it's like'' - is pretty much nonsense.

"You have to do it consistently because your body is always going to adapt to the air and the environment you're in,'' Joseph said. "So if you're not in it all the time it's not going to make that much difference.''

And, of course, putting 50 or 60 guys in a closet for a week isn't terribly practical, is it?

Still, there are issues to be dealt with in playing a mile above sea level, especially for those who have never done it, which accounts for virtually everyone on West Virginia's roster. Stewart and his staff will do everything they can to make the transition easier, including going to Colorado today instead of Wednesday. That should give the players roughly 48 hours to adjust.

As for that Hypoxico Chamber? Well, it's a neat little tool that will probably be very useful, not only the football players but all of the school's athletes.

It's just not going to make much of a difference this week.

"It's one of those things where it's a good tool, but to get the whole team through there, you can't,'' Joseph said. "So you have to pick and choose. But take a guy like Pat White, who is so well conditioned already. It's not going to make a difference for the Colorado game. Now, if we do it throughout the whole season it's going to help them. And we may use it for guys coming back from an injury and they need to get into shape faster.''

It's not just a place to go and sit.

"They make a very similar one that you can sleep in, just breathing it all the time and getting used to that amount of oxygen,'' Joseph said. "But you can do some workouts in there. You can put some [stationary] bikes in there, some cardios in there. But you have to be in there for a couple of hours to get any benefit from it.''

Someone even suggested the team put it on the sidelines during practice.

"That's absurd,'' Joseph said. "But we've had a few guys, especially the O-linemen like Stanchek and those guys, who want to. We'll put a bike in there, a Stairmaster, let them do some things to get used to it. But it's more just a mental thing with them because they hear it over and over again about the altitude.''

Isdaner, for one, can't wait. He has big plans for the place.

"For this game, I don't know. At some point I will,'' Isdaner said. "I'm going to bring a cot, a plasma [TV] and a PlayStation. And I won't have to pay rent next year.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.