Bob Huggins still isn't sure whether he'll start Esa Ahmad Saturday against Texas, a decision that impacts Wesley Harris or apparently Lamont West now, but the West Virginia coach is certain of something.

"You got your pen?" Huggins said Friday. "He'll play more than Teddy."

Ahmad may or may not return to the starting lineup, where he was for 66 of the first 68 games of his career and where he wasn't for the first two games he played this season, but he'll play. Huggins said freshman Teddy Allen is "probably not" going to play against the Longhorns.

"They do this because they love to play," Huggins said. "The one thing that you can take away from them is playing time. It's kind of like having a kid who drives a car all the time. You take the car away from them and they have a tendency to get back in line."

Allen is seemingly likely still out of line. He started Big 12 play with 15, 22 and 20 points and was named the Big 12 newcomer of the week just 11 days ago. Then he played five minutes and didn't score in back-to-back games, was benched for the second half of the second game and then didn't play at all in Monday's loss to Kansas.

"I think like most 18- and 19-year-olds, you have some success and you don't know how to handle it," Huggins said. "I think that was the root of the problem. He's not a problem off the floor. We don't have problems off the floor. I was sitting there the other day, and I was thinking, 'Those guys I had at Cincinnati who got in trouble all the time were pretty damn good.' It might have been worth it."

This may seem odd as the Mountaineers come up empty on offense late in games while Allen, who they'd been running plays for in similar spots before, watches from the bench. Huggins doesn't care.

"He doesn't have a choice," Huggins said. "That's the good and the bad of being part of the team. You don't have a choice."

Huggins benched Harris for the second half of a home game against Oklahoma, and the Mountaineers won. He benched Sagaba Konate for the second game of this season. He left Elijah Macon home for a game last season and benched Juwan Staten for a home game in 2013. Manipulating playing time to make a point just isn't new. Some players have notably clashed with Huggins and his style, and they transferred. Others responded the way Huggins wanted them to.

"My responsibility is to try to help them not just be better players but to grow up as people," Huggins said. "I know that's very, whatever, cliche or whatever, but that's how I grew up. I grew up the son of a coach. I grew up watching my dad try to help us grow up.

"We weren't headed down the right path, so when you're not headed down the right path, you've got to change it somehow. One thing that everyone understands is playing time."