MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Has there ever been a guy wearing a West Virginia University men's basketball uniform tougher than James "Beetle" Bolden?
 
Randy Meador, West Virginia's longtime athletic trainer who has been tending to the medical needs of Mountaineer players since 1985, can't think of many.
 
At the top of Randy's list of Mountaineer tough guys is guard Joe Mazzulla, who seemingly took masochistic enjoyment in some of his ailments. Mazzulla, the toughest of tough dudes, once played a full season with only one arm because he couldn't lift the other above his shoulder.
 
That's probably why he made just two 3s during a two-year span in 2009-10.
 
Forward Nathan Adrian was a tough guy, too. Last year, Nate played through a shoulder injury that would have sidelined most players for the year. In fact, a healthy Adrian at the end of the season would have likely meant a third Final Four appearance for Bob Huggins; that's how important he was to last year's success.
 
Still, an Adrian at about 50 percent was good enough to get WVU get to the Sweet 16.
 
As for Beetle, what separates him from guys like Mazzulla and Adrian is how much smaller he is than they were. Adrian was 6-9 and weighed 235 pounds; Mazzulla stood 6-2 and was a thick 200 pounds.
 
Even a little tough guy like Marsalis Basey, from Meador's earlier years working for Gale Catlett in the mid-1990s, was thick and muscular. Basey stood just 5-8 - in platform shoes - but he weighed more than 200 pounds and had thighs like Earl Campbell's.
 
When someone ran into Basey, he usually felt it more than Basey did.
 
I remember Basey once getting blindsided so severely on a pick at midcourt by George Washington's massive 7-foot center Yinka Dare that I thought his basketball career was over. He was out cold. But Basey never missed a game after that violent collision and had a terrific career at WVU.
 
Bolden, although tough like these guys were, doesn't weigh 165 pounds soaking wet. In fact, he's probably a couple cheeseburgers shy of 160.
 
It's difficult for tough-guy coach Bob Huggins to recite all of his tough guys, but he can easily remember how many 160-pounders he's had since he moved up to the Division I ranks in 1985.
 
None.
 
"I haven't had a 160-pounder since Walsh (College)," he joked, "so that's a lot to remember."
 
What's not hard to remember are the times we've seen Bolden get knocked to the floor, fly into the stands or crash into the support holding up the basket while attempting to make a layup.
 
He just gets up and keeps playing. Nothing seems to bother him.
 
When he turned his ankle during an exhibition game against Wheeling Jesuit and was carried off the floor into the locker room, it looked like a two-month injury. For some guys it would have been.
 
Beetle was practicing the next day.
 
When he got the flu just like everyone else on the team, he went to the hospital and spent four hours getting an IV before returning to practice that same day. The next afternoon he started against Kansas State, played 24 minutes and scored 13 points. His teammates often joke about Bolden's amazing recuperative powers.
 
But don't forget, soon after he arrived here two years ago following a stellar prep career at Holmes High in Covington, Kentucky, he blew out his knee during the preseason and his freshman season was over before it even started - not because he wanted it to be but rather because he had no other choice.
 
The word "tough" was probably stamped on the sack in which the stork delivered to his parents' house some 19 or 20 years ago.
 
"I was just born (with toughness)," he shrugged. "I take pride in it because I'm not as big as everyone else and I tell myself I've got a heart of a lion. I've got the lion tattooed on me and that's where I get it from. I take pride in doing the things I do on the court to toughen things out."
 
Like taking charges?
 
"Yeah, one game I took a charge and in practice the next day coach (Ron) Everhart said he loved that stuff," Bolden said. "It just started from there, and I began taking charges out of toughness."
 
"I've always loved charges, and I think it's one of the great plays there is. For Beetle at 165, which I'm not sure about, at his weight and size and how he can take a charge, I really, really respect that," Meador added.
 
All basketball people respect it, not just those close to the WVU program.
 
ESPN college basketball analyst Fran Fraschilla, who has tonight's Oklahoma game with Bob Wischusen and Holly Rowe, struck up a conversation with Bolden before the TCU game and asked him how many charges he's taken this year. Bolden said he didn't know.
 
"He said he would count them, but he never gave me an answer," Beetle laughed.
 
After some digging, we've got the answer: Beetle has taken 22 charges heading into tonight's game against the 16-6 Sooners. That's about one a game, or all but seven out of the 29 the team has taken for the entire year.
 
That's a lot.
 
Yes, the refs probably give Beetle the benefit of the doubt because he tends to fly much farther and land much harder than your regular Big 12 player - much like the refs used to ignore Frank Mason III's stiff arm whenever he brought the ball up the floor for Kansas - but there is no doubt Bolden has turned taking a charge into an art form.
 
His secret?
 
"Move your feet and stay in front as a defender," he said. "And have a good enough IQ to reach what he's about to do and beat him to the spot before he even gets there."
 
There's one thing Beetle left out … you've got to be tough enough to do it.
 
He is.
 
Tipoff for tonight's game is 9 p.m. The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app TuneIn.
 
Pregame notes: West Virginia and Oklahoma are tied for third in the Big 12 standings with 6-4 records, one game behind league leaders Kansas and Texas Tech …OU guard Trae Young continues to lead the country in scoring (29.8 ppg.) and assists (9.7 apg.), but is coming off a 19-point, 2-for-14 shooting performance from 3 in Saturday's loss at Texas … Young also struggled to make shots in the loss at West Virginia last month, hitting 8-of-22 for 29 points with eight turnovers … Young has 116 turnovers this year, which averages out to 5.3 per game … In the earlier game against OU in Morgantown, freshman forward Teddy Allen came off the bench to score 20 and the Mountaineers got 17 points each from Lamont West and Jevon Carter in an 89-76 victory … Oklahoma was a two-point victory at home against Baylor away from losing three in a row and five out of its last six … The Sooners lost, 87-69, at Kansas State on Jan. 16 and 83-81 in overtime at Oklahoma State on Jan. 20, dropped an 80-73 decision at Alabama and lost at Texas on Saturday night, 79-74 … OU was unable to hold on to a double-digit second half lead, something West Virginia is familiar with in its recent losses to Texas Tech, Kansas and Kentucky … But WVU is coming off one of its best shooting performances of the season on Saturday against Kansas State, connecting on 54.9 percent of its field goal attempts … Emerging forward Sagaba Konate continued his torrid play with a team-best 19 points and nine rebounds the 38-point victory over the Wildcats … The 38-point win was WVU's largest in a conference game since 1957 when the Mountaineers were members of the old Southern Conference … After going 1-1 for the week, West Virginia slipped to No. 19 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 … This is the 49^th straight week WVU has been in the rankings, just six shy of the school-record 56 straight weeks in the polls from March 1956 to March 1960 … Oklahoma checks in at No. 17 this week.