Hawaii point guard Drew Buggs’ availability is listed as “day to day.”

But that day was not Tuesday, when he watched practice with a medical boot easing his right ankle, and it might not be today, or even Saturday’s senior night against Cal State-Northridge.

“There’s always hope, absolutely,” UH coach Eran Ganot said of a quick recovery for the sophomore. “There’s a lot of hope. We hope he’s ready to go. But we’re going to be smart about it. He’s in a situation where you have to evaluate him on a day-to-day basis now.”

In the first half of Saturday’s loss to Cal Poly, Buggs departed with an apparent ankle injury. He was using a crutch on Tuesday.

“We’re gathering more information,” Ganot said. “He’s taking the tests he needs to. (Athletic trainer) Jay Goo — the ‘Maestro’ — is taking care of him.”

Ganot said it is not easy to keep Buggs off the court.

“I think he was going to go out there on crutches the other game,” Ganot said. “We’ll see if the officials will let him use crutches when he’s blocking shots.”

In 13 Big West games this season, Buggs is the league leader in assists (6.2 per game) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.5). Overall, he is 11th in field-goal accuracy (46.7 percent). This season, the ’Bows have scored 182 more points than they have relinquished when Buggs is on the court. He has a plus-average of 9.23 points per game.

“He does so much,” Ganot said of Buggs. “He’s been our highest plus-minus guy. He’s one of our better rebounders. He leads the league in assists. He’s good at getting steals. He’s one of our better rebounders. I think you lose a lot. I think if Eddie (Stansberry) or Jack (Purchase) or one those guys went down, we’d lose a lot, too. We talk about our depth. Hopefully this week, we can heal up and get fresh for the final stretch.”

Brocke Stepteau, who often is paired with Buggs in a double-point attack, becomes the lead guard in Buggs’ absence. Sheriff Drammeh and Leland Green also are experienced at the point.

“It’s not just ‘next man up,’ ” Ganot said. “Its ‘next man, every man.’ Everybody has to step up. Our staff has to step up. You can control what you can control. Drew is going to do everything to get back. In the meantime, we all have to stay united, stay together, and pick up the slack collectively. It’ll be everyone (doing) a little more versus just one guy.”

Center Zigmars Raimo said Buggs’ value goes beyond running the point. “If he’s not on the court, he gives us presence off the court. His voice is helping us. His leadership. It’s not like he’s gone. He’ll be helping us as much as he can.”