Back when Bob Huggins was hired as West Virginia’s men’s basketball coach, there was a brief time when many people thought super-recruit Michael Beasely would follow. Trouble was, Beasley had signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Kansas State and as far as the NCAA is concerned, those signatures are to play for a school and not a coach. That meant Beasley couldn’t simply ask out of the deal because Huggins, the coach he wanted to play for, was no longer the coach.

Kansas State didn’t let it happen, either, and Beasley remained property of the Wildcats. And yes, I said property.

This is probably a good time to point out that during that time when nobody knew where Beasley would end up, I had a conversation with someone who really, really knows college basketball.

“Beasley would be the best player to play at West Virginia,” the person said.
“He’s only going to stay one year,” I countered.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said.

Well, Beasley is three games in at Kansas State and absolutely out of his mind. The Wildcats are 3-0, but Huggins’ replacement, Frank Martin, seems a little out of his mind, too.

“We were an embarrassment to Kansas State tonight,” Martin said. “We embarrassed the game of basketball, we embarrassed what basketball should be played like, we embarrassed our university, we embarrassed our fans by the way we lined up and competed today.”

Asked how soon he knew it was going to be one of those nights, Martin drove home his point.

“When they threw the jump ball up,” he said.

Any positives, Frank?

“When the buzzer sounded,” Martin said.

So what went wrong?

“We stunk,” he said.

At what?

“Everything,” Martin said.

Martin, whose team improved to 3-0, was questioned whether it appeared the Wildcats were playing down to their opponent.

“If that’s the case, then I’ve done an absolute crappy job of coaching this basketball team,” Martin said, “and that’s a possibility.”