Basketball season began Friday night with Mountaineer Madness at the Coliseum — I’m told it 17-6 made it official Saturday afternoon — and as you can see, I had good seats.

Point being, basketball is threatening to become not just bigger than football at WVU, but perhaps bigger than ever at WVU. The hype right here, right now is extreme.

The one thing that stood out to me was that when I went last year, I showed up only a litle before the start and had a fine seat. I got there about the same time this year and not only had a middle-of-the-section second level seat, but I had to park at the rec center’s overflow parking lot. I’m guessing there were about 8,500 people there.

Clearly, things change and what Huggins did last year has people thinking big for this year and beyond. The Coliseum feels a little different. It certaily looks different. The video board and ribbon boards will change the game-watching experience.

It’s the product — not to be confused with The Product — that’s creating the buzz and it begins with Devin Ebanks. He won the dunk contest and I do believe he’ll be worth the price of admission. Here’s a taste — his preliminary dunks followed by the contest-clinching jam. The one before that was silly. I can’t even share it here. Consider it incentive to go watch him. You’ll thank me. You’ll understand why the guards can’t wait to play with him. He’s a finisher.

Five other observations:

– Wellington Smith’s reputation precedes him. He didn’t advance past the first round of the dunk contest, and though I think he’s capable of more, I think he was robbed.

– Whatever Joe Alexander did last offseason to transform his body, Alex Ruoff did this offseason.

– Joe Mazzulla is wearing No. 21. Ebanks is No. 3 … which has been worn previously by Mazzulla, Pat Beilein and — I’m sorry! — Jonathan Hargett.

–  The women will play a game in front of a sub-300 crowd this year.

– Something was missing from the pep band …