Having seen a few WVU basketball games the past few years, it can already be said five games into this season this team is most likely to be the most aggressive and assertive in the past … 10 years. And, yes, I know that’s not saying much.

However, these guys play with a physical purpose. They’re not very big, but they have to play bigger and that requires acting bigger. As a team with varying parts, they’re old enough, talented enough and athletic enough to do it. A few of them find that line, put their toes on it and play right there for as long as they can. (Some don’t. Others are learning.)

That’s what happened as the Mountaineers undressed an Iowa team that’s better than it was made to look, which only makes Saturday’s second half so perplexing. A lot of that aggression disappeared and Kentucky returned the favor in full.

That game got fiery in the second half and we saw another nose-to-nose get-together between opponents. That’s going to happen. There’s a chance, if not a likelihood, we see something happen during a game this season. What WVU does really bothers opponents and eventually someone is going to take offense with a hard foul or a display of disgust. To that, the Mountaineers have an attitude and when they’re running hot, they’re really hot. On Saturday, they were hot during and after the game, and one wonders if they’ll eventually knuckle-up against one another.

There are some older players in key spots on this team who have been around and are used to winning. They want it now and they don’t want to be held back by players who don’t want it as much or as fast.

In time, players learn, especially young players, and WVU has and relies upon quite a few.

“There’s a difference between realizing you’re good and being able to bring it to the court,” Mazzulla said. “We have a hard time bringing it to the court. We have a lot of talented players, but we had a lot of hardships thrown our way and we did not overcome them.”