You figured practices would be spirited following West Virginia’s loss to Marquette Saturday.

“They have to work hard. They don’t have a choice. The idea of someone walking around in practice is preposterous,” Bob Huggins said.

Right on cue, Cam Thoroughman had a black eye Tuesday and Devin Ebanks was wearing a band-aid above his right eye and a white headband as some sort of extra protection. Ebanks collided with Will Thomas, but I’m told Thoroughman slipped on ice while racing Cam Payne to the car in the Coliseum parking lot Thursday night.

That said, people were reasonably pleased with the response to defeat.

– Alex Ruoff declined to be interviewed and told WVU’s sports information staff he was taking the day off. The hunch is obvious, though don’t read very much into it.

“Everything’s fine. There’s nothing going on,” Da’Sean Butler said. “After a game, if you feel like you did something wrong or something happened that shouldn’t have happened, as a player you feel like saying it and that’s it.”

– Joe Mazzulla caused a minor stir when he appeared in practice gear, but that’s been going on for a while. He sometimes wears the gold scout team jersey and plays defense against the first team, just to stay sharp and in shape. He did, however, say for the first time what he’s thinking about as he tries to decide whether or not to redshirt.

“If we’re .500 in league play and I can’t make much of a difference, I’m probably not going to waste a year,” he said.

Granted, .500 in the Big East might not be a bad record, but it at least shows he’s going to consider where the team is when he feels healthy.