No need for exotic explanations for last night’s win. There are two pretty obvious, pretty important reasons:

1) Rutgers didn’t do anything well and was bad in a number of areas.
2) WVU had two functional point guards.

Put those two ingredients — with a pinch more of the second — in the same bowl and what you get is the biggest Big East win in almost six years.

“It’s no secret we need more production – and not necessarily points – from Truck and me,” Mazzulla said. “We, as point guards, need the offense to run smoother. We need to execute better. We need to put guys in place. I think what’s been lacking on offense has been how Truck and I haven’t been able to play to our ability. I think we did a good job (Wednesday) and incidentally we were able to run better offense, execute and get easy baskets.”

In the most complete performance of the season, Bryant and Mazzulla paced the offense and defense from the backcourt as the Mountaineers (12-1, 3-0 Big East) had no trouble at all with Rutgers. WVU shot 49.3 percent, outrebounded the Scarlet Knights (9-5, 0-2) by 11, turned the ball over only seven times and built on a lead from start to finish in an 86-52 victory before 9,586 inside the Coliseum.

If we’re not to put too much meaning into one loss at Purdue, then we surely shouldn’t announce a complete recovery after beating an overmatched opponent. That said, there were good things beyond the final score.

Everyone seemed happy. When Cam Thoroughman “dunked” and was fouled and the game went to a timeout, teammates came all the way across the floor to celebrate.

Dalton Pepper has a lot of confidence now — he made back-to-back 3s and then tried to dunk on the nation’s No. 1 shot blocker.

There were only a few of those “guys trying to do what they can’t do” moments.

Da’Sean Butler played hardly any point.

Devin Ebanks went 5-for-11 in the first half, but 0-for-1 in the second and seemed to understand a win was better achieved through passing, guarding and rebounding.

The defense, from the first possession to the last, was a good as I’ve seen it all season .. and this was in a lopsided game.

But it goes back to the guards. We talked about this Tuesday and I wrote about it for Wednesday. Bryant was as anxious to play a game as I can recall and really bothered by a blunt assessment of his play Huggins read to the team Monday. You almost sensed something was coming. Maybe not this soon, but still soon enough.

Well, Mazzulla and Truck totaled 19 points, four rebounds, seven assists, one turnovers in 35 minutes. For the first time in a long time, things looked and felt right. Bryant scored 15 points on just six shots. Mazzulla actually looked to score. They played defense. They got the ball across halfcourt and then settled into the offense. Again, not a full recovery, but a good sign and good timing since WVU returns to Indiana and plays Notre Dame Saturday at the Joyce Center, where the Mountaineers have had no success since 1996.