Well, WVU does. Since that day, the Mountaineers are 6-0 and have embraced a couple qualities that had been escaping them to that point of the season.

“People expect a lot of us in our state and we need to go out there and not only play for ourselves, but we need to play for our state and all its been through and for how they back us,” point guard Joe Mazzulla said. “We’re five, six hours away, but we have, by far, the best crowd at the Big East tournament.”

I wrote the night of the game “virtually everyone associated with West Virginia ran around the famed floor without much of a clue what to do but go absolutely berserk” and I’m thinking I was spot on with that one. And you can totally understand.

Really, this was a team that had to overcome a few of its own obstacles while clearing the ones opponents provided. And the Mountaineers did. There was a pretty narrow focus last week, from the top of the bench to the bottom.

Players watched games in person and on TV. A WVU assistant was watching Notre Dame-Seton Hall and taking notes of the Fighting Irish as part of a scouting report. He did 12 pages. When the Mountaineers beat the Irish, only then did talk of the title begin. And the players? Ask Da’Sean Butler if Jonnie West or Casey Mitchell or Cam Thoroughman were on board. Top to bottom, one picked up the other, which is needed. And encouraging. This is not a team that’s always so tuned into what it has to do at the moment, but it picked a fine time to do that.

What stood out to be was the game ended quite fast Saturday. Almost out of nowhere. Almost cautiously. Almost like, “Wait … it’s over? It’s over, right?” Butler scored, everyone raced back on a defense, Cam Thoroughman and John Flowers were doing the requisite March Madness bench restraint and Joe Mazzulla was on his knees on a towel, seemingly unable to watch.

And then it was over.

In an instant, it dawned on everyone what they’d just done and a frantic, floor-filled party began. Watch that celebration and ask yourself if those guys grew to understand what Huggins was talking that Monday night in Hartford, Conn.