As grand as WVU made your life in NYC, the Mountaineers made things as difficult for those covering their exploits.

We’ve been through the trouble writing their games on deadline or coming up with stories when one game is the same as the one before it. In New York, and I would assume just for kicks, they combined both and then added the recurring theme of Da’Sean Butler’s game-winners.

A lot went unsaid and unwritten in a hurry and amid celebrations last week and I blame this on Butler. He made it too easy to summarize WVU’s games and overlook everything and everyone else — though he certainly deserved the focus. Ask him, though, and he’d happily admit to having a lot of help along the way.

You know about Mazzulla and Flowers and the things they do, but there are others.

Take Cam Thoroughman … and I realize you might have been saying something similar Friday night. He wasted a one-on-none fast break against Notre Dame and missed a layup — and weren’t those two point looking big when Tory Jackson’s potential game-winning 3-pointer threatened the basket? Many called it a misseddunk. A few said a missed windmill. Thoroughman said it was the “most embarassing moment of my life.”

Perhaps you’ve noticed this year, but Thoroughman hasn’t worn the brace on his left knee all year. The delivery before the 76 Classic didn’t match the order and Thoroughman decided not to wear a new and different brace and trust the knee that’s dislocated a bunch and been fixed twice with surgery. He hasn’t worn one since and has had no issues. I’m told — and not by him … he wouldn’t dare — he later confessed he felt his knee buckle as he tried to take off. Just a little, but that’d scare me a lot if I had his history.

A night later Thoroughman entered and I heard a few gasps when people recognized that guy, but he had a rebound, a basket and two sharp assists.

And what of Devin Ebanks? He looked carefree against Georgetown, right? Well, he took a brutal elbow to the ribs early on. Once the adrenaline went away, he realized he was in significant pain and it did him no good to shoot when he was wincing and withdrawing from all of his shots. He only asserted himself when he had to against the shot clock and instead devoted his energy and attention to defense. Georgetown’s Jason Clark, the best shooter to that point in the tournament, had a bad game.

When you’re playing two- and three-point games in March, little things are big. Just ask Jonnie West and Casey Mitchell. Together they played a total of seven minutes in the tournament. They combined for 10 points — three by West against Cincinnati, two by Mitchell against Notre Dame and then five by Mitchell against Georgetown. WVU won its games by three, two and two points.

Nothing is meaningless in March.

“I just tell them the story about Jay Jacobs,” Huggins revealed, referring to the long-age WVU reserve player from Morgantown, Jay Jacobs, a teammate of Jerry West’s and now the color analyst on games in which his son, Jonnie, plays.

The way Jacobs tells his story, he was sitting in his normal spot on the bench one day when coach Fred Schaus came down and said, “Jacobs, get in there.”

Jacobs just sat there. You see, under his sweats, he said, he had not bothered putting his uniform on, thinking there was no way he would get into the game.

“You,” Huggins tells is reserves, “could be a jerk, just like Jay Jacobs was.”

The moral to this Huggins fable is that the Boy Scouts have it right – be prepared.