No paper tomorrow, no Feedback today, but I got this thing covered.

To begin, a cursory review of last night. The game began with a totally unexpected and — I think, as it relates to this season — unprecedented alley-oop lob from Ebanks to Butler for a dunk. WVU used to run this a lot with Ruoff and Nichols, but I can’t recall it this season. Sometimes I say, “I bet that happened before this and I just don’t remember it” and I’m right. I bet that never happened before this year.

And then came the expected and, um, precedented. WVU went WVU and excelled in its ability to stand it its own way … and then recover. It’s remarkable.

It’s also funny. I get a lot of “So…what do you think?” stuff from people and I’m programmed by now.

“You know how this goes.”

There might be slight alterations along the way. For example, I think the final margin Thursday night was probably a little surprising, especially given the way the first half unfolded, but the struggle and the recovery and the 15-point lead shrinking to six was at the very least on your radar. This isn’t going to change. If you haven’t by now acquired a taste for your fingernails, I don’t know what to tell you.

There were many fine plays and performances last night — we’ll get there eventually — but when WVU survived a five-shot possession by Washington in the second half and did juuuuust enough to contest easy shots and watch them fall out of the cylinder, I thought the game changed. I circled it. I write around it. That’s how you win and lose games and certainly there were some moments like that for both teams last night.

WVU won second-chance points 17-0. This is not a typo. When the rebound on the fifth miss fell into the hands of Kevin Jones, the bench rocked their heads back. Huggins rolled his eyes. The players looked genuinely relieved.

“I grabbed it and stood there and thought, ‘Wow, if we can get through that, I think we’re going to be fine the rest of the way,'” the sophomore forward said.

Jones made sure that was the case. His 3-pointer on the ensuing possession gave WVU the lead for good with 14:16 remaining and started a decisive run as the Mountaineers defeated the Huskies in the East Region semifinal.

Jones made another 3 in the run as the shot clock was about to expire to push the lead from six points to nine. He finished with 18 points and eight rebounds and made 7-of-10 shots and 3-of-4 3-point attempts. Jones was 2-for-5 for five points and had only one rebound in the first half.

The Mountaineers outscored Washington 42-27 in the second half.

“I just had to get on myself,” Jones said. “I don’t think anybody gets on me as much as I get on myself. I knew I wasn’t playing to the best of my ability and I had to do something to help my team get the win.”