The topic just came up in an interview with a radio station in a far-away city: Poor Da’Sean Butler.

That people with no connection to a team and a player can feel so bad for WVU and its star is pretty striking. Not to get into too much sentiment that I’m sure others share, but it’s difficult to stomach. Actually, it’s not fair. It’s not.

And, right or wrong, I fear there’s an indelible image from that game that will be how people remember WVU’s postseason performance. I hope I’m wrong because that wouldn’t be fair either.

Twenty-four things I’d rather remember from the 24 days of tournaments.

– Jimmy John’s and rear-view mirrors

– Giggling in press conferences. Through it all, observers were taken aback by how much fun the Mountaineers had.

– Gus Johnson walking down a hallway and high-fiving Rebecca Durst. “Congratulations. I think that is really cool.”

– Vows that a certain journalist’s next trip into WVU’s locker room wouldn’t be a good one.

– Curtis “Quick Draw” Shaw’s last college game. Actually, his last two, and they both featured WVU. I feel privileged. And not to say this guy has a rep, but we were laying bets on when he’d call a T in WVU-Kentucky and we were giddy in WVU-Duke because there was no way Q.D. would go out without a T. And when he slapped the dunking Plumlee for “pulling down the rim,” as Shaw explained, there was a collective inside joke being shared across press row. And then after the game, Shaw took off his sneakers and put them at center court to symbolize his retirement. One Shining Moment!

– The way Huggins works refs. You have to sit within ear shot to understand.

– Butler’s histrionics on the floor. When he got it going, the other team got spooked. Notre Dame, Missouri, Washington, Kentucky. He had something for all of them. It’s a wonder he didn’t get tired talking junk and firing himself up during game.

– What Butler said after the buzzer-beater against Cincinnati.

– John Flowers. As great as he was off the court with the videos and the dances and the quotes, he was as good on the court. And the Mountaineers are really going to need him next year.

– That Kevin Jones solidified himself. He had a poor postseason last season and he hit a really rough stretch toward the end of the regular season. But he was very good to great through the tournaments, so much so that his bad game against Duke was a big surprise. Are you looking at a 20 ppg guy?

– The way WVU altered its reputation. During the season and then in the Big East Tournament, this was a team that played close games and seemed predisposed to either make it or keep it tight late. When they got to the NCAA Tournament, the Mountaineers were very different. They eschewed the suggestion they were lucky and proved they were actually very good.

– The 10-0 deficit against Morgan State. Hard to believe that actually happened.

– How the first 20 minutes against Kentucky made for maybe the most bizarre half of basketball I’ve ever seen.

– The resignation after the loss. No one denied Duke was a better team and deserved to beat a team that deserved to lose.

– That Billy Stewart remained a central figure. Be it forecasting the collapse of the Big East the day of the conference tournament semifinals or grabbing a mic and belting “Take Me Home, Country Roads” at a bar in Myrtle Beach, he was not to be denied. That impromptu celebration in MB was a pretty good illustration of what the Mountaineers were doing to and for their fans.

– A wild and wonderful celebration in Madison Square Garden. I’ll never, ever forget the way the people behaved like they had no idea what to do other than enjoy themselves.

– Joe Mazzulla’s grace. OK, OK, watch him play and that’s not a word you’d use, but there were stories about him that were impossible to avoid if you covered the tournament. He addressed every one of them, no matter the question or the topic or how many times he was made to speak to the same points. It couldn’t have been easy going over his legal troubles, his shoulder problem and his long and painful rehabilitation of name and game, but he never resisted, never snapped and never did anything that made you believe it wasn’t for real.

– The T-shirts. I guess it was cool, but to advertise “Do what we do” was actually not what the Mountaineers were known to do. Through the year they seemed to avoid the compliments and relish in the underdog role. They liked a low profile and fed off being undervalued, disrespected and overlooked. And then, on the eve of their biggest moment, they draw attention to themselves. That was followed by the worst game in two, maybe three months.

– How the Kentucky game, as great a moment as it was for WVU, was also a little misleading. You knew Duke wouldn’t replicate the miserable 3-point and free-throw shooting, the bad disposition and discipline and lack of leadership.

– Butler candidly telling me now only that they’d beat Missouri, but how they would. He was dead-on.

– How WVU survived five shots and four offensive rebounds on one critical possession against Washington and then went on a 20-4 run. That was the first time they’d really exploded through an opening in quite some time.

– A sincere quest by coaches and players to win for people other than themselves.

– Gullible Jonnie West. Sooner or later he’ll learn to look over his shoulder when he leads the team out onto the floor to make sure his teammates are following.

– That WVU, despite a product that at times was hard to watch and a cast of characters who could be difficult to cheer for because of things they’ve done in the past, became a rather likable group. Enjoying them was irresistible.