And perhaps it helps with the hurt. It took a really bad night to see WVU was really good to get as far as it did.

The numbers were not pretty. The shooting percentage was low again. The total points didn’t rival the average again. Yet none of that was new for the Mountaineers, who for quite some time had joked that their best chance to score was to miss a shot and score on the rebound and said through smiles that their defense needed to be good because their shooting was not.

The laughs stopped in the 78-57 loss to Duke in the national semifinal. On offense the Mountaineers were themselves – which is to say, very average – but decidedly different on defense and rebounding.

With those two strengths unable to support the known weakness, WVU had no chance to beat the blue-hot Blue Devils. Fans could sadly see how commendable the team’s past performance really was to make it so far.