The win against Purdue, believe it or not, snapped WVU’s six-game home losing streak against  top-10 teams. I was surprised to discover that. WVU beat No. 10 Marquette at the Coliseum in 2008 (Whoops: not 2010 … my bad) and then lost six in a row against top-10 teams before beating No. 8 Purdue yesterday in an other one of those increasingly characteristic total team efforts.

Basketball seasons are often best viewed in windows. The conference tournaments are obviously big. The NCAA selection committee looks at a team’s performance in the final 10 or 12 games. Non-conference play matters an awful lot. So on and so forth.

Within all of that are smaller series and what WVU has done in the past four games is significant. The collapse late at Marquette does seem quite a while ago and the execution late against Purdue more or less proved the Mountaineers have moved on and are headed forward.

“This was a last-year’s-team kind of game,” said forward Kevin Jones. “We weren’t worried about not winning. We were more worried about going out there and playing our game. That’s when we’re at our best.

“It’s taken some time for everyone to learn their different roles, but I think you see the progression of this team as we go forward. As long as we keep doing that, we can be a really good team.”

A lot of players did a lot of things to sign off on the fourth straight win, but it was the contributions late that made the biggest impressions. That kind of happened against Georgetown, but the Hoyas would probably agree they had a lot to do with that. Purdue kept coming Sunday and while WVU left some openings, it also covered them with other plays that, in the end, mattered more. Good win in every conceivable fashion: at home, on TV, sell-out crowd, NCAA tournament opponent, non-conference boost, etc.

WVU jumped from No. 11 to No. 9 in the RPI and is one of two RPI top-15 teams that isn’t ranked in either poll … and that may change when the polls come out.

The Mountaineers would really like to see Purdue get better and not continue slipping, a la Georgetown. Purdue has lost two in a row and the Big Whatever is a lot like the Big East in that the bottom is close to the top and there aren’t a lot of chances to get streaks going. Georgetown is 2-4 in the Big East after a 11-1 start in non-conference play. Both were highly ranked — Nos. 8 and 13, respectively — when they lost to WVU and both have concerns.

Also good for WVU Sunday? St. John’s destroyed Notre Dame. WVU’s loss to the Johnnies doesn’t look nearly as bad now. In fact, St. John’s is No. 13 in the RPI and the other RPI top-15 team that isn’t ranked. What that team does is attached to WVU now.

The Mountaineers have to take care of themselves now and games Wednesday against  Marshall, which is concerned after its loss Saturday at Memphis, at at home against USF come before a brutal stretch: at Louisville, at Cincinnati, against Seton Hall, at Villanova, agaisnt Pitt. Those windows we discussed earlier? That’s a season-defining stretch.