Mr. Stephens, Wally Rutecki and Ray Natili have whistles around their necks today. Rutecki, by the way, presided over the game-ending four-point play at Rutgers Wednesday.

During stoppages today, may I suggest “Inside the East” and the WVU feature, which itself features someone who was not feeling very well that morning and looks it, as well as a terrific feature on Andrew Luck. Pete Thamel is one of the best.

3:55 pm: The depth of DePaul’s problems: 24-game losing streak against Big East teams (23 in the regular season), 26-game losing streak against against ranked opponents, 28-game road losing streak.  Then again, 13 of the 16 Big East teams have beaten a ranked team this season. The exceptions? Woeful South Florida, NCAA tournament hopeful Cincinnati and DePaul.

4:oo: Birthdays today … or being recognized today: MSN senior producer/director Greg Shock and Brock Burwell.

4:02: Same starting lineup.

4:07: It’s 6-2 and DePaul’s only size, 6-10 center Krys Faber, has two fouls. Enter Deniz, who promptly scores and forces the Blue Demons to call a timeout.

4:09: Casey Mitchell is sitting on the floor … literally the floor … trying to get loose. Not a good sign.

4:13: WVU, which plays at the Carrier Dome Monday night and against the 2-3 zone, has five baskets. All are layups. Four have assists. Two were basically handoffs. One was a pick-and-roll from Truck to Cam. One was an entry pass to Deniz. Useful work.

4:16: Deniz gets pump-faked from 16 feet. DePaul’s Tony Freeman drives and is fouled by Jones, who goes to the bench with two fouls at 14:31. Freeman goes 1-for-2 and WVU leads 15-10.

4:17: DePaul’s little guard, Brandon Young, get his second foul and has to come out … and Faber enters. Truck with a 3 and wVU is 8-for-11 from the floor and 2-for-3 from deep to lead 18-10.

4:18: Truck with a completely inexcusable and indefensible alley oop pass to Mazzulla. It’s turned over and DePaul hits a 3.

4:20: … and Faber gets his third. He’s actually been effective. WVU is already in the bonue with 12:08 left in the half.

4:21: And just to make my head explode, Brandon Young and his two fouls come into the game. Dalton Pepper is about to enter for wVU to replace Kilicli and the Mountaineers will roll with Mazzulla, Thoroughman, Flowers, Pepper and Mitchell.

4:23: There are three home games left after today and WVU is doing senior day for the cheerleaders at the under-12 TV timeout.

4:27: Pepper cuts hard and catches a Mazzulla pass for a layup, takes another pass from Mazzulla in transition and makes a 3 and then takes a pass and draws the defense and finds Mitchell for a 3. Nice 73 seconds there for the young fellow.

4:31: The Mountaineers are playing pretty well at home and lead by five, 29-24, before Cam returns an earlier favor and feeds a backcut pass to Truck for a layup. WVU is 12-for-19 — 4-for-6 from deep — and has just two turnovers.

4:32: Crazy deep by an uncovered Mitchell makes it 34-24 and DePaul’s Jeremiah Kelly answers with a 3. Fun little game here. Little guys playing at a fast pace and a high level.

4:40: Sixteen baskets, 10 layups, 10 assists, every player has made two at least two baskets except Deniz, who has one and, quite frankly, isn’t suited for this pace. Not his fault.

4:42: It’s pretty clear DePaul was the proper opponent for WVU to use to get out of the shooting schnide. The Blue Demons press and that forces WVU to run and it’s created a lot of easy scoring opportunities for the Mountaineers, who must be credited for playing really smart and making a lot of the extra passes. Confidence is growing. You can see it.

4:43: DePaul’s Mike Stovall with an honest-to-goodness double dribble. My man dribbled, picked up the dribble, assumed the triple threat and then dribbled again.

4:50: The ball does lie. Clearly rolls off Cam’s foot out of bounds and he’s distraught he couldn’t get the steal. Mr. Stephens gives WVU possession. Natili overturns the call. DePaul’s Michael Bizoukas then throws it 15 feet past a teamamte for a backcourt turnover.

4:54: Let’s not confuse DePaul and Villanova, but a week ago the Mountaineers scored 50 points in an entire game. WVU scored 47 in this first half against the Blue Demons … and had three shots on the final possession. The point total is second-best in a first half this season. WVU scored 55 in the first half of the season’s first game against Oakland. The Mountaineers scored 47 and 50 in the second half against Providence and Marshall, respectively.

5:10: No idea how that was a foul on Cam, but Freeman’s three-point play makes it 47-37.

5:12: Mark it down. Wally Rutecki clearly and accidentally tripped Freeman as he dribbled down the floor and Rutecki blew the whistle and called himself for a foul. I’ve never, ever seen that. I’ve seen inadvertant contact and I’ve seen it disregarded. I’ve never seen an official call himself for a block. I always thought the officials were part of the court, no matter where they stood.

5:18: Mazzulla’s steal andlayup was the team’s third unassisted basket. Remarkable for a team that constantly points out it doesn’t share the ball.

5:20: Jumbotron introduces “Teach Me How to Dougie” and the crowd audibly groans. Just saying …

5:22: Sorry, it’s an absolute crowd-killer. Might be the wrong day to judge it. Might be the wrong spot to play it. Might have to go, too.

5:28: There are a lot of people here today. I’d guess 11,000 ro 12,000. It’s pretty quiet. You can hear players communicating during plays and coaches working in timeouts.

5:34: This is hard to watch because WVU has clearly stopped doing things that worked in the first half and DePaul is loitering. It’s a 59-48 game with DePaul’s best to players on the bench.

5:44: Jimmy Drewis in the building. He also looks like a guy who’ll be in the building running pickup games during the afternoon here. And don’t look now, but it’s 68-55.

5:45: And DePaul turns it over.

5:48: Back-to-back press-break layups and WVU has 72 points, most since Jan. 13. And still yet, it’s 72-62 and Huggins, who’s seen this film before, calls a timeout. People have been leaving for five minutes, by the way. And I’ll say it again, these are the folks who sit close to the floor.

5:51: … 74-67.

5:57: DePaul had chances. Fouled truck in the backcourt and he makes two free throws. Commits a turnover on an offensive foul. Misses two free throws. Commits a bad foul in a trap. Mazzulla goes 2-for-2 at the foul line and it’s 78-67 with 1:47 to go.

6:01: Thank you, Oliver! No fouling on WVU’s last possession and the game click innocently ticks away. WVU wins, 82-71.