Odd streaks are on the line as WVU plays host to No. 8 Notre Dame and tries valiantly to outscore the opponent in the second half of keep the other team below its first-half point total in the second half.

Maybe that changes today. And maybe this is the day we get the elusive and mesmerizing Tim Higgins Block Shuffle.

He’s in the house today, along with Ed Corbett and Sean Corbin.

Corbin, by the way, is a college rookie. He spent many years in the NBA and actually scaled back his schedule by going to the college game. None of these three called a game last night.

12:20 pm: Then again, Sage Sports Scribe told me “Higgins has been on CBS more than Letterman,” and chased that with a “Some of his calls are funnier, too.”

12:32: Watching St. John’s surge at home, again, and give Pitt some of the business — just some of it — and I’m compelled to tell you this. WVU, Cincinnati, St. John’s and Marquette are the eighth, ninth, 10th and 11th teams, in some order, trying to get into the NCAA Tournament.

Check out their remaining schedules:

WVU
vs. No. 8 Notre Dame
at. No. 4 Pitt
at Rutgers
vs. No. 13 UConn
vs. No. 16 Louisville

Cincinnati
at Providence
at No. 9 Georgetown
vs. No. 13 UConn
at Marquette
vs. No. 9 Georgetown

St. John’s
vs. No. 4 Pitt
vs. DePaul
at No. 15 Villanova
at Seton Hall
vs. USF

Marquette
vs. Seton Hall
at No. 13 UConn
vs. Providence
vs. Cincinnati
at Seton Hall

WVU and Cincinnati have the toughest rows to hoe. St. John’s, somehow, has three of the five worst teams in the league. Marquette, somehow, has Seton Hall twice — and the Pirates might be checking out about now — as well as a high-stakes game at home against the Bearcats.

You think about that.

12:57: John Flowers does the Irish jig in his huddle dance.

1:00: Singer drops the words in the national anthem and gets an assist from the crowd. Same thing happened in the swim meet I covered Thursday.

1:01: Big crowd here, which is fine, but it’s screwing with the Internet. No guarantees the rest of the way.

1:06: And the 1 p.m. game tips!

1:08: WVU again intent on getting to the rim. Interesting matchups thus far. Hansbrough guarding Truck. Abromaitis guarding Mazzulla. Mazzulla guarding Hansbrough, Flowers guarding Abromaitis.

1:11: A Nash and-one takes us to the first television timeout. Notre Dame leads 4-2 with Nash’s free throw coming after the break — and Nash isn’t a good FT shooter. The Irish are 2-for-6, WVU is 1-for-7 and has on the last two possessions settled for early 3s by Truck and Flowers. Mazzulla has the basket when he got by Abromaitis and pivoted inside for a layup.

1:12: Kids are doing The Dougie all around me. This is approaching CEJ … which, by the way, was dropped into a timeout at the Feaster Center in the Fairmont State v. University of Charleston game I went to Thursday. Cannot escape him.

1:14: Higgins Shuffle. Muted, but I’ll take it.

1:15: Casey enters at the 14:36 mark. WVU is 1-for-7/0-for-2 and trails 7-4.

1:17: First touch and Mitchell scores with a bank shot on an inbound play.

1:19: Mazzulla does something I haven’t seen him do in a long, long time — comes off a screen and steps into a 3. Ties the score, 9-9. Scott Martin scores for Notre Dame and the Irish go to a zone. WVU adjusts and gets an inside score by Flowers. Flowers is then called for his second foul on the other end with 11:22 to go.

1:23: Well, 8:38 into the game, the Irish will make their first substitution. Quasi-Harangody Jack Cooley is prepared to enter on the next whistle, too.

1:25: Casey exits after losing sight of Hansbrough on offense — hard to explain that — and letting Hansbrough score on an offensive rebound. KJ makes two free throws after an offensive rebound of his own and it’s 14-13, Irish. He saw the ball go in the hoop …

1:27: And Jones makes a 3 from the top of the key.

1:28: WVU season in a brief sequence: The offense sputters, but KJ gets a good look at a 3. Long rebound and he chases it down and gets it right about where he just shot near the 3-point line. There are players everywhere and he wisely stops and hands the ball to Truck … who dribbles back and shoots and misses a 3 amid groans.

Long rebound and now the Irish go the other way. WVU isn’t set in transition and Abromaitis spots it, claps to state he’s wide open, gets the ball and goes at the rim. WVU reacts and Deniz gets his second foul on the recovery.

1:34: You sometimes ask why cam plays? WVU was passing the ball in with four seconds to go on the shot clock. Cam said something to Joe, who was passing the ball in. The inbound broke down and Cam went into the backcourt. He took the pass and drove on Clooley and made a difficult layup at the buzzer.

1:37: Higgins! That’s two! Bob Huggins is not as excited as I am. He simply turned his back and laughed. He’s amused for different reasons, I suppose.

1:40: Neither team is shooting it very well. WVU is 6-for-23/2-for-8, but is 8-for-8 at the foul line. Notre Dame is 9-for-24/2-for-10 and 2-for-5 at the line. For all the effort to get looks close to the basket, WVU is being outscored in the paint, 12-4, in a game tied 22-22.

1:43: Give Pepper credit for this: He finds a way to one good thing for one bad thing just about every time he does a bad thing.

1:45: Give the officials credit for this: Both these teams are really going at the boards hard and the whistles are allowing a lot, which is fine, as long as it remains that way. Thus far, for 18:31, it has.

1:47: Pepper guards Abromaitis and forces a tough shot. WVU grabs the rebound and calls its timeout for the half. The pace of the game favors WVU, though the Irish lead. Interested to see what WVU does with 10.6 seconds to go.

1:48: Mazzulla, who missed two free throws a little earlier, went the length of the court for a layup — assisted nicely by Cam’s pick at halfcourt. You take 27-26 and figue out how you continue to slow Notre Dame in the second half.

2:01: WVU really, really needs to avoid the familiar drought to start a half here. Also, Jonnie West was in on the last play of the half and, at the very least, had Notre Dame’s attention as Mazzulla drove easily through open space. Huggins and West just had a talk during warmups before the second half and I wonder if West is to play some this half. I don’t think the matchup is so bad and no one else is really making shots. Might be worth a toss of the dice.

2:08: Whoa! Scott Martin falls for a Mazzulla pump fake from the 3-point line. Truck makes a 3 and it’s 31-31.

2:08:  It’s 36-31, the crowd is rocking as Notre Dame calls a timeout … and we Dougie and watch the big screen. It’s now silent.

2:08: Truck shot the Irish into the timeout, but after the Notre Dame miss, Mazzulla, Truck and Cam ran a three-man fast break and Cam was signalling for Mazzulla to find Truck behind Cam’s screen. Sure enough, Mazzulla slowed, Cam settled and Truck scored. Cam!

2:11: Text:

“Dear Coliseum people,
Thanks for the dougie.
Best,
Mike Brey”

2:12: Enter West…

2:17: Fantastic finish in the Garden. Jonnies beat Pitt on their final shot. Panthers ought to be in a fine mood Thursday.

2:19: Sean Corbin will let you play!

2:19: And Bob Huggins will let you play, Jonnie West. Transition 3 and Notre Dame calls another timeout. The Coliseum doesn’t screw it up, either. WVU up 45-35 and surging.

2:20: Abromaitis with a ssssh 3. These Irish are noted for their poise. Let’s see what they’ve got.

2:24: Cam just can’t win. Does a bunch of sneaky important things. Misses an easy layup. Gets his third foul. Goes to the bench. Big minutes for Kilicli here. I’ve got to believe Notre Dame will do some high screening and isolations and make him guard.

2:26: Round One to Deniz! Nash travels on an aggressive post against Kilicli.

2:29: Mayhem. Total mayhem. No idea how there isn’t a whistle there somewhere. Mazzulla was quite clearly fouled. Deniz and Cooley battled to the death floor. Scott shoved Kilicli to the floor. Huggins exploded, and perhaps justifiably, to get a technical. He earned that one. The students are serenading Higgins now — and not in a good way. Circle it. Two free throws for Abromaitis and WVU’s lead is 50-42 with 10:23 to go.

2:30: There’s a little sparky a few feet to my left, no more than 7 years old, screaming “You suck Higgins. You suuuuuuuck.” I love it.

2:33: I anticipate a lot of whistles the rest of the way.

2:34: This is ridiculous. Normally mild-mannered Mike Brey asks for a receives a T about 20 feet out on the floor. This is WVU’s kind of game, no doubt about it. There’s a madness here they seen to rather enjoy. Truck makes the technical FTs and it’s 54-42 as Mazzulla misses the front end of the one-and-one with 9:13 to go. Notre Dame’s poise? Shot.

2:36: I’m serious, I’ve never seen a coach ask for a T like Brey did.

2:38: Truck nails a 3 on an inbound. An hour ago, the crowd was moaning when he shot it. It just begged him to take that one. This game’s teetering on being over.

2:38: … aaaaand Scott makes a 3. Quizzical timeout by Brey after the basket, though. The under-8 timeout  comes on the next dead ball. It’s 57-45 with 7:59 to go and Notre Dame has one timeout left.

2:46: Hansbrough 3 means Notre Dame’s second half outscores its first half, but it also means it’s 65-53.

2:49: Cam moving closer to the Big East record for laying opponents out with halfcourt picks. Irish freshman Eric Atkins is the latest victim.

2:55: Borderline crazy ben Hansbrough is not going down easily. The crowd is going to go wild if he fouls out. He has four fouls.

2:56: That’s a terrible call. Huggins covered his eyes after the whistle.

2:57: Hansbrough gets his fifth and the crowd savors the moment. No idea what he did, but the crowd is all over him.

2:59: With 2:12 to go, the overrated chant starts.

3:01: Bizarre and timely game from Truck. He’s got 23 points and is 9-for-10 at the free-throw line. He’s 4-for-6 from 3-point range — and he hasn’t made more than four in a game this year. He also has no assists and no turnovers.

3:05: And that’s that. WVU snaps Notre Dame’s seven-game winning streak and its own four-game losing streak against ranked teams with a 72-58 win. Go outside, everybody.