As far as transfers go, Mr. Pepper’s is among the untidiest I’ve ever seen and, really, for no reason.

He’s leaving WVU. We know that for sure now after he finally called Bob Huggins Tuesday. This became somewhat frustrating as it evolved, though.

There came a certain point when probably everyone involved understood Pepper was leaving, but that’s different than knowing he was transferring. When you can only say what you know to be true,  Huggins was then put in a position to say, in essence, “I don’t know what’s going on. We haven’t been told or asked anything.” Not fun for any coach who is on top of his program — and, in this case, not his fault.

And that was the completely true company line until late Tuesday afternoon, which made the events of Monday so strange.

He confirmed by way of text message to the Bucks County Courier Times he was leaving. Their report intimated, through sources, Pepper was headed to Temple. Credit to that paper for being with this story as it ran to the finish line … which makes this morning’s development interesting.

Sources close to the increasingly confusing situation said that no communications have taken place between Pepper – the former Pennsbury standout and sophomore at West Virginia – and anyone connected with the Temple program.

“Nothing is done yet,” said a reliable source with knowledge of the situation. “It has never been a done deal except for the fact that he was leaving West Virginia.

Did I say untidiest? I meant “increasingly confusing.” That about covers it.

The report goes on to say Pepper hasn’t publicly commented, except a few texts to a few media outlets, and that the Pennsbury High coach, Frank Sciolla, said “nothing was official.”

Oh. Well, Mr. Sciolla is to be taken seriously as the head of the highly successful basketball program. And that program has it’s own Twitter page. And that Twitter page, which I was assured is run by the team’s staff, rolled out three unblushing tweets Monday night stating, without equivocation, Pepper was “definitely transferring from WVU to Temple.”

Those tweets, of course, were aimed at some of the bigger names in Pennsbury’s area as well as some of the more respected names in recruiting and national college basketball media … which, while it may be different for you, begins to give me an idea of how and where this went so wrong.

Nevertheless, Pepper and his one step forward, one step back career, the one with all the promise that was poised to uncoil these next two seasons, is no longer at WVU — and what if he ends up at Temple and Temple is the Mysterious Mid-Major, as first posed by SheikYbuti? It makes a lot of sense, and Huggins has a predilection for his program’s tradition. WVU v. Temple was a great, great series.

Much more importantly is this: WVU’s young team with Pepper is younger without Pepper. Remember our discussion about lineups and rotations? Reassemble and present, please.