And that’s about all the basketball news I have for you. This is probably — never mind; scratch probably — the most unprepared I’ve been for a basketball season. The football season and conference shenanigans and a now a lawsuit put blinders on me. That might not change soon, either.

The shame is I think WVU will be pretty compelling this season.

This will be a team that grows and matures — or shrinks and is conquered — before your eyes. There’s the proven coach who, in a weird way, has to prove himself to a bunch of young players. I mean, everyone knows and understands what Bob Huggins has done, but young players are just different. Their aptitude for learning the game can vary wildly. And then there are the older players whose patience this season will be perhaps the most important virtue. Truck Bryant may flourish as a two guard, but that means the freshmen point guards better be good. Kevin Jones could  improve shooting and scoring numbers that didn’t improve from 2009 to 2010, but he’ll be playing with a bunch of first-year guys in the front court … who would you try to stop?On and it goes.

Time isn’t a luxury, though. The schedule is sneaky hard and the nonconference part may be more challenging than what WVU had last season. It begins with Friday’s exhibition opponent, Northern Kentucky, which played without two if its better players yesterday and gave Marshall trouble — and Marshall is going to be very good this season. That game doesn’t count on paper for WVU, but it counts everywhere else. Oral Roberts is the season-opener and that’s a team that returns just about everyone who scores a point. Kent State is good enough to be ranked at some point this season. The Golden Flashes will battle Akron for the MAC title.

Those three games all happen before Mississippi State, Kansas State, Miami and the Last Vegas Tournament with Baylor, which is loaded with talent. Get through that and the Big East is waiting. Lots of story lines and player profiles and experiments, plenty of good days and bad ones. It starts Friday and not even Huggins knows what to tell people to expect.