I think it’s worth mentioning, two days later, that Kevin Jones was, by his coach’s estimation, “bad” Sunday and that normally puts a lot on the shoulders of Truck Bryant. Bryant had a pretty special day and WVU doesn’t win at Providence unless he gets every one of his 32 points — fine, the Mountaineers win if he makes a free throw or a layup at the buzzer and ends up with 30 or 31 points, but you’re picking apart my point. His points were at a premium because of Jones and because the six players who came off the already-short bench managed 13 points and, at times, looked tight in the tense moments.

But really, what was so different about that game. Among Truck and Jones, one was great and one was good enough to win with, and for that day they merely switched their normal roles. The bench and the freshmen weren’t all that productive, though just 13 points is much more exception than norm. The thing separating victory and defeat were the feet of Deni Kilicli.

“I kind of slowed down a little bit more than what I used to do,” he said. “I watched all the tapes to see what I did and if I don’t get my feet down, I don’t have any power.”

On one possession late in regulation, Kilicli snatched an offensive rebound and had perhaps the most aggressive jump stop I’ve ever seen. He jumped, fired his feet into the ground and went up with the ball in a way that scared everyone away from him. I was 15 feet to his left and I flinched.

That was a snapshot. Kilicli was at his best when WVU needed it. His plus/minus (plus-6 for the game) was plus-9 late in the first half after the Mountaineers fell behind by 15 points and then plus-2 in the final 12 minutes of the game, when both teams were scoring and trying to do away with one another.

Throughout the game, he was forceful, but also patient. There were times he was off balance and looking like he was about to fall over, and that had fans screaming for a travel, but he simply ducked under or stepped through, set himself up properly and shot. Usually he scored.

That’s been what’s wrong with Kilicli — too strong and too fast. Sunday he corralled it and got himself set and centered on a day he just knew the opponent couldn’t hang with him.

“Before, I was off balance the whole time,” he said. “Look at Syracuse and St. John’s and even the Pitt game … look at my feet. My upper body goes one way and my feet go another way. When I do that, I’d hit just the backboard.”

At the end, he had career-high totals for points, shots and shot attempts and scored five points on four offensive rebounds, which seemed to shock and impress Bob Huggins most

“There was a while where I didn’t think he’d get that many the rest of the season,” Huggins said. “I thought this was as competitive as what Deniz has been.”