To begin this evening, please welcome erstwhile colleague and my first boss in Morgantown, Jason Martin. Formerly of the Daily Athenaeum and then the Daily Mail, a WVU graduate armed now with a Ph.D. from the Indiana University School of Journalism, Martin is now an assistant professor at, ahem, DePaul.

He reports, you decide …

Between watching WVU and DePaul all year, I’ve seen some very poor defensive basketball in the Big East. As you pointed out this week, these are the 15th and 16th rated defenses in the league, and they come by those rankings not by accident.

Oliver Purnell generally likes a pressure and trapping style on defense, but he’s had to deal with a bench that’s been short on talent all year after enduring an almost comical level of injuries and mishaps. It started in the summer when Shane Larkin transferred to Miami. Then Purnell lost 6-7 freshman Montray Clemons for the year to a knee injury. Then 6-7 Tony Freeland, considered by most the third-best player, hurt his shoulder and was ruled out for the year. Moses Morgan, a raw but promising 6-6 sophomore (and a journalism major!), also missed a few games through a combination of injuries that included getting upended and landing directly on his head.

Any team would be hampered by losing four starters or heavy rotation members, but particularly one that cherishes the rare conference victory.

So Purnell still tries to go 10 deep but with the talent of a much shorter bench. Cleveland Melvin and Brandon Young are sophomores who are among the most athletic players in the Big East and the top two scorers, but they both go missing in action for stretches, particularly Young. When Melvin’s rolling, however, I think he might be right among the top players in the conference as a slasher and offensive creator.

WVU doesn’t have anybody who can guard him man-to-man for the whole game. But there have been whole stretches of games where DePaul plays like it has no semblance of a plan on offense or turns the ball over with less care than WVU has displayed lately. This shouldn’t be that surprising for a team that relies on its transition game so much, but it’s been worse than the Blue Demons can endure. That’s why they’ve lost eight straight and 14 of 15 despite being competitive and holding a lead at the quarter- or midway point in most of them.

Maybe the most interesting players to watch tonight are the trio of Jamee Crockett, Worrel Clahar and Charles McKinney because their performance could indicate how close DePaul can make it. Crockett’s been the only reliable shooter from distance lately. Clahar is a blur, a 5-11 JUCO transfer with a build like Truck Bryant and similar problems keeping a handle on the ball. McKinney brings great energy off the bench, particularly on defense, but has problems sustaining a high level of play for long periods.

DePaul tries to get by in the post with 6-10 Krys Faber, 6-9 Donnavan Kirk and 6-10 Derrell Robertson. Kirk is the best athlete and prospect in that group but missed the start of the year due to a back injury that repeatedly flared. But he’s never caught up or caught on fully (think Kilicli after his half-season suspension) and his best days are ahead. Faber is the only senior on the roster and a foul machine particularly when he’s outmatched in conference. Robertson plays only sparingly. The post area should be a major point of advantage for WVU if Kilicli and Jones can get rolling.

The most resistance DePaul should provide WVU is in backcourt pressure. Their guards are generally long and athletic and come in waves. They gunned up and down the court with no problem with Marquette, Louisville and St. John’s, all teams that ran WVU out of the gym for stretches, but the Demons couldn’t sustain double-digit leads even at home. WVU will have to survive the onslaught if DePaul gets rolling knowing that cooler periods are inevitable. In a match-up of two teams who have played defense poorly and have such high turnover rates, this one should simply go to the team that eliminates the mistakes the best (relatively), and that should be WVU, especially in its home atmosphere on Senior Night.

DePaul is really young, but what fan base exists here is generally patient with Purnell, particularly since it appears he’s beginning to tap the Chicago public schools talent that had been ignored by the previous couple coaches and due to the unforeseen obstacles of the injuries. Most of the talk centers on Purnell’s record for rebuilding programs and the bigger city talent on whom he’s showering his recruiting interest.

Headed into a watered-down Big East, DePaul will be expected to be competitive again in the next year or two, and back to the level when it made the tournament every few years when battling Louisville, Cincinnati and Memphis in variations incarnations of the Metro/Great Midwest/Conference USA.

6:10: As if KJ’s hair weren’t enough enough, he and fellow senior Truck Bryant have matching custom shirts. The front reads “Dynamic Duo / Top of the Mountain” and on the back is the long list of categories in which they rank in WVU’s all-time top-10.

6:56: Jamie Luckie, Doug Shows and Brian O’Connell have whistles. Ugh. Luckie is OK, actually. He got the Marshall game this year, and I swear they gave that game good officials for a reason this season. He’s seen WVU two other times. Shows has seen WVU twice and he’s seen about the Mountaineers have to offer — at St. John’s and at Mississippi State — but he’s a Final Four guy. You know O’Connell from such fiascoes as Louisville and Syracuse this season.

7:03: Crowd is … scarce. Sparse? Or just not very big.

7:05: Senior Night video right now.

7:09: DePaul’s defense appears as advertised, though the “offense” is helping. Not sure the Blue Demons will outscore WVU by nine the rest of the way … and it’s 9-0.

7:13: WVU starts 6-for-8 with 10 points in the paint, two points off a turnover, two points on an offensive rebound, two points on a fast break and one 3-pointer. Not bad.

7:16: Make that two 3s because Deniz inexplicably drew a double-team in the high post 16 feet from the basket. He threw a nice fading pass to Truck, who floated into the left corner, got set and made a 3. It’s 18-5 and I believe the hype.

7:18: Gary Browne pulls a possession out of the fire and no-looks a pass to KJ for an easy layup. That was going to end  in a bad way after Brown and Browne and even KJ spent about 30 second dribbling nowhere. And it’s too bad WVU has just two seniors because this one is fit for the Jon Currans and Josh Sowards and Jonnie West and the like to play about 12 minutes.

7:20: WVU started 0-for-2 … and is 8-for-9 since.

7:24: One thing about DePaul that’s good is I’ve seen this Faber play for four years now and he plays pretty hard. Deniz better not loaf or we’ll all see it. And, by now, you know that’s part of the scouting report.

7:28: This is hard to watch. Crowd is just dead and DePaul is on its way. KJ makes a 3 — his first since the Louisville loss; he was 0-for-9 the past three games — and WVU leads 27-10 with 18 points coming form the seniors.

7:30: Keaton Miles, oats sewer. Offensive rebound on one end and then a little too frisky for Luckie’s liking on the other.

7:31: Well, 11:58 in and you see the first WVU mistake. Five-seconds violation on an inbound. Truck called the timeout too late for Luckie’s liking. And don’t look now, but back-to-back 3s have it at 27-17.

7:32: And now Miles is a little too high on his own accolades and tried to post up and score/draw a foul, which he never does. Looked to be worth a whistle, but it’s instead worth a run-out layup the other way for Brandon Young, who is putting on a sweater. He makes the free throw and it’s a 10-0 run in 50 seconds.

7:37: This is how DePaul does it, by the way. Not great defense. Not a great shooting percentage, but a lot of shots and a lot of points — if it’s working. For about a minute, it did. Now it’s errors in a hurry.

7:40: I usually write or type during free throws, so help me out here: Is that Karl Malone-esque pause free throw routine new for Browne?

7:42: Miles seems like he’s playing harder than normal tonight — and the knock on him lately is confidence/competitiveness.

7:45: Sudden technical foul, whistled by Luckie, to whom almost nothing is his liking tonight. Two free throws and, amazingly, it’s a 33-27 game. WVU led 27-10.

7:51: Nice response by WVU here with an 11-2 run after Trucn and Nique both go 1-for-2 at the line. Rutledge is now 10-for-29 this year. Brown is 10-for-41 from 3-point range.

7:52: Goodness, Brown just missed everything on a drive.

7:55: Hinds makes a 3 to end the half — actually, WVU gets another possession and Truck misses a 3 and Deniz misses a hook at the buzzer — and it’s 47-31. WVU led 27-10 and then 33-27. All in all, the 47 points is the most against a team not named Rutgers this season (51 at Rutgers, 48 at home).

8:17: Tell you what, if DePaul isn’t turning teams over at an extraordinarily high rate — and that’s a rare and special skill — then I have no idea how that team can win. Doesn’t shoot, guard, pass or especially rebound.

8:18: Serious KJ time capsule play there. He actually creates his own shot off the dribble, misses, loiters, steals a rebound and scored while fouled. Watch WVU on a shot. Players aren’t leaving because it’s pretty obvious DePaul isn’t going to rebound.

8:21: Alex Ruoff shown on the scoreboard at halftime. Wouldn’t be right to share the senior night joke I just heard.

8:23: Yeah, I think Miles got the memo. Missed a jumper terribly, but sprinted back and blocked the attempted layup. Energy is a major plus from him.

8:23: Poor Nique — goes 0-for-2 at the line, which makes him 2-for-6. The second one hits the back of the glass so hard a DePaul player flinches and Nique is called for a foul as he scoots past the flinching player.

8:24: Note to self: When a player wraps his arms around you, it’s actually not an automatic foul. I had no idea.

8:26: Update: Nique: 11-for-33 from the line (33.3 percent), Brown 10-for-42 (23.8) from 3-point range.

8:27: Oh boy, Nique, Deniz and Brown on the floor at once. Add Browne, if it’s Bad Browne.

8:28: Layup.

8:28: Layup! And WVU tried to hard to turn the ball over on that possession. The Mountaineers really want to lead by 20, but can’t get there. In fact, a 19-point lead gets snipped when Moses Morgan makes a 3 in transition.

8:33: Truck — 7-12, 2-4, 8-10, 24 points.

8:34: Can’t get all the way out of their way, can they? Browne throws one to DePaul and it’s a layup on the other end. The and-one free throw misses and KJ loses it, to everyone’s surprise, and Morgan hits a jumper and its 63-51.

8:36: The good Jabarie gets in the lane, gets in a little trouble, but scores because no one will guard him on the other team, then steals the ball at mid-court and strolls in for a layup. He’s 6-for-8 and has 14 points. He was 6-for-30 for 15 the previous four games.

8:38: DePaul will get you right. Deniz hooks one in for just his second basket, but Huggins is trying to get him going. Wonder if Purnell would scrimmage against WVU before whatever tournament it is the Mountaineers go to.

8:39: Finally, the 20-point lead at 71-51. It lasts about 15 seconds, but it happened.

8:41: Elixir! Brown makes a 3!

8:42: Jonathan Kimble is your new Mountaineer mascot. An excitable fella, he is.

8:46: Back-to-back good games out of Rutledge. You have to adjust your expectations with him — he’s going to miss free throws, for example — but he’s active in that painted area and that’s a big benefit when KJ gets as much attention as he does.

8:54: Keeping an eye on UConn and Providence here. UConn can’t lose that one, but UConn is down five with less than two minutes to go.

8:56: Um, attendance is 10,255.

8:57: KJ is going to come out soon to a big-time ovation and walk off the floor with 22 points and 16 rebounds. Pushing hard toward the BEPOTY finish.

8:59: Must be said Truck has been acceptably aggressive and offensively efficient in back-to-back games. Wonder what that means going forward. Good week? Good omen? We’ll see.

9:01: WVU scored a season-high 97 points at home against Alcorn State Nov. 17. The Mountaineers have 90 with 1:54 to gol.

9:02: KJ and Truck come off the floor and let the record show they were replaced by Tom McCune and PHW. And McCune gets an assist on his first touch.

9:03: Browne misses a 3 and then gets paid-by-the-hour Jamie Luckie a little more scratch by taking a block on the run.

9:05: Miles with another block on a play he could have surrendered with 30 second to play. That’s the final action as WVU wins 92-75.