WVU, now 3-7 in the past 10 games, which is a positive because it’s not 2-8, had a whale of a Senior Night Tuesday. So many things went right at a pretty ideal time and people walked off the floor and into an off day thinking “Hey, maybe we’re pulling it together here!”  When the Mountaineers had to script things right, it was hard to script things any better.

“It feels good to win,” Bryant said. “I’m not even going to talk about Senior Night. It just feels good to win.”

The Blue Demons (11-18, 2-15) were just what the Mountaineers needed. Set to finish in last place in the Big East for the fourth straight season, DePaul has the league’s worst field-goal percentage defense, scoring defense and rebounding margin.

WVU shot 31-for-61 and the 50.8 percent was the highest in 11 games. The 92 points was more than any other game except the 97-62 home win against Alcorn State Nov. 17. The Mountaineers outrebounded DePaul 47-27, their second-best rebounding total and rebounding margin all season and, again, behind just the Alcorn State game.

DePaul played into WVU’s strengths, which have been covered up by the opposition’s plans. Teams don’t spread out against the Mountaineers and instead pack the middle, which congests the area where WVU likes to rebound and dares the Mountaineers to make shots to win games.

DePaul presses and WVU was only rarely troubled on the way to its best offensive game in quite some time. The Mountaineers had just 11 turnovers and led by as many as 25 points. They tried only 11 3-point shots and had a season-high 46 points in the paint.

“When you press like that you spread the floor and when you open the floor you score more points,” Coach Bob Huggins said. “That’s the nature of our game. The more compacted things are, the less you score.”

Afterward, and right about the time bubble-dweller UConn suffered a brutal loss to Providence, that old moving target moved again. Opinions will differ on this, and right up through the end of next week, but more and more now WVU believes WVU is in the NCAA Tournament.

The opinion from the press row sitter is that West Virginia’s 92-75 victory in Tuesday’s Senior Night game puts Coach Bob Huggins’ team (18-12, 8-9) one win from an NCAA Tournament berth for a fifth consecutive season.

“I don’t know if we need any more,” Huggins replied when asked about an NCAA bid-clinching wins number. “I think we’re in pretty good shape. I’d feel a whole lot better with a couple more, but …”