A long read, but a good one. Join the athletic director as he stands before this hard-to-believe baseball season and takes us back to the blank easel to explain what was done to get to where the Mountaineers are today — in first place in the Big 12.

How did Luck put this all together?

First, he was amazed to see that baseball was not fully funded when he came in, just as the rifle team that year won the NCAA championship also wasn’t fully funded.

“It didn’t take much to fully fund baseball, just like it didn’t take much to fully fund the rifle team. I don’t know why it wasn’t fully funded, but it wasn’t,” he said. “The incremental dollars it took to fully fund baseball wasn’t very much, five figures, that’s all it was.”

That was the first decision, to put the money into the program.

Then he decided that he couldn’t reach the level he was hoping to get to with longtime coach Greg Van Sant.