I’m not entirely sure what Randy Mazey hoped to accomplish yesterday when WVU’s baseball coach rounded up his team so that the Mountaineers could travel the 10 or so miles from the team hotel in Oklahoma City to the town of Moore that was just devastated by a tornado.

Hey, I’m sure he wanted to help, but I’m just as sure just as sure it was still dangerous to simply exist in that area. There were tornadoes in the region and conditions can be very volatile after one of those clouds barrels through.

The news begged people to stay put, to let the brave first responders and emergency personnel do what they do and to let the people who once lived where there is now just rubble return to their homes and begin the just unimaginable tasks of looking for loved ones or putting their lives back together again. Or both.

So, no, I can’t say I completely grasp Mazey’s thinking. Nor do I know how I would have responded. None of that matters because all I know is this is a guy who saw a tragedy beyond description and immediately thought, “We’re helping.”

Not “How can we help?” or “Should we help?” There’s a difference. Please note that.

The Mountaineers were told to stay in their hotel and they never got to the site, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t help. That merely meant they couldn’t help the way Mazey wanted. Unable to bring his roster to the scene, he instead brought his players to Walmart for a well-intended  shopping spreed.

The Mountaineers filled baskets with clothes and supplies and bagged up their purchases so they could deliver them to the people who need T-shirts and water and shoes and snacks, but also all the compassion and warmth and generosity that comes with every one of those bags.

I don’t know when or where they’ll play the Big 12 Tournament this week, or if they will at all, but I know there isn’t an outcome in which WVU isn’t a winner. This isn’t a sports story. Not now. This is real life. It would have been easy to do nothing — I think I spent a few paragraphs explaining that — but it wouldn’t have been right. Just take a few minutes and go through the team’s Twitter timeline and try not to be proud of what the Mountaineers did. Wouldn’t hurt to drop them a message, either.