OK, so we’re five games in now and, putting the opposition aside, I think we can agree WVU shoots and scores with more ease and regularity than expected. At the minimum, it’s far better than it was last season.

Bob Huggins is not yet of the I-told-you-so tone, but he certainly did say early on that this collection of players was capable of making shots and scoring points. The point scoring part is coming from a quicker, guard-oriented tempo that’s not dragged down by bigs who won’t run and guards who won’t pass.

The Mountaineers are generating extra possessions — about seven more a game; I know it’s early, but to illustrate the point, those extra seven take them from being ranged in the mid 230s in possessions per 40 minutes last season to the mid 90s this season — and thus extra opportunities to score, to say nothing of all the free throws they’ve forced upon the opposition with their style.

This is where we talk about the competition and where we say the only “good” team WVU has faced is the team that beat WVU. And I think with regard to scoring, that has some merit.

But there seems to be a redeeming and almost relative quality about jump shots going through the basket. Good teams make open shots. It tends to be more about you than them. True, opponents can guard better and closer and do different things to discourage made shots, but there is staying power to a team that gets open and makes jump shots. Not just 3-pointers, like six players on this team absolutely can do, but 18 footers off a dribble, step-in 16 footers, 12 footers around a screen, 10 footers on the baseline by one of the two 6-foot-9 freshmen.

WVU isn’t exactly playing the game at the rim, but WVU is among the group of the next-to-the-best shooting and scoring teams in the country.

The question now is how long can it last?