2 hours prior to tip, the Jayhawk students are ready. We need the same enthusiasm from the @WVUMANIACS on Mon night pic.twitter.com/UpFjClO8wB

— Bob Huggins (@CoachHuggs) February 8, 2014

I won’t go into great depth again about what it’s like to be at a basketball game here at Allen Fieldhouse. If you’re curious, check out the pregame blog activity form last year’s game. There are a couple truly special places to be for a game, and we’ve seen a few of them through the years covering games in Pittsburgh (sorry!) and at UCLA. I’ve even been to the Palestra and Hinkle. The Phog wants for nothing and needs not apologize for anything. You should try to get here once.

… almost done.

That Huggins tweet is a bit misleading — the students are out three-plus hours before the game. You get the point, though.

I think what WVU fans and students and maybe even organizers fail to address about the game day experience is that at the best places the game is the main event at the end of a list of happenings.

Here, the Kansas women’s basketball coach interacts with the crowd two hours before the tip and tries to get support for her game tomorrow.

OK, the people here are hoops crazy, and the teams are good, so that helps, but there’s effort. There’s a constant stream of activity here, and it’s like that at Oklahoma State and Kansas State and the best of the bunch.

The Kansas students who are in here hours before the game — the  ones in the Huggins photo are outside while the above is happening — are primed for cheers to use in the game. They have songs and contests and hype men. The main reason people don’t want to get to games early is because there’s nothing to do. WVU has the pep band and … actually, that’s about it.

It’s pretty easy to have contests and to give away prizes or to have some sort of entertainment before the game. How many house bands, for example, would like to play a set before a game? That and the Kroger shopping cart shootout and some other little things can get people there early and fill the time.

True, the teams come out and have to shoot around in their warmups, but it’s not hard to get a DJ or someone with a microphone or a pep band with some sheet music for today’s hits to inject some energy.

And I’m done. With. Not with this. Let’s throw it to the post … something you might not say again today with Joel Embiid in the building.