So that wasn’t a good look for WVU and whatever place it had in line as one of the Last Four In or First Four Out or Next Four Out. I suppose the good news is not a lot of people saw it, but that Bottom Line and the box score shows the Mountaineers were 17 points worse than Texas, and that after being 11 points worst than Texas last month.

Absent context, it’s a blowout for a team that’s good, but still just four games above .500 and only one game better than even in the conference.

With context, it’s no better. There’s no “yeah, but…” to tack onto the score. Texas made a big run early and only once let WVU get close — and then went on an 8-0 run to escape again into double digits and stay there the rest of the way.

The Longhorns had an answer at every intersection.

“I know we missed some shots, but we didn’t respond the way we need to respond,” said coach Bob Huggins, who talked with his team for more than a half an hour in the locker room after the game. “We couldn’t guard. Couldn’t. Didn’t. Wouldn’t. You can’t let people shoot that well, especially when you’re not making any shots.”

And here’s the kicker: The Mountaineers will have no rebuttal until they play host to Baylor (back-to-back wins, by the way) Saturday. People can jump line between now and then, and even if one is just measured against WVU, the last anyone has seen of WVU is getting dunked on 10 times and letting Texas shoot a season-high 57.9 percent.

Then again, Texas has WVU’s number, right? It’s best two shooting days of the season are against the Mountaineers. The offense has twice now come oh, so easy. The matchups are very much in favor of the Longhorns. They rebound much better and guard much, much better and seem to have some sort of a blanket to toss atop Juwan Staten.

So maybe it’s one team, two nights and not much else. Texas can do that with its team, and that defense with those long guys on the perimeter and the big guys down low can give people trouble.

I asked Eron Harris about that — Is this the best defensive team in the league? — and, oh, man, he got very philosophical with his reply.

“They’re all good defensively. I think we didn’t have the night we wanted to have. I’m not going to label anybody the best. I think we’re all a team. We all play game by game. Whoever wins wins. Whoever doesn’t win doesn’t win.”
— Harristotle

I think he thinks they’ll be all right. Do you?