Lengthy story abbreviated, Eron Harris has had, to me, a fascinating season.

We’ve been over this: He’s a stubborn competitor, and I mean that in the most flattering way possible. He is unrelenting in his refusal to grant ground or praise to the opponent. He’s positive — absolutely positive — that a bad thing that happens one time won’t happen again. He’s an OK defender and an OK rebounder and an OK option to score on the bounce, but honestly, he showed us all something with his dribble drives against Kansas.

Yet on any given day, that OK rating may sink or rise. Sharply, even.

He’s just very fun to watch. He’s a threat to hit about six 3-pointers and throw 25 points in your face. Or he can languish and speak in a universal body language.

He does not quit, and, in fact, has to be reigned in at times, but there are days when it’s just not going to happen for him. Those days are greatly outnumbered by the days that are quite the opposite, but Harris, at this stage in his career, can be contested and frustrated. Then again, Harris can, and has, battled through and beaten that, too.

I can’t decide if he’s more like Joe Alexander, because he’s extremely competitive, delightfully unusual and uniquely quotable, or if he’s more like Da’Sean Butler, because he needs shots to score, he can get hot in a hurry and spook opponents and he can one day be the heartbeat of a team. (And what I do know of the two is their careers are arching similarly. They’re not the same as players, but look at how Butler and Harris trend).

My takeaway is this: Harris isn’t Butler or Alexander. I can one day make a call on that comparison, but Harris is Harris. He’s … he’s different, and that’s fine. That’s more than fine.

“I can’t explain Eron at all,” Huggins would say after a game that defied explanation, WVU’s 92-86 victory over Kansas to earn the sixth seed in the Big 12 Tournament and keep its flickering NCAA hopes alive.

“It’s like that commercial ‘I’m comfortable in my own skin,’” Huggins continued. “We need to get that commercial for Eron. Sometimes he does too much, but he’s trying to win. It’s not him being selfish. When he plays within what he’s capable of doing, he’s pretty doggone good. He got 28 against a heck of a defensive team today.”

That’s what I mean. I know it’s not a good look to call a kid “delightfully unusual,” but it’s obviously not a slight. I’m intrigued by his way. He can be demonstrative and funny and articulate and mad and analytical and it’s never forced. It’s natural, and in my trade, it’s easy to appreciate that.

In basketball terms, though, it can be hard to harness. But Harris tries and means well.

Huggins said the above about Harris after the Kansas game, and for Harris, that came after he scored five points in a loss to Oklahoma. But, man, was anyone fretting about Harris and a free fall after the loss to the Sooners? Doesn’t seem like it. He’s had low moments this season, he’s also been in line with Newton’s Third Law, too.

I mean, we made a meal out of a three-game struggle and I wrote a story that had this line that, when you step back, seems obtuse. The sophomore who led the team in scoring last season and was leading the Big 12 earlier this season enters Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. game at Kansas State averaging a season-low 17.4 points per game.

My goodness! Just 17.4 points per game?!?!

Then he made four 3-pointers, which was as many as he’d made in that three-game stumble, and scored 21 points to help WVU beat Kansas State and end that 16-game losing streak to ranked opponents.

And that leads to this: He’s had issues this season against Texas. Harris was 3-for-11/0-for-7 and had six points in 26 minutes before fouling out at home against the Longhorns. In Austin, Texas, Harris was 5-for-15/2-for-6 and needed to make 9 of 10 free-throw attempts to get to 21 points in 32 minutes.

Again, he can get it right and make what happened before look like the exception and not the rule. Or he can be affected by long perimeter players and by post players running off Mountaineers they’re not worried about abandoning in the paint so that they can fluster Harris.

You get the feeling Harris is worried only about Thursday, and not two days in the previous two months, if for no other reason than the way he made the much quicker turnaround from Oklahoma to the Jayhawks.