Here is your link to the audio from the quickly arranged and constructively conceived press conference this morning. It’s about 45 minutes long, but I believe it to be worth the time if you’re interested and invested in what’s happening at the Coliseum.

We’re going to be going over this a lot in the next few days, I’m sure, but let’s begin with some immediate thoughts, both yours and mine.

Long story short, the writers and the camera men who follow the team got a text a little after 8 o’clock this morning inviting us to a press conference with Bob Huggins at the practice facility. It was three-quarters of an hour of questions and answers, critiques and queries to and from both sides of the table. This was entrenched defense of Bob Huggins by Bob Huggins, who doesn’t believe what’s happening here is very different from what’s happening anywhere else.

That’s not a zinger. That’s the most compact, to-the-point synopsis I can give you. It’s the nut graf, if you will.

A big, big point of contention was the statistic flying around out there about the players who transferred or never showed up — and I told my wife this morning before I left that I sensed that would be a problem because a lot of people are misusing and thus misreporting the number.

I’ve been consistent in presenting the numbers from the three years after the Final Four. Sorry, but I believe that time frame matters. True, there have been four seasons and now five recruiting classes since Indianapolis. True, I haven’t extended the number to cover that. I can, if we’d all be more comfortable with that, because it’s 13 players who left or never played out of 23 players signed since the Final Four.

It’s 13 because Remi Dibo is gone. He told assistant coach Erik Martin he was going home to France and planned on pursuing a professional career. Huggins would not set that status in stone, though, because he hasn’t talked to Dibo. That’s odd, but who knows the circumstances there? I’m walked in this morning somewhat certain and walked out completely convinced Terry Henderson’s decision came upon WVU quickly and didn’t really involve the input of his parents.

The point of that, of framing Dibo and Henderson in this discussion, is that weird things do happen out there and weird things have happened here. But they are happening and we’re all right to wonder why and ask how they can be stopped.

That particular part of the conversation was in the middle of a wide-ranging event. It was a little combative at times, but it was useful. People wanted answers and, credit to Huggins, the head coach came to the front and took the bullets and fired off a few of his.

Huggins went over national trends and averages. He retraced his steps through the years and the circumstances that were waiting on him when he arrived. He acknowledged some issues and he said 17-16 won’t cut it, but he maintained the refrain that WVU will be fine, and actually is fine. He also redirected questions or concerns at WVU to the rest of the country, some of which I can agree with and some of which I can’t agree with, to be honest with you.

Look, transfers are happening everywhere. It is an extension of a societal issue with the generation in question. I don’t think anyone can or will argue that. It would be sheer folly to do so.

But I happen to believe the players who don’t show up after time and money was committed to signing them instead of others is a part of this puzzle. I don’t see the relevance of players transferring to lesser schools and leagues.

I can go on there, because that’s the central part of the issue, I think, but we can save that for later. And to be honest, this conversation is larger than that and it deserves to be treated that way, from Mickey’s apparent conspiracy theory that Oliver Luck had his columns yanked at the start to Huggins sitting in the practice facility and pushing for facility upgrades at the end.

So have at it. Listen. Think. Reach. Enjoy.