(Update: It ended well, too. WVU used an eight-run inning to re-take the lead and Sean Carley muscled through two eventful innings and 54 pitches to get the save. On to the TCU v. Baylor winner tomorrow.)

WVU hasn’t been home in a week and road tripped from Lubbock, Texas, to Oklahoma City Sunday for the start of the Big 12 Tournament. The Mountaineers had early practices Monday and again Tuesday so that they might be somewhat conditioned for the 9 a.m. EST start time today.

But Tuesday was a big, big day for that team and all it’s grown to encompass. The Mountaineers followed practice with a return venture into Moore, Okla., a year to the day after the EF5 tornado barreled through the town.

I don’t really like making the connection, particularly when the team and the manager try so hard to draw a clear line between real life and sports, but there is meaning within that separation and there was a resiliency, a perseverance to witness there Tuesday. And there was a thought that those were the sorts of things the Mountaineers needed as they played for the fate of the season that could be defined by a lengthy and untimely losing streak or a proud and prosperous run into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.

“What impacted me the most was the people and our kids and the willingness to help people who were in desperate need,” Mazey said. “But more than that was the resiliency of the people from Moore as you walked around and talked to them as they were sitting in lawn chairs next to their homes that looked like a bunch of toothpicks.

“Their mentality, their resiliency, their power to build and to say, ‘Hey, it’s only material possessions. We’ve still got our health, we’ve still got our family,’ that goes a long way with kids and with me, to see people who show that no matter what happens, they’re going to stand up and hold their heads up high and beat this thing and come back stronger than ever.”

WVU started hot and spotted ace Harrison a Musgrave a 2-0 lead, but things have changed against a smoldering Kansas team, which responded with four straight runs to seize control. Follow along here if you’d like.