Fun game Saturday at the Coliseum, and one West Virginia labeled a “must-win,” not because the Mountaineers are in a bad place or in any real postseason peril, but mostly because it was a “mustn’t-lose.”

“We have three losses this year and two came at home,” said point guard Juwan Staten, who rebounded from two poor games last week with 18 points and 12 assists against the Horned Frogs. “We really want to win the league and we really want to do something special. You have to win your home games and steal some on the road. We let some games get away here, which is why we had to protect our home from here on out.”

The Mountaineers (16-3, 4-2 Big 12) are now tied for third place in the Big 12 thanks in part to No. 9 Iowa State (14-4, 4-2) losing Saturday at Texas Tech. WVU can make a move toward the top this week when it plays at second-place Kansas State (12-8, 5-2) at 8 p.m. Tuesday on ESPN2 and then plays host to Texas Tech (11-9, 1-6) at noon this Saturday on ESPNU.

WVU dropped to No. 24 in the RPI during its week between games and jumped to No. 17 Sunday. It could have been worse with a loss to the Horned Frogs, who squandered multiple chances to win the game in regulation and overtime, and missed 6 of 12 free throws in the final 8:15 of the game.

“Honestly,” Staten said, “I’m not even thinking about if that happens. I’m glad it happened the way it happened.”

It was a good day for the Mountaineers, who were set up for trouble. They had a week off after the 27-point loss to Texas, and they had lowly TCU at home on the other end of the break. That’s tricky, and WVU looked to be tricked for parts of the second half. It was not clinical how the Mountaineers escaped with a win, but it was a win after a pair of close losses at home. All the things they did wrong, or did not have go right, against LSU and Iowa State were handled much better against TCU.

(Aside: This is where I feel for the Horned Frogs. They played great for the final 13 minutes, save one “desperation-paced” possession with the lead late in regulation. Worked for good shots, took good shots and made most of them. They were 5 for 6 in overtime, and they lost. They deserved a win … and they deserved to lose. They went 6 for 12 at the free-throw line in the final 8:15, and though I like Trent Johnson and think he’s good at his job, I can’t for the life of  me understand or accept his strategy late. Kyan Anderson was 7 for 7 at the foul line in the game and is above 89 percent for the season. He was the inbounder to guys who are lucky to make 50 percent. It was stunning. I think the receiver was supposed to get it back to Anderson, but there were a few problems with that. 1) The receiver kept catching and turning up the floor. Totally ignored Anderson. 2) WVU closed off Anderson … because WVU knew TCU struggles mightily at the line. “Our coaches kept us informed about that,” Carter said. “They told us who to foul and who not to foul. They said that whatever we do, make sure we don’t foul Anderson.” Doesn’t somebody in purple have to fix that? That’s not asking much. Daxter Miles isn’t the normal inbounder after baskets and he won the damn game with his heads up play. Just a poor, poor finish for a very game TCU team.)

As for the end, that pass Miles makes is just perfect, and Carter makes a tricky play to field the ball on an odd hop and pretty much take it in stride to the basket. If he touches that earlier or tries to clean catch it out of the air, he might run out of time or at least have a devil of a time getting himself back on track to the basket. I will tell you this, too: There are days when WVU has its pre-practice interviews and Huggins does a little extra with us and practice starts behind him and the Mountaineers work on a drill that features a full-court pass, a catch and a layup.

That was a fun finish — the last seven minutes — to an otherwise ordinary game. Consider Miles was 2 for 11 from 3-point range in Big 12 play — and was benched for a bonehead one-handed, let’s-see-if-I-can-start-a-fast-break rebound/pass — before making two enormous 3s in the final 30 seconds of overtime … the first with Carter waving his arms for the ball 15 feet to the right. But between Charles Hill Jr.’s second-half heat check, Trey Zeigler’s short jumpers, Miles’ length-of-the-court layup, Miles’ 3s and then the freshmen connection at the end, wow, that was a lot to handle.

And then there were the men in black and white. They deserve heat for this one, but go at it the right way, please. It’s not enough to say the game was poorly officiated and simply point at the number of fouls called … and then complain about fouls that weren’t called … and then point out, oh yeah, WVU fouls a lot. In a 45 minute game with one team pressing and one team being fouled to the free throw line because it stinks there and one team that fouls more than anyone else in the entire country, you’re going to have a lot of fouls. So that’s lazy criticism.

Just say it: That game was poorly officiated because three officials did a poor job with just about everything. It’s not often reporters who see games regularly in person and are used to a tolerable level of nonsense talk among themselves after a game about how bad it was, but that happened Saturday. It was terrible and beyond recent comparison, and not merely because “They called a lot of fouls!”

Seriously, you had coaches stomping all over the floor and bench warnings to both teams, and then even more egregious behavior by coaches and benches afterward. (Don’t get me started on why officials don’t T or eject at WVU. I have a theory that has support, but I don’t have time to fashion tin foil caps for all of you right now.)

But, hey, stop play to make Devin Williams tuck in his jersey. We need to know you’re there and in control after you stare at a ball kicked out of bounds and then kick the call just as hard. I mean, they stopped the game with WVU down by a point in overtime because Miles hit a 3 from well beyond the 3-point line. TCU was right to be upset there because it gave WVU a chance to organize without calling a timeout when it was clear Miles was nowhere near the line. If you can’t make that call in the moment, you’re a problem.

There were lane violations and moving screens and over-the-back and simple things that could have been called, but weren’t, and that’s normal, and at least the officials were consistent there. But TCU traveled out of so, so, so many traps that I was starting to sympathize with the Mountaineers. And then, at the worst possible, least logical and thus most obvious moment, they finally pay attention to sneakers and call TCU for traveling out of a trap … and then overturn it and call a foul on Nathan Adrian because Nathan Adrian. I’ve never seen that. I’ve never seen an official make the call, take ball, go out of bounds, confer with a guy who was 20 feet away and then defer to that point of view. That could and probably would have been a story after the game.

I’ll leave you by repeating what I said before the game. After two months of the season and three weeks of league games, you had three officials who had seen WVU play a combined two times … and one was the second game of the season. I think there’s something to the idea you have to see the Mountaineers to understand them, but that’s just as dangerous for the other team. Sure, officials might be caught off guard and seek to adjudicate WVU’s aggression. But WVU will push the envelope, literally, and get away with what officials allow and then back off once the line is drawn. I don’t know how you cure that issue except with time, which means more patience from you.