This was not a particularly pretty game last season, but it was fun from start to crazy finish. There were stretches of good and goofy play and then a strategically organized conclusion that featured two buzzer-beaters, but just one that counted.

Juwan Staten, of course, won the game with a cheeky reverse layup and then WVU nearly did what WVU did all last season and gave up a 3-pointer to Kenny Chery that nearly won the game, but that was waved off because it came a touch too late.

These teams have changed a lot since then. Gone are Eron Harris and Terry Henderson for WVU and the Mountaineers have welcomed seven first-year players and totally renovated the way they play. The Bears said goodbye to Ike Austin, Cory Jefferson and Brady Heslip, three of the team’s top four scorers, and said hello to a few newcomers, as well, but they remain long and tall and still excel at rebounding.

The static might decide this game. WVU has Staten. Baylor has Chery. They’re the engineers to their respective attacks, and each has to possess a particular set of skills today. Chery has to handle WVU’s pressure and defer to ball-handlers and incorporate his shooters. Staten has to solve Baylor’s 2-3 with drives and passes and jumpers.

Chery would also like to avenge last season’s loss — and he kind of did that in the rematch later in the season in Morgantown — because he wasn’t really right throughout that first game. He sprained the big toe on his left foot in a practice before the game in Waco and just didn’t look like did before and has since. Chery sat out the next game, played 20 combined minutes the next two and then absolutely exploded. The Bears went 10-2 to finish the regular season and advance to the Big 12 championship game, and Baylor then beat Nebraska and Creighton in the NCAA Tournament.

Chery was healthy and triple-double good — literally … he had the school’s first in a win against Kansas State — averaged 13.6 points, 4.9 assists and 32 minutes per game as he finished with a flurry.

That wasn’t lost on Chery, and in reality his toe wasn’t the problem last season. The issue was Chery himself. He didn’t want to sit.

“I just wanted to be out there with the fellows and to go through with what they go through,” Chery said. “I wanted to battle with them.”

Born in Montreal and a then a two-year starter at Archbishop Carroll, in Washington, D.C., Chery didn’t have any Division I scholarship offers. He played two seasons at Missouri’s State Fair Community College and was an all-American as a sophomore in the 2012-13 season.

The start to his Division I career wasn’t what he wanted, and Chery declined opportunities to take a break and let his toe heal. It was the only way he knew, the lessons learned from a single mother.

“I wasn’t raised in a wealthy family,” he said. “My mom worked a lot, and that motivated me. She always told me, ‘If you want something, you’ve got to work for it because it’s not going to be given to you.’ That’s always been the main thing in my career and my life. You’ve got to work, work, work and you’ve got to go get things you want.”

He took a cortisone shot before the game against the Mountaineers, but wouldn’t use that as an excuse for letting Staten get by and win the game. Not then, not now.

“I probably would have been better off just keeping him out and getting us used to playing with who we had,” Drew said. “Sometimes you play someone five or 10 minutes a game — and he played more in that West Virginia game — and he’s not as effective, so you’re better off putting a healthy player out there.”

Let’s get ourselves right in the live post …