Devin Williams has had a lot to cheer about in just shy of two seasons of college basketball at West Virginia. His performances against Texas? Not exactly bright spots. Williams knows it, too, and he’s made comments to the effect of “This time will be different!” between the second and third and third and fourth games.

On the cusp of the fifth, he’s seemed to tone it down, saying that No. 20 Wests Virginia wants Texas, which makes sense for a team that believes it’s on the uptick, but has had it’s number taken by the Longhorns the past four times the teams have played. But it wasn’t dagger-wielding and vengeful. It was traced with respect and acknowledgments of the past. He knows the score, and he understands that he’s probably made it a bit too personal in the past.

“I think I definitely have, but it’s the competitive spirit in me,” Williams said. “Last year, I didn’t know a lot of what was going on as far as the Big 12 opposition and things like that. I was just trying to challenge myself. I haven’t been too successful with that, but I have to keep challenging myself, and the only way to get better is to figure that out.”

Williams has never predicted a victory against Texas. This is not Pittsnogle v. Marshall. He’s merely vowed to play better and not to repeat past performances, and that hasn’t proved to be true as of yet. And so it wasn’t surprising 1) that we asked Williams about Texas right the heck after beating Oklahoma State and 2) he didn’t hide his desire to play the game and get that line right on his resume. He tempered his competitive spirit this time, but the point remained.

“I do that from time to time,” he said. “That’s just me being excited out there to play against those guys. I need to be just more toned down about it and go out there and play ball. Sometimes I go out there and try to do too much.”

There are worse transgressions for college players, never mind ones literally in the middle of a team’s plan. Safe to say Bob Huggins would have in the past few seasons liked a couple more players who took things personally and wanted it too badly and even tried to do too much to make it happen the way it happens in their heads. We forget Williams is tying his Nikes and slipping on the Rec Specs for the 60th time tonight, and he’s had to learn on a slope as a critical figure in the post all while playing with his back to the basket for the first time at a level even closely resembling this one.

Pardon him for trying to be enthusiastic about the challenge, the opportunity, the privilege and endeavoring to right how he feels he and his teammates have been and have done wrong.

“If I was lucky enough to play professionally and get some money, people don’t tend to have the same passion about what they do, so this is mostly about me going out there trying to get some respect,” Williams said. “That’s all it is for me. I’m trying to get respect. If I have your respect, I feel better about myself. I don’t feel like they respect us as a team, so we’re going to try to go out there and get it. They’re a good team. We can’t take that away from them. It’s about respect at the end of the day.”

Respect the blog …