(Thanks again to BlueGoldNews.com. The postseason has different postgame procedures, most notably an open locker room, but that 30-minute window happens when the coach and select players have a press conference. I opted for the locker room.)

Yesterday wasn’t a total loss for Bob Huggins and West Virginia’s basketball team. True, true, the Mountaineers coughed up the Big 12 quarterfinal against Baylor and lost 80-70.

Baylor, which led by no more than five points in the first half, took a 55-49 lead on Prince’s layup with 13:21 remaining. The Mountaineers answered with an 11-2 run that saw the Bears call two timeouts, turn the ball over twice and miss all four of their shots. Paige and Williams both made two baskets and Brandon Watkins had his first basket since he scored a career-high 14 points against Kansas State on Feb. 11.

Williams then missed the front end of a one-and-one up 60-57 and Jonathan Motley beat everyone down the floor for a dunk over a scurrying Williams. Phillip’s jumper was answered by one from Baylor, and Phillip’s turnover preceded Prince’s third 3-pointer of the game. That was the 10th and final lead change of the game and put Baylor up 64-62.

Huggins called a timeout and Elijah Macon rebounded Phillip’s miss and tipped in a third shot on the possession to tie the score for the 11th and final time with 6:37 left to play. Gathers scored inside and Macon missed the front end of the one-and-one before O’Neale made 1 of 2 at the foul line for a 67-64 lead.

Williams made two free throws and Gathers missed a pair before Carter’s open 3 rattled out. Miles rebounded a Baylor miss and dribbled the ball up the floor while telling his teammates to slow down the pace. He promptly tried a long pass to the left side that Prince stole.

“Stupid play on my part,” Miles said. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

Prince dribbled to his basket, bobbled the ball as he went up and caught it as he was fading out of bounds under the basket, but found Gathers at the rim for a dunk. Carter then lost his dribble up top and Medford took it the other way for a basket.

“It’s one thing to get a turnover,” Bears coach Scott Drew said. “It’s another thing to get a turnover and a conversion.”

No, they haven’t won a conference tournament game since this happened:

And, no, they haven’t won a postseason game since this happened:

That’s a long time, but that story is exactly as big as you want to make it. Don’t get me wrong: It matters. But you can only make so many comparisons about the 2011 team and this team, you know?

Plus, for the first, say, 33 minutes Thursday, the moment didn’t look to be too big for WVU and eight players who’d never played, never mind won, a Division I postseason game. (Aside: Juwan Staten is the only Mountaineers player to win a postseason game. He was 2-1 in the 2011 Atlantic 10 tournament, and then 0-1 in the NIT.) But they play 40 minutes and the Mountaineers looked a little young and a little more tired and they lost their offensive touch before they started losing possession of the ball.

But there was good news: The leading scorer in junior college basketball, who watched the game and said he was in a defensive stance pleading with the Mountaineers to get a stop, committed to the 2015 recruiting class. Teyvon Myers is old pals with Tarik Phillip, and he helped sell Myers on WVU.

“Tarik told me how it really was,” he said. “Every coach is going to tell you what you want to hear, but I feel like Coach Huggins was the only one who told me the real. Coach Harrison only told me the real. Coach Martin only told me the real. Tarik told me exactly the same things they said, so I was like, ‘All right, everyone can’t be lying. I think that’s the place for me.’”

He is a volume scorer who put up numbers because Williston played frenetic offense and defense, and the end of the game Thursday proved again WVU lacks and needs a player who can jump up and get a shot when the offense needs it. Staten could get to the basket. Gary Browne is, if nothing else offensively, good at getting fouled. One, the other or both would have been useful as time ticked away against the Bears. Myers, with James Bolden and Esa Ahmad and the 10 freshmen, sophomores and juniors on scholarship, puts WVU at 13 scholarships for next season, which is the NCAA max. I think we’re being naive to believe all 10 are coming back, though.

And while we’re on the topic of comebacks, Staten vowed Thursday to play next week in the NCAA tournament. “I’m confident that when next week comes, I’ll be out there on the court and I’ll be playing like me,” he said, while refusing to say what’s wrong at the moment.

Will he play? I don’t know. I do know everything matters, and WVU is in a really weird spot right now as it waits for Selection Sunday, and Thursday’s spectacle can’t hurt.

This is a nine-loss team. It was the 5 seed in its conference tournament. Nine-loss teams usually aren’t top-five seeds in the NCAA bracket. The Mountaineers are 5-5 in their past 10 games and they’ve lose three out of four. They look and feel like a 6 or 7 seed, and there’s a difference.

Barring an upset, the Sweet Sixteen for a 6 goes through a 3 seed and 7 has to get past a 2. Based on projections — and this one has WVU as a 5, as do others — there isn’t much of a drop off from 1 to 2 this season, but there is a larger drop from 2 to 3. The 11 seed that plays the 6 in the first round is oftentimes one of those major conference teams that was among the last teams invited and then has to play one of the two play-in games. WVU’s been there before, ironically enough against Clemson in 2011.

Color me cynical, but seeing Staten Thursday made perfect sense because someone this weekend is going to sit down and look at WVU and have to make a decision. Someone is going to see the recent record and consider the Mountaineers have been without Staten and Browne and say, “Well, that hurt their record, and Staten and Browne were both in uniform Thursday and they both say they’ll be ready to go this week.” Someone could then be forgiven for giving WVU and it’s RPI and strength of schedule and the optimism of returning starters the benefit of the doubt.