What we know from a quick glance about West Virginia’s first round opponent Friday is that it’s a MAC school coached by maybe the best college point guard ever, and The State University of New York at Buffalo is making its first ever trip to the NCAA tournament. That last part would seem to put the Bulls at a disadvantage against a Big 12 school that’s been to a recent Final Four and is coached by one of the best still going, like West Virginia.

That may be true, but remember WVU’s current roster has a grand total of one game of NCAA tournament experience. WVU is No. 24 in the RPI. Buffalo is No. 28. The Bulls won 12 road/neutral games. WVU won 11.

Whoa, you say. One played in the Big 12 and the other played in the MAC. True, though the MAC was No. 10 in conference RPI, right below two-bid leagues like the American and West Coast and above a two-bidder like the Missouri Valley. The Mountaineers also played twice as many RPI top 100 games (19, 10-9 record) as did the Bulls (nine, 4-5 record).

What you find, though, is that these two teams are more alike than the optics suggest, and perhaps that is why this is a vaunted 5 v. 12 game. Just listen to one man’s description of the two teams.

“They really compete,” Huggins said. “I think that’s the biggest thing. I think they’ve adopted Bobby’s personality. They really come after you and do a great job gang guarding, and they play without any fear. That’s a team that’s already played Kentucky in Lexington and Wisconsin in Wisconsin. They’re not going to be in awe, I don’t think.”

Neither will the Mountaineers, even though senior Gary Browne is the only player who’s been in an NCAA tournament game, when he scored 15 points in the 2012 loss to Gonzaga. WVU went through the RPI’s top-rated Big 12 and was 10-9 against the RPI’s top 100, where Buffalo was just 4-5.

WVU played out the final stretch of the season without Staten for four games and without Browne for three games and most of a fourth. Huggins started two freshmen in the backcourt and used seven first-season players in his 10-player rotation in those games, each against an NCAA tournament team.

“I might be wrong, but it just seemed to me those guys played without any fear,” Huggins said. “They go right in there and stick their noses in there and go to work. The freshmen are probably as mentally ready as any freshmen I’ve had in a long, long time. They don’t care who it is or where it is. They just love to play.”

But this isn’t a place for quick glances, is it? Let’s go baseline to baseline.

(Reminder: Enter the tournament pool, and tell your spouse, kids, parents, friends, neighbors and co-workers to do that same. Here’s your link.)

WVU built up most of its top 100 record in Big 12 play. The Bulls did not. Their non-conference strength of schedule was No. 68 and the non-conference RPI was No. 20. That’s really healthy, especially for a MAC school — and don’t forget Buffalo was a bubble team going into the MAC title game. The Bulls weren’t getting in with a loss, but they were that close, and what they did in November and December was why.

WVU’s non-conference strength of schedule was No. 184 and the non-conference RPI was, perhaps surprisingly, No. 31, though as 12-1 record will do that for you. The loss was to LSU, which is fine, if even at home and whilst giving away a 14-point lead, because the Tigers are talented. They made the Field as an at-large team. You can do worse.

Like, say, a loss to St. Bonaventure.

The Bulls were 9-3 in non-conference play with losses at Kentucky and Wisconsin, losses they were very much in for much of the game, losses that were followed by praise from the opposition, praise that gives you a window into what to expect.

The loss on the Bonnies’ home floor looked odd, though. But Buffalo played a pretty bad first half before playing a pretty good second half, and while shorthanded (down a starter and a sub) it never slowed Bonaventure down enough to make a tangible threat. And the Bonnies weren’t terrible, either. A good, though not really good team in the Atlantic 10, which was better than you thought it was this season and was good for one or two big-time games every weekend.

Anyhow, Buffalo is good and has it going at the ideal time. The Bulls were 15-9 and 6-6 in the MAC on Valentine’s Day, and a 75-74 loss to Central Michigan on a free throw with eight seconds to go was the third loss in seven days — by a combined seven points — and the fifth in eight games. That was the last loss, though, and Buffalo is 8-0 since with wins over the teams they lost to in the losing streak.

The clip at the top is worth flipping through or watching in full. It’s not peak Buffalo — check wins against Cornell or Niagara or Ohio for that — because double-double trouble Justin Moss is clearly working through a bad ankle, but the team does what it does with him and around him. The Bulls shoot 49 percent, make 10 3s, win the rebounding battle, get a lot of unassisted baskets and don’t turn the ball over very much. They only had 17 turnovers in the two MAC tournament games, especially impressive because of their pace plus the pace CMU plays with under — wait for it — Keno Davis. Remember him?

The one thing that didn’t make much sense — beyond the 10 3s, which is 40 percent above average, but not entirely uncommon — was the struggle at the free throw line. They missed 11 of 30 attempts, but 30 attempts is not unusual. The Bulls are one of the best at getting to the line and at making free throws, and that’s certainly a concern against touchy fouly WVU.

Free throws — the volume of attempts and the accuracy — are one of a few reasons the Bulls score as much and as well as they do, but they do a number of things well to help on offense: Check the numbers for rebounds and ball security, and not only how they assist ordinary shooting numbers, but how they also oppose WVU’s strengths. It even mirrors how WVU manages its so-so shooting.

Again, these aren’t dissimilar teams, and the comparisons there for possessions per game and points per possession frankly surprised me.

Another example: WVU is a pressing team, and WVU coach Bob Huggins said Buffalo is good at “gang guarding,” and that has nothing to do with protecting the Western New York Crips.

The concern for the Bulls is pretty simple: WVU has more and better players. Buffalo only uses seven on most nights — an eighth is common, but he isn’t getting much burn — and though the guards are good, WVU has more. They’ll tire, to be sure, because that’s WVU’s 32-game-old habit.

The top sevens are going to be reasonably close, but WVU’s going to tax Buffalo’s top seven more and use Nos. 8-12, if need be, to keep the grindstone spinning. I have to think WVU will challenge Moss to see what his ankle has to say about the day, so Devin Williams will be involved. But I think the Bulls will go after Juwan Staten and Gary Browne on offense and defense to ask them questions, as well. Buffalo might extend the bench a little, but that’s fine by the Mountaineers. The early effect of WVU’s pressure vs. Buffalo’s early composure will set the table.

The Bulls have habits, too, and the Mountaineers will have to deal with them, especially in the half court. Buffalo can run, and its three-guard attack yields a lot of transition, but Buffalo can also run good offense. That’s certainly a Bobby Hurley influence that’s made easier by the guards, Shannon Evans, Lamonte Bearden and Jeryn Skeete, who all start and have good to great assist-turnover ratios. It’s something you notice right away about the Bulls — that, and they dunk a lot. Buffalo uses a lot of screen plays and pick-and-roll action. There’s a lot of stuff Hurley learned at Duke, but also from his famed father, Hall of Famer Bob Hurley.