We’re prone to make a point and you’re prone to be concerned about a pretty obvious fact about this West Virginia team: So, so short on postseason experience.

I mean, seven straight postseason losses, a collective seven games of win-or-go-home postseason experience and seven players who will make their do-or-die postseason debut Friday against Buffalo. Eleven of the 12 Mountaineers who will be available in the 2:10 p.m. TNT game at Nationwide Arena will be new to the NCAA tournament, which is so thoroughly different from the NIT that the value of last year’s postseason can be couched quite a bit … but not completely, and more on that in a moment.

You’d like to joke with Gary Browne, he of the lone NCAA tournament experience, he who grew up in Puerto Rick and didn’t know the spectacle until he was a high school senior in Jacksonville, Fla., about how he’ll use his vast knowledge to benefit his teammates — but he’s serious about it.

“I told the guys that this is what you’ve worked for,” Browne said. “It’s the best experience you can possibly get out of your career — if you make it something special. You don’t want to take it for granted. My freshman year, we lost in the first round, but I had three more years, and I thought, ‘We’re going to make it happen.’ But look what happened. We didn’t make it back the next two years.

“Now we’re here again, but at the same time, we’re not talking about being in the tournament. We’re talking about winning it.”

But Buffalo, about to make its NCAA tournament debut, has even less this-is-it postseason experience. The Bulls played in the 2012 CBI and then-freshmen Will Regan (now a top reserve) and Xavier Ford (now a starter) were 1-1. That’s it.

So neither team is especially well-versed in what March Madness means, or requires, and we can likely ascertain it’s not that big of a variable when the ball starts spinning Friday. Still, WVU would seem to have one advantage and it is the otherwise forgettable NIT experience last season.

Turns out the Mountaineers sort of hated that and raged against repeating that reality this season.

“Want me to be honest with you?” Browne asked. “I didn’t even want to go. I did not want to go. You know the mentality some people have? ‘OK, we made the NIT. Let’s make a run.’ I felt like we didn’t have that mentality.

“I felt like we were frustrated we didn’t make it where we wanted to go and we didn’t do what we were supposed to do to make the NCAAs. To be honest with you, in my perspective, I did not want to go to the NIT because I was frustrated and mad we didn’t get the opportunity to play in the NCAAs.”

The road back to this point began as the Mountaineers walked off the floor at McDonough last season. They are very different. Players have departed and enrolled since then. Their attacking defense facilitates the offense. They survived a slip at the end of the season, where three losses in four games were defined by the absences of Browne and Staten, and made good on the promise they made to themselves after losing to Georgetown.

It’s not that WVU didn’t want to end the season with a loss. They didn’t want to be in the NIT.

“The NIT is the second-best tournament,” Staten said. “I feel like if you’re a competitor and you want to play on the biggest stage, you want to be in the NCAA tournament. This year we’re going to the NCAA tournament. Last year we were in the NIT. I think that’s kind of self-explanatory.

“I don’t think any team that’s traditionally been in the NCAAs wants to be in the NIT. Whenever that happens, it’s not really a disappointment, because there’s still basketball to be played, but you’re not as happy as we are right now.”

That’s all for me today. I’m on the way to Columbus, and Chuck and I have big things planned for the blog Thursday and the newspaper Friday. WiFi willing, we’ll be live during the game, too. Don’t forget to get into our bracket pool and/or to tell everyone you know and want to beat. Show them this link.