Working on Cactus Bowl Good & Bad, but keep hitting roadblocks. Yesterday: News. Today: How was this not targeting? pic.twitter.com/3AAgWFY5ey

— Mike Casazza (@mikecasazza) January 7, 2016

I really intended to have this out today in place of the F Double. We knew it was going to be later than normal because of all the travel and the basketball game, but, man, this week. Several interruptions, and I’m not yet finished. But I will get this out today, if even at 11:59 p.m.

Meanwhile, in a scheduling quirk I can only see as coincidental and perhaps slightly meaningful, WVU basketball plays Oklahoma State and Kansas in succession for the third straight time when the Cowboys visit the Coliseum Saturday and the top-ranked Jayhawks visit Tuesday.

The last time this happened, the Mountaineers played without Juwan Staten and Gary Browne, and of course, that’ll happen again this time. It was that last back-to-back that forecasted the future and gave replacement players their first glimpse at what we’re seeing this season.

“It’s the big guy standing on the sideline,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of WVU coach Bob Huggins. “The way West Virginia plays, they basically have replaceable parts. What I mean by that is the way they put pressure on you, it fits the personnel, not just 1 through 5, but 1 through 10.”

Staten led the team in scoring last season (14.2 points per game). He and Browne combined for 21.2 points per game. Daxter Miles, who started all season, and Jevon Carter, who Huggins slipped into the starting lineup in place of Staten, combined for 15.3 points per game.

The injuries to Staten and Browne did more than promote Carter and prepare him for the role he has this season. It gave others deeper on the bench a greater opportunity. Guard Tarik Phillip averaged 7.7 points in the three games without the starting guards. He averaged 4.1 points for the season. Jaysean Paige averaged 5.6 points last season but averaged 9.7 in the same three games.

Paige is now second on the team in scoring (12.9) and leads the way shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range. Philip averages 7.9 points per game and is 8 for 12 from 3-point range the past six games after starting 0 for 12.

As WVU readies for home games Saturday at 1 p.m. against Oklahoma State and Tuesday at 7 p.m. against top-ranked Kansas, the Carter-Miles-Phillip-Paige group averages 46.4 points. The Staten-Browne-Miles-Carter combination averaged 33.5.

“Coach Huggins is going to do a great job with his team, and it’s not all about the personnel necessarily,” Cowboys coach Travis Ford said. “They’re going to play the way they play, no matter who’s on the court.

“They don’t get too caught up in, ‘We’re not going to have this guy or that guy.’ You just know what to expect out of West Virginia teams. They’re going to play extremely hard, press you and execute their offense. It doesn’t matter who’s in the game.”