You are looking live at the Coliseum, site of today’s home game against Oklahoma State, the team with the perimeter threat in perpetual motion named Phil Forte. Except that Forte has a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow — you know that as the injury that necessitates Tommy John Surgery.

Forte is — and I mean this in the most polite and complimentary way possible — a nuisance. He doesn’t stop. He runs defenders through screens. He takes quick shots. He pump fakes. He drives. He scores. He gets to the line. And he’s a very good defender.

So consider the relief the Mountaineers feel about the absence they’ll encounter here this afternoon.

“It’ll be a relief to not have to run around and chase him all around the court,” Mountaineers guard Jaysean Paige said. “He’s a good shooter and a good all-around player. He can shoot the ball and attack the rim. Him being out makes it a little easier, but we wish he was out here. It’s nothing like beating Oklahoma State with Forte.”

So the Cowboys are prepared to move on without Forte, and they seem to finally be used to and accepting of that reality.

Except …

“The information I got was it was going to be a game-day decision,” WVU coach Bob Huggins said. “I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s not going to play.”

With or without Forte, the Cowboys play at the Coliseum, and that figures to help the Mountaineers more than anything else. WVU’s press was not at the expected levels at Kansas State and TCU — credit the opposition — and the theory is the travel took a toll and the familiar surroundings will restore what which was missing.

Huggins doesn’t think the changes he made to the press before the season were issues late in the second month of the schedule. He didn’t change anything when the team was away from home and hasn’t made any alterations since returning early Tuesday morning.

He saw a team that was a tick slow and a step behind on some plays, that didn’t anticipate as quickly or break as sharply to make plays and cause problems.

“I think if we had to do it again, I’d have come home from Blacksburg and be home for a day or a day-and-a-half rather than go straight to Manhattan,” he said. “You fight with those things. What’s the right thing to do? I didn’t know.”

WVU won three road games in succession for the first time in 26 years, but Huggins believes the games and the days away from home added up and led to struggles that were more physical than conceptual.

“They were great,” he said. “Their attitude and everything, they were great. It wasn’t that. They had no bounce in their step, and the worst thing is we haven’t really had a bounce in our step since we got back. We were god-awful [Thursday].

“If we don’t have a bounce in our step [today], it could be a long day. We need to get to their shooters. They shoot the ball now. I think probably them and Oklahoma shoot the ball as well as anybody in our league.”

Shoot, we thrive in the post …