Probably should have seen this coming. West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, who was probably keeping his players on guard when he said he thought Phil Forte might play Saturday, spoke to the Mountaineers in a more deliberate manner when he repeatedly said energy levels were low and fading of late and that they needed to be restored Saturday or else.

Truth be told, I think WVU knew it was better than Oklahoma State, and the veteran maneuver by the coach all but guaranteed great verve from the jump — particularly with Jon Holton, who takes such comments as an affront.

“I feel like I bring the energy and start the energy and get the guys going,” Holton said. “I try, man. I try. But I guess I wasn’t trying hard enough.

“But [Saturday], when I started screaming and saying, ‘Let’s go,’ and started my countdown and they got 10-seconds calls and started to turn the ball over, their eyes got wide. Once we saw that, we kept attacking.”

Up next: Kansas, which will remain No. 1 after winning in Lubbock, Texas, last night. WVU has won the last two home games against Jayhawks and probably should have won the one in Lawrence, Kan., which might have ended KU’s streak of 11 straight shared or outright Big 12 titles.

It’s been a long time since the Mountaineers played host to a No. 1-ranked team and a longer time since they beat one, but color them unfazed by the occasion.

“They’re No. 1, but what does that mean?” forward Devin Williams said. “What if we were put in the top 10 when we first started? What would we be? So it’s like there’s nothing we can do about that number they’ve got right now. It’s more of who decides who’s going to be top 10 when the season starts. That’s just pretty much it.

“Just imagine if we were already in the top 25. We had to put ourselves in the top 25. At the end of the day, we should feel disrespected because we’re just as good as anybody in the country as a whole.”