Fun exercise: Say WVU didn’t win Tuesday. Just lost a home game to the No. 1-ranked team in the country instead. The Mountaineers then go to No. 2 and lose by two points on a tip-in. It’s a very different story right now, is it not? WVU would be 3-2 in the league and 0-3 against teams with a pulse, never mind a number next to their names, and you’d be right to wonder about certain things … though with certain limitations. You’d avoid extremes, I think.

But WVU did win Tuesday and that puts Saturday’s result in a different light, but the Mountaineers are not without their issues. Free-throw shooting finally cost them. The half-court offense waned after halftime. The bench has outscored the starters in each of the past two games, and the starting five scored just 10 baskets in both. Devin Williams has not been up to his standards since the start of conference play, and foul trouble has haunted him. Daxter Miles is over his ankle injury but under a dark cloud, and Bob Huggins cooled Miles off Saturday when the sophomore took some shots the head coach did not like.

I know, I know. It’s the about the nitpickiest assessment, and it feels like whining about the sun at the beach, but revert to the beginning. WVU’s not ludicrously far — ie, one home win against No. 1 — from being in a very different role, so don’t let that one win overshadow the team’s vulnerabilities. In the first three conference games, the Mountaineers didn’t do a lot of elite-level stuff, and that would include press, but they did do a number of very good to great things. The combination was enough, and WVU overwhelmed those teams.

Remember, that was their strength, and that was important. But thanks to a variety of strengths and contributors, the Mountaineers are going to win some of those games, and they’re going to be the better team on many nights.

WVU isn’t going to win a lot of beauty pageants. Rock fights? Sure. The Kansas game was different. Many things came together at the optimal time and the Mountaineers looked good in evening gowns. But in Norman, Okla., WVU was an ordinary rebounding team, an average offensive team, self-endangering with turnovers and fickle with momentum. That combination was enough to do them in — in a game they still nearly won.

I feel like it’s important to close on that, that the Mountaineers still nearly won. They didn’t take down Nos. 1 and 2 in succession, but consider that they’ve gone through two tricky stretches this season — at Virginia Tech, Kansas State and TCU in seven days, vs. Nos. 1 and 2 in five days — and counts one loss. WVU has the look of a top-10 team and has a number of ways to stay there.

But when one or more eludes the Mountaineers, trouble can find them, as was the case Saturday.