Bob Huggins was in a mood last night from start to finish, as witnessed by an early technical foul and his postgame comments … on the crowd? We’ll get to all of that, but he seemed purposefully pointed, and you kind of wondered if he was again worried about slogging through a game against a team that’s not supposed to be on his squad’s level and/or what support his team could channel for a weeknight home game.

Yet the Mountaineers won and did a number on Kansas State. The Wildcats scored 89 points Saturday against an Oklahoma State team that’s No. 2 in the Big 12 in scoring defense. Three days after the school’s best Big 12 point total in five years, Bruce Weber’s bunch had a season-low point total, and Kansas State had a miserable run throughout the second half. (How about 0-for-10 from 3 after Texas Tech was 0-for-9 from 3 in the second half.)

But the nine-point halftime lead — first halftime lead since Kansas! — swelled to 14 and shrunk to seven before the Mountaineers put things away when Jon Holton air mailed an ill-advised lob to Dax Miles one on possession and then remembered he couldn’t throw it away if he kept the ball, which led to a half-court dribble drive and a layup on the next possession for a 15-point lead.

The ball was in a good place when it was in Holton’s hands. He was a force again and had 14 points and 11 rebounds, and his shot chart was something else.

Three dunk/layups, three floaters, one contested layup miss, one 3-point miss. The Wildcats would not check Holton on the perimeter, and he was able to stand on the outside and find lanes inside. Sometimes teammates were able to find him. But his activity again yielded results on offense, and if he starts to hit 3s — this is why he can’t stop shooting them — defenses are going to have a riddle on their hands.

Miles is pretty much the opposite now. He was 2-for-8/0-for-4, and it seems he remains a right-side player. Defenders are sagging off him and clogging the lane — that’s not helping, say, Devin Williams — but he scored twice when he made two good decisions to move and get near the basket.

We’re through eight Big 12 games in January, and Miles, who missed one game, is taking 60 percent of his shots — and spending about as much time — on the 3-point line. It’s crazy to see this, because he was so good on the move in the first month of the season. But his splits have changed every month now, and he’s shot 51.8, 43.1 and now 33.3 percent in the opening three months.

November: 24-for-32 from 2-point range, 5-for-24 from 3-point range, seven offensive rebounds, eight turnovers
December: 17-for-31 from 2-point range, 8-or-27 from 3-point range, four offensive rebounds, six turnovers
January: 8-for-21 from 2-point range, 9-for-30 from 3-point range, three offensive rebounds, 11 turnovers

Williams was off again with six points and six turnovers one game after five points and four turnovers. He was out of it early — back-to-back turnovers to start the game — and he couldn’t unlearn bad body language. But without those two and with Esa Ahmad unable to play and Nate Adrian absorbing more minutes, WVU won and without a lot of drama, except for Huggins and his continued unwillingness to seal anything with his approval.

“There wasn’t anybody over on the bench comfortable,” coach Bob Huggins said, “not wearing a uniform, anyway.”

WVU (17-3, 6-2 Big 12) remained tied with Oklahoma (17-2, 6-2) in first place in the conference standings despite a few blemishes that continue to confound the head coach.

There were 18 turnovers and 14 assists, the fifth straight game with more harm than help on offense, and shooting that was just as concerning. The Mountaineers were 5 for 18 from the 3-point line — just 1 for 4 in the second half — and 19 for 32 at the free-throw line.

WVU leads the nation in forced turnovers per game but ranks No. 287 out of 351 teams in turnovers per game. The free-throw shooting was No. 294 entering the game and 3-point shooting was No. 305. All the numbers but turnovers will sink after Wednesday’s performance.

“We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by turning the ball over,” said Huggins, who is now four wins away from moving into a tie for ninth place with Lefty Driesell on the list of the all-time winningest Division I coaches. “We work like crazy to create turnovers, and then we turn around and give it right back to them.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve seen a lot of basketball since I’m old enough to remember with my dad, and I’ve never seen guards go down the floor and forget to bring the ball with them. We’ve done that the last three games. I don’t know how that happens. And we just don’t finish, and it’s hard when you can’t really shoot free throws.”

This is what’s so interesting, to me, at least, about this team. The computers, as well as the voters and even the opposition, really like the Mountaineers, but the Mountaineers have a lot going on that might be detrimental. Consider the starting five is Williams and Miles, who have to get it together, Ahmad, who doesn’t do a lot in the line of statistical contributions, Jevon Carter, who’s averaging 7.9 points in the Big 12 and has had his own offensive issues, and Holton, who gets his offense from the assistance or the inaccuracy of his teammates.

The bench has been a savior all along, though, and even though Adrian started Tuesday, he’s a bench guy and a player who was ready when the bell rang. Huggins thought Adrian was the best player on the floor, which was literally the nicest thing he said after the game.

I just want to point out that Huggins explained his technical foul by saying he’s going defend his players since they can’t … and that he, too, got a foul while defending. Rimshot!

But the real postgame highlight came before this, when Huggins held court on the radio and for what remained of the Coliseum crowd. I’m taking down the audio, but here’s a quick and dirty transcript, courtesy Chris Anderson.

“We’re ninth in the country. We were sixth in the country, and we want to act like we are a big time program,” said Huggins, before listing off others – like Iowa State and Kansas – that routinely sell out their arenas. “I told our guys before the game. We practice every day with nobody in here and if people don’t want to come see us, that’s their loss.”

Huggins’ disappointment wasn’t just with the fans commuting from cities around the state – he acknowledged it can be tough, especially with the weather and on a weekday night – but also with the student section. While those that were there were rowdy, it was far from full.

“All this stuff about we have the best student section. No we don’t. The truth is, we don’t,” said Huggins. “We put 3,500 tickets out. There weren’t 3,500 students here.”

All three home Saturday games in February are already sold out, the Oklahoma game having been so for a couple weeks. While that may seem to debunk Huggins’ complains, it actually supports his theory on the attendance and the fans.

“We win a couple games in the NCAA tournament and everyone wants tickets and can’t figure out why they can’t get ‘em,” he said. “That’s our problem here. People don’t come here to see the Mountaineers. They come to see Kansas or they’ll come to see Iowa State. They don’t come to see us. That was pretty obvious tonight.

“We won 25 games a year ago, made it to the Sweet Sixteen. We’re top ten in the country, and people are picking us to go to the Final Four. If people don’t want to come, then fine, don’t come.”

I’m not going to argue with Huggins. He’s not entirely incorrect, and I think he’s clever and more worried about attendance for the upcoming games than for Tuesday night. But, man, that’s bold. Parts of this town are still snowed in, and a lot of the people were trying to get caught up with their lives Tuesday. The attendance the prior two snowy home games was great, considering the situation people were made to deal with to get to the games, and Tuesday’s crowd was actually slightly larger than the Texas crowd six days earlier.

So, again, this may have been a ploy because WVU’s next three home games, each on a Saturday, are sold out — and the fourth is at home on Big Monday against Iowa State. Tickets to that one will probably disappear, too, though that’s a 9 p.m. tip.

So kudos to him. He’s smart.

But let’s be honest, too. WVU did beat Kansas, but lost two in a row — one at home — and then survived at Texas Tech before it played host to Kansas State, and there wasn’t a whole lot going on Tuesday night during the game to inspire a rise in attendance. Perhaps Huggins did the trick afterward.