Bob Huggins threw some criticism at his players Tuesday morning that stemmed from Saturday’s loss, and then West Virginia, a team highly ranked by all measurements and highly regarded by its foes, beat Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum.

There are fewer and fewer ways to say this isn’t a good basketball team, but the Mountaineers will keep trying to find them and use them. There are nine regular-season games left, but the hardest thing for Huggins to do the rest of the way is make sure his team remains convinced it isn’t very good.

But sooner or later the many mantras about disrespect or no respect, about being underrated and overlooked, have to go away. The Mountaineers will understand and maybe even admit that they’re all right.

“I don’t get caught up in it too much, but I’ve got family members who care and who watch,” forward Devin Williams said. “We won this game, but I can tell you ESPN will still be showing freaking Texas and Iowa State more than showing what we’ve done.”

ESPN, mind you, has touted Huggins as an overdue Hall of Famer this season. It led SportsCenter the morning of the game at then-No. 2 Oklahoma with a preview of the matchup and a gigantic “Press Virginia” graphic in the background. The Mountaineers probably didn’t see any of that, but even if they did, it doesn’t matter.

They see what they want to see, and that’s a strength.

“We haven’t had any respect since the season started,” Williams said, rebooting the bad mood WVU was in when it was left out of the preseason polls despite 25 wins and a Sweet 16 appearance last season and an abundance of players due back this season.

“Regardless of all the numbers out there, regardless of what we’ve done, we still don’t have any respect. So we’ve just got to stay together and be who we are.”