(For the record, we’d all be OK if this didn’t follow the alleged Scottie Reynolds-Corey Fisher track to completion. Google that one on your own.)

Bob Huggins always had a thing for Northeast ballers back in the Big East days. I suppose he still does, given the roots of Tarik Phillip, Jaysean Paige and Teyvon Myers, but it was a strong lean not long ago. They had an edge to them, a confidence and a competitiveness that made for some good WVU teams. He relied on Larry Harrison and Billy Hahn and their expertise, the latter for Philadelphia guards because Hahn was once the head coach at LaSalle and the Mountaineers would one day sign Aaron Brown and Dalton Pepper, .

So that arched the brow when Huggins made an interesting parallel a few weeks back. Jevon Carter and Dax Miles are West Virginia what Reynolds and Fisher were to Villanova. “I really, honestly thought, with the way they played a year ago, I thought in time they would be like the old Villanova guards, and to this point they haven’t. But I think they’re certainly capable of it.”

Interesting, no?

They’re all similarly sized and somewhat similarly skilled — Carter and Miles are sophomores … it’s early — even if they do come from very different areas and even if their prep backgrounds are nowhere near the same. Reynolds was a McDonald’s All-American and Fisher was a star for a prep powerhouse. Carter and Miles were not.

But Reynolds and Fisher were significant parts of big-time teams early and then throughout their careers, and Carter and Miles are, so far, the same. But Carter and Miles stepped off the escalator, or had it pause, along the way. Take your pick. Where their numbers are better this year, they are not much better, and the absence of expected jumps in scoring and shooting accuracy is concerning. (True, it’s also possible they played above freshman-level expectations last season, and this is more like the place from which they both grow.)

Yet Huggins has not bailed on that comparison, and he believes experience will give both more to draw from as their careers and this season progress so that they complete his vision.

“What were they? Were they point guards or off guards?” Huggins said. “I think that’s what these two guys are. They’re just guards. I think that’s what Jay had. And they were, to a degree, interchangeable.

“Fisher didn’t always have the ball. Reynolds didn’t always have the ball. They could play on the ball or they could play off the ball.”

One more on WVU before I take off today: Seth Davis published one of those cheeky insider scouting pieces yesterday in which anonymous coaches chimed in on certain teams in the Big East, Big 12 and Pac-12. It’s a pretty candid look at Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and WVU. (Aside: I’ve been at so many press conferences and sat in on so many conference calls this season that I’m pretty sure I can name most of the Big 12 voices, including WVU’s. Is it March yet?)