Wednesday was the first day of the early signing period, and a player who signed last year was the first to sign this year. West Virginia, which loses Tarik Phillip to graduation after this season, inked a point guard it’s liked for quite some time. (Juwan Staten once had a hand in recruiting him.)

Knapper signed a letter of intent to WVU in 2015, then went to Hargrave for the 2016-17 season, where he is averaging 24.4 points, 5.1 assists and 2.1 steals per contest. Hargrave comes to Teays Valley Christian for an exhibition game with Huntington Prep at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

 “We are really excited about Brandon,” Huggins said. “Brandon loves the state of West Virginia and West Virginia University. Those are the kind of guys we want to have here. He was excited about going to prep school to make himself ready to play at this level. Because of that, we think he will be ready to come in and play major minutes with the loss of two senior guards.”

As a senior at South Charleston High, where he played for coach Vic Herbert, he averaged 28.5 points, 6.0 assists and 5.4 steals per game and was named to the All-USA West Virginia Team by USA Today. Knapper was a three-time selection to the Class AAA all-state basketball first team and the All-Mountain State Athletic Conference squad. He was a two-time MSAC Player of the Year.

The Mountaineers, of course, have four seniors in Phillip and fellow guard Teyvon Myers as well as forwards Nathan Adrian and Brandon Watkins. They welcomed two more players in the Wedneday. Two more names are in the wind. There seems to be nothing about which to worry.

The next name in was one of the two junior college commitments, and that was a need for WVU to break up the classes. D’Angelo Hunter is a 6-foot-6 wing player who’s “getting better all the time,” Huggins said, in Corsicana, Texas.

The first day ended with the high-scorer in the group, Teddy Allen, a guard from Nebraska via Arizona — and this is important to note.

Allen, a 6-foot-5, 225-pound wing from Mesa, Arizona, currently attends Boys Town High in Omaha, Nebraska. He played in 17 games during the second semester at Boys Town last year and made the All-Nebraska Second Team and Class C-1 First Team after averaging 26.6 points, 12.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He shot 47 percent from the field, 41 percent from 3-point range and 80 percent from the foul line, playing at Boys Town for coach Tom Krehbiel.

“Teddy is a very good scorer who can score the ball in a variety of ways,” Huggins said. “He is another guy who can play multiple positions because of his size and length.”

When Allen committed, a college coach I know texted me: “Teddy Allen is a man.”

Allen’s younger brother, Timmy, is still in Arizona, and he’s regarded as one of the best players in the state and perhaps a better prospect than his older brother.

WVU didn’t announce two other signings, but that’s often just a matter of sending and receiving the paperwork. Ohio forward Derek Culver, who is 6-foot-10, a top-100 player nationally and the key to the recruiting class, had a signing ceremony at his high school Wednesday evening. (Update: He’s in.) The other name is maybe the most intriguing: 6-8 junior college forward Wesley Harris. He was the fifth and final player to commit, and he’s got a quality reputation that earned scholarship offers from Arizona, UConn and Virginia Tech. But he’s also dealing with an injury that could affect how much he plays this season at Alabama’s Lawson State Community College.

And, yes, the math doesn’t work. Four seniors, five signings. You know the drill.