You are looking live at the propaganda issued by the Mountaineer Maniacs for tonight’s while-schools-in-session Big 12 opener for No. 10 West Virginia. The truly special occasion is that the nation’s No. 1-ranked team is on the Coliseum floor for the seventh time ever. The Mountaineers are 2-4 with wins against UNLV in 1983 and Kansas last season and losses in between against Temple in 1988, UMass in 1995, UConn in 2000 and UConn in 2006.

I don’t know how to qualify this, and I’m not even sure it’s true, but Baylor, a 6 1/2 point underdog tonight, feels like the most unlikely No. 1 in a long, long time. Probably since, like, St. Joe’s in the 2003-04 season, right? I’ve tried really hard to think of other possibilities — Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee team in 2008 was an oddity; Gonzaga’s spot at the top was a matter of time — but Baylor is the second team to ever start a season unranked and reach No. 1.

The other was Larry Bird’s Indiana State team in 1978-79.

We spoke earlier about what everyone may have missed about the Bears this season — “I don’t think anybody knew how good the big kid was. I think everyone knew how good Motley was going to be. Nobody knew how good the point guard was.” — but I think it’s fair to say people in the game have had their suspicions about Scott Drew. You can google around if you want. Maybe you’ll find out why Rick Barnes wanted to fight him once upon a time. He just hasn’t always been a popular figure in the business, but, woo, the guy can recruit. This seems to be the season when he gets more recognition as a coach, too. Being No. 1 and 15-0 will do that, but replacing the players he lost and doing this against that schedule will do it, too.

“There’s a bunch of great coaches in the league, so sometimes guys get overlooked, but he’s always done a great job,” said his counterpart tonight, Bob Huggins. “If you look at it, he’s always been in the mix. He’s always been in the NCAA tournament. They beat us three times in a row here. Obviously, he’s a better coach than I am.”

Burn?