This wasn’t long before the tip last night, and it was a scene-setter. Forget the fact Dax Miles hangs on the rim. Nobody misses here, but nobody’s pushing up goofy shots for the heck of it. Even Beetle Bolden and Miles are doing what they ordinarily do during their last trip through warmpus and before they jog off the floor and into the locker room.

Also, the crowd. Dare we say everyone was ESPecially locked in for No. 1?

Hours later, it ended like this.

A lot happened in between — that game was close and nervy for a little bit, don’t forget — but let it be known No. 1 has lost by more than 21 times only seven times before.

The Mountaineers are going to acquire a reputation of sorts for this, because that’s now back-to-back wins at home against No. 1, and that could be a Thing if Kansas, with three straight losses at the Coliseum, is No. 1 when it visits on Jan. 24. This is fine, but there other and worthier reputations.

For one, questions about WVU’s legitimacy relevant to the schedule are no more. That may have been a matter of time, given the depth of the Big 12 and the certainty the Mountaineers wouldn’t go 8-10, but the non-conference strength of schedule was No. 242. Overall, it was No. 119. But there’s no one higher than No. 1 and it’s hard to be a good team like that.

Secondly, this is the third year of the press, and it’s as good as ever. Maybe better than ever.

Put it together and you come away with this: Here come the Mountaineers.

“I think if they didn’t say it about us before, they’re definitely going to try to say it now,” said guard Tarik Phillip. “But we’ve got to keep playing. That’s just half of what we can do. If we all play together and play as hard as we do, it’s tough to beat us — very tough.”

The Bears were averaging 12 turnovers a game and finished three games with eight turnovers or less. They had 16 in the first half against WVU and finished with 29, the most ever committed by a WVU opponent in Big 12 play. The Mountaineers, who stole the ball 15 times and whose relentlessness or reputation or both combined to cause a comedic batch of additional errors, scored a point for every turnover.

“We’ve come down here and had success in the past, and I have to say this team on film has been very impressive,” said Baylor coach Scott Drew, who won games on the road against the Mountaineers in 2013-15. “But in person, definitely the best pressing team Coach Huggins has had. Things we’ve done in the past that have been successful weren’t. I think they’ve improved their press. They’ve gotten a lot more effective with it, and they just make you feel uneasy and uncomfortable.”

That’s the reputation that ought to come out of this. If this is the game that gets the Coliseum at or near capacity all the time, then it’s going to be really hard to beat WVU at home. If the Mountaineers are that confident and fearless, you can’t rely on things like home court or rankings to sway them before or during a game. It was pretty clear from the start Tuesday — and I’m seriously talking about the first 90 seconds — that Baylor was in trouble. WVU’s the kind of team that can play that way from start to finish. The Bears had had enough long before the game was over. That might not be the best team in the country, but the Bears are really good and really talented with some veteran influences … and they never looked like the best team in the country.

National title contender? Well, it’s the start of that conversion, as opposed to the answer to the question, but that’s the point. WVU acquired a reputation — a talented basketball team with a serious mean streak — at the expense of the No. 1 team in the country.

“They came out, played harder than we did and we got the result we deserved,” Lindsey said. “We had a lot of travels, a lot of dead-ball turnovers that weren’t even on the press necessarily. It was them speeding us up on the halfcourt. Maybe, when we go back and watch it, we’ll see maybe we were too fast physically — or maybe too fast mentally.

“That’s part of West Virginia’s thing too. You have to be mentally prepared as much as physically prepared scheme-wise.”

Bingo. WVU is getting to, well, the nation. Hey Terry Maston, what did you find most troubling about the Mountaineer press?

“How active they were,” Maston said. “How in-shape they looked. No one looked tired out there. No one was bending over. They just kept coming, kept coming at us.

 “We were down two and they were pressing. We were down almost 30 and they were still pressing. It was relentless.”