There’s nothing wrong with believing in the concept of the cumulative effect No. 10 West Virginia seeks to inflict. There’s no issue with marveling at how the Mountaineers defend the entire area of the court. I suspect Bob Huggins wants that. It’s the trap the team has set this season.

The press, really and truly better now than ever before with the capacity to intensify, is at its best when it folds the court in half … and then again. The games, more often than not, are over before the final buzzer. Time and space are commodities in this game, and you need to make the most of the former and to create the latter against the Mountaieners, which is why they try to constrict both.

You need all 2,400 seconds and 4,700 square feet to beat the Mountaineers, and they’re not going to give that to you.

 “That’s kind of what we preach,” coach Bob Huggins said. “Every team I’ve had that pressed has turned people over more after the ball got across halfcourt than they did in the frontcourt, because we shrink the court. You don’t have to cover as much ground. And that’s been our message to them about the last three weeks. We’ve got to start shrinking the court better. We’ve got to make the court smaller.”