We can’t fairly say that a team that’s won at Virginia and beaten Baylor and Kansas enjoyed its best win of the season Tuesday at Iowa State … but that was indeed a top-shelf outcome for West Virginia. It belongs in the conversation for the Mountaineers’ best of the 2016-17 season.

The Cyclones are not precisely who they once were, but what WVU did doesn’t happen to the Iowa State or at Hilton Coliseum. The Mountaineers had the biggest lead of the season at Hilton. They threatened to hand Iowa State its largest loss since the 2013-14 season, although Iowa State is, impressively, one of four teams to not have a loss of 15 or more points since the start of the 2014-15 season.

The message that comes from this as it relates to a team that was already highly regarded? Well, consider WVU played great offense in the first half and shoddy defense, and still led at halftime, even after Bob Huggins tried just about everyone and everything. The Mountaineers didn’t play their game. They went small to match lineups and didn’t do a whole lot with the press. They even made free throws.

WVU built and lost and built and expanded a big lead, and really wasn’t i n danger for the final 10 minutes. This is a team that’s positioned but not yet primed for the postseason, a team that can cause problems and clear obstacles.

True, big leads come and go, and both tend to happen when a team plays the game this fast and with so many possessions. The offense and the defense can both dip, and sometimes all at once. The Mountaineers can shoot 85 percent at the free-throw line on one day and 52 percent on another.

But try to find a team that doesn’t go through ruts. Pardon the Mountaineers for having four losses — two in overtime, none by more than four points. WVU does get into trouble, but it seems WVU can get out of trouble, and you realize that means something as a three-game winning streak follows a two-game losing streak.

Consequences? Bracketology has WVU as a No. 3 seed. TeamRankings has WVU finishing 7-2 and winning the Big 12 tournament, that despite Kansas emerging as the overall No. 1 (?) after two of the country’s best wins of the season.

Hey, I can’t do F Double this week because of packed schedule. I didn’t think think that was going to be a big deal until yesterday’s news about JaJuan Seider. I don’t want to gloss over that. I’ll pluck some questions and comments from yesterday’s post — or from this one, if you want to add to the topic — and address what I can. Sound good?