The accommodating 2017 bubble sold some real estate Saturday, at least as it concerns the Big 12. Kansas State got waylaid at Oklahoma, and a 30-point loss is not the straw that stirs Bruce Weber’s drink. Texas Tech, which looked terrific early, lost at piping hot Oklahoma State, which really might have the Big 12’s coach of the year. (You still don’t want to see the Red Raiders.) WVU got out of Schollmaier Arena with a win and handed TCU a fifth straight loss, and that came before some Horned Frogs faithful took a separate L afterward.

Of those three — K-State, Texas Tech and TCU — only the Horned Frogs can wonder what might have been. Look at how open Desmond Bane is for this 3-pointer at the buzzer. And yet, I can’t imagine how WVU felt with the ball in his hands.

The Mountaineers didn’t have a lot go their way, and yet they had a lead with 4.1 seconds to go … and for all their hard work, all they could do was believe in a defense they only recently started using and then follow the ball from Bane’s hands to the left side of the rim.

On the road, in the 29th game of the season, that’s got to be brutal.

Yet the Mountaineers emerged with a win and a smile on their faces, because they maintained a perfect record..

“We’re undefeated when a guy’s hurt,” coach Bob Huggins said.

No. 12 WVU won for the second time in as many games without starting forward Esa Ahmad, the second-leading scorer who didn’t travel with the team for this two-game road trip. The Mountaineers are also 4-0 in two stints without starting guard Daxter Miles and 1-0 without starting forward Elijah Macon.

“I’ve got to find a way to get somebody hurt in practice,” Huggins said.

This is your WVU-in-a-nutshell statistic, right?

I thought the Mountaineers looked comfortable as the game neared the end. I thought they got good shots, and had they simply made a few 1-footers — they were 11-for-29 on layups, according to statbroadcast.com — the drama could have been avoided. Honestly, they could have won that game by eight to 12 points. But they also cold have lose. I think we have to say this: They got lucky. TCU went 1-for-2 twice at the foul line in the final minute and simply missed an open 3 at the buzzer. WVU’s been that team this season.

Even if Dax Miles, who was in the game late despite his pattern of bad free throws, goes 2-for-2 instead of 1-for-2, Bane’s 3 wins the game. WVU’s job on defense was complicated by the fact a 2 wins the game, and Alex Robinson was going downhill at the rim, but, man, Bane was totally uncontested. WVU must have done something right to earn that one.

The Mountaineers (23-6, 11-5 Big 12) lost at Texas Tech on a 3 with six seconds to go in overtime, lost in overtime to Oklahoma on a layup with two seconds remaining, missed a 3 at the buzzer in regulation before losing in overtime to Kansas and beat Texas Tech in two overtimes despite a Red Raiders 3 that tied the score with five seconds left in regulation.

“We got a little lucky,” forward Nate Adrian said. “We got a call we usually don’t get, Dax made a free throw and we got a stop.”

“…a call we usually don’t get” is quite the colloquialism. The Big 12 put together a very good highlight package for the game, but it not-at-all-surprisingly doesn’t include the foul called on — I did not say committed by — Jaylen Fisher.

You’d be furious if that happened to your team, and you’d be right. That’s with the game on the line, at home, and that’s a right-handed shot on the left side of the rim by Miles as he floats to his left. Yikes. Jamie Dixon was outside his skin, and he said the call would be “talked about nationally.”

I know what you’re thinking, and, yeah, there’s nothing wrong with being lucky. Certainly, WVU deserves a few of those. This could have gone another way, but it did not because the Mountaineers found just enough solutions. The 1-3-1 is maybe back, and on Saturday, it minimized the number of possessions. Teyvon Myers had eight big points. Chase Harler was pretty good on defense while he had gas in the tank during his first-half cameo. It was enough to overcome very little from Miles and Tarik Phillip and four points from Lamont West.

Can’t stress this enough: Winning a conference game on the road in late-February with the worst shooting percentage of the season and while matching the lowest point total is good enough.

The Mountaineers are now tied with Iowa State for second place in the standings. The Cyclones won at home against No. 8 Baylor, and the Bears play host to WVU Monday. If the Mountaineers win and Iowa State loses at home Tuesday to Oklahoma State, WVU gets the No. 2 seed in the tournament. Iowa State could force a 12-6 tie by beating WVU Friday, but the Mountaineers would have the head-to-head tiebreaker. (WVU and Iowa State would be 1-1 against one another. They’d be 1-1 against Kansas. But WVU would be 2-0 against Baylor while the Cyclones went 1-1.) If WVU loses Monday and Iowa State wins Tuesday, then it gets complicated. Let’s not go there yet. Let’s go to Waco instead.