You have to start a recap of last night’s win with this sequence — it was the difference-maker — and you have to roll your eyes at the commentary. “That’s where the fresh legs help out.” Yeah! Let’s not drive home a dead horse, or something like that, but we spent a wealth of time yesterday talking about energy and fatigue. LTHs were bringing it up constantly. And not that Mark Plansky was wrong to say it, however in or out of context we caught it, but it just goes to show how convenient and malleable that point really is.

That said, Iowa State, a team that had won six in a row to creep back into the polls at No. 24, but a team that relies on four players for points and maybe four more for minutes, was a perfect foil for No. 10 West Virginia.

WVU had its third-highest point total in Big 12 play and the best since beating then-No. 1 Baylor on Jan. 10 while the defense held the Cyclones to their worst shooting percentage in conference play to close the regular season with an 87-76 win before 14,528 at the Coliseum.

“It’s a challenge to guard them, and you’ve got to score the ball,” said forward Nate Adrian. “We got into a good groove offensively and played pretty good defense. We’ve got a little momentum.”

The Mountaineers (24-7, 12-6 Big 12) now get to rest. They’re off today, the final day of the regular season, as well as the first day of the conference tournament. By clinching the No. 2 seed with a tiebreaker for second place, WVU plays the 7 p.m. ESPNU game Thursday at Kansas City’s Sprint Center against the winner of Wednesday’s game between the No. 7 and No. 10 seeds.

WVU was the No. 2 seed last season and played in the championship game against Kansas, which is once again the No. 1 seed this season.

The Cyclones, who were 7-1 with a win over the Jayhawks since losing at home to the Mountaineers on Jan. 31, and Baylor will complete the top four seeds, though that order depends on the Bears and their final game today at Texas. If Baylor wins, it’s the No. 3 and on WVU’s side of the bracket. If the Bears lose, the Cyclones are the No. 3.

“I think we’re all excited for the postseason,” WVU guard Dax Miles said. “We look forward to this every year. It’s time. It’s time everybody buys in.”

Look, WVU is not Kansas. The Coliseum is not the Sprint Center. Nobody has to tell you one day is not a trustworthy indicator for this collection of players — and the Cyclones are, in many ways, a great matchup — but there are nine teams west of the Mississippi that did not want the Mountaineers to get their swagger back.

This morning, TeamRankings.com has WVU as its favorite to win the conference tournament.

And look, I’m not saying WVU has its swagger back, but that was the best the offense and defense have looked in a while, and that happened all at once. There were promising individual and collective performances, and WVU was actually most productive after the 12-0 run that built a 65-51 lead.

The same team that gets leads and doesn’t often know what to do with them scored 22 points in the final 8:15, and that was their most productive spurt of the game.

“That was important for us,” Adrian said. “Most of the time we get a big lead it seems like we stop trying to score the ball and go through lulls. This time, we kept scoring. It was definitely a positive.”

WVU needed 10:02 to reach 22 points, 11:06 to go from 22 points to 46 and 10:37 to go from 46 to 67 points.

WVU is the No. 2 seed. It has (today and) Wednesday off and plays Thursday night against a team that played and won the day before. The battle Iowa State fought and lost against attrition is one WVU’s first opponent is going to encounter. Things are as they were a year ago, and it’s possible things are not what they were a week or so ago. Adrian moved and scored, and he wasn’t doing a lot of that. Jevon Carter had a step he seemed to be missing. Elijah Macon remained consistent and made free throws. Sagaba Konate, who’s not likely to be admired by Big 12 fans in a year or two, affected the game.

(Counter: Since going 6-for-8 from 3-point range against Texas, Lamont West is 0-for-8. Beetle Bolden played one possession last night. Chase Harler and Magic Bender did not play. WVU went with essentially nine players. WVU didn’t need Bender against Iowa State — small lineups, no foul trouble for WVU — but Bolden and Harler both played at Iowa State six weeks ago. I thought the shorter rotation was interesting, I guess.)

WVU defended pretty well as individuals and probably better as a team, especially after halftime. The rebounding was predictably in WVU’s favor. Iowa State doesn’t rebound well. But the margin at Hilton was plus-3. It was plus-19 last night. The ball moved on offense, and WVU had 15 baskets and 12 assists in the second half.

These were all encouraging signs.

Two others stand out … obviously. Esa Ahmad played. “He showed the rust,” coach Bob Huggins said. Better last night than next week, I say. Ahmad looked winded early and was short on his shots and a tick slow on his takeoffs. But simply getting him 11 minutes helped. The big note is Dax Miles, and how’s this for retrospect?

From Jan. 8, after Miles scored 22 points against TCU:

The Mountaineers are intentionally and effectively balanced, but Miles seems more and more like the player who can jump up and get 15 points in a half or a few buckets in a key sequence. He is, according to the percentages, the best volume 3-point shooter and only Ahmad has a better field-goal percentage — and he’s not taking many 3s. Miles is second in effective field-goal percentage and true shooting, trailing only Brandon Watkins, who has surely solidified a starting spot for WVU.

There’s a lot going on there, but I contend Miles has the highest explosive potential, and that guy was determined to rebound last night. That he threw in a few 3-pointers — and checked his temperature — was probably not a coincidence. I think Huggins likes this three-guard lineup. It might be how WVU starts for the rest of the way or for a while longer. It might be something he uses at times within games. But it has a spot, and I think WVU is better with the press when it plays this way. But WVU is not better under the boards with three guards, which means Miles has to do what he did Friday. Carter can rebound. Getting an assist from Miles or Tarik Phillip would help.