So the Sprint Center WiFi was what we thought it was, and it abandoned me in the second half. I have many feelings, theories and, of course, solutions. I will not divulge them here. Fortunately, I and we didn’t miss much in the second half. West Virginia, ranked 11th and seeded No. 2, did its most and best damage in the first half. I thought the run to close the first 20 minutes was telling. The start of the second half saw the lead balloon and shrink, but it never felt like Texas would find the surge for which it was looking.

The Mountaineers emerged from a muddy finish with a spot in the semifinals against … Kansas State. As expected, the Big 12’s Final Four is Iowa State, TCU, WVU and K-State. We’ll talk more today about the Mountaineers and about the matchup with K-State, but for now let’s talk about last night.

It wasn’t great. Was it good? It was good enough.

This isn’t 2010, but this is starting to feel sort of similar. I’m not saying this is a Final Four team. I’m saying this team is fitting into a template.

It’s not good for aesthetics or appearances, but WVU is playing and winning unapologetically. These are physical, tough and tight competitions, but these are the games the Mountaineers are accustom to and with which they are comfortable. (Aside: Last time the Mountaineers saw someone new, they barnstormed Texas A&M and led by 20 points in the second half. The familiarity matters.) Three times in four games now WVU has held the opponent to 62 or fewer points. Only once had a Big 12 team scored fewer than the 53 points Texas managed. This defense is, in various forms, all right.

Hey, Texas is not good. Texas is actually bad. But Texas looked bad, and WVU had plenty to do with that. I wouldn’t penalize WVU because Texas failed the eye test.

The trouble, though, is the Mountaineers never ran and hid. The Longhorns had some major shooting and scoring droughts, and WVU’s biggest lead was 13 points and could and should have been much more than that. The final seven minutes were a slog. We discussed this in the live post, but WVU had to score or else. Well, that was wrong, because WVU did not score and managed to come out on the right end of things. This is also three times in four games WVU has scored 63 or fewer points. There’s pride in this sort of win-at-any-expense stuff, but is there longevity?

Nobody in the locker room afterward was happy with the offense or the finish, if you were wondering. Winning is great — especially on the same day Kansas and Baylor could not win — but the Mountaineers know. They know.

That’s a second half that’ll get you beat. Texas just happened to be worse.

I thought WVU guarded pretty well and made the paint plays difficult for Texas, but Texas just lacked plays and play-makers. No one got it going. Looked tired. Jarrett Allen started taking trips off, especially on defense, and he didn’t have the same spring late that he had early. This was, for better or worse, WVU’s kind of game.

The teams scored a combined 13 points in the remaining 6 minutes, 36 seconds. The Longhorns missed their final eight shots and made just two free throws in the last 5:34 of the game.

“We saw they were getting tired and people started running from the ball,” Phillip said. “That motivates us. We see, ‘Oh, man, we’ve got them on the ropes. Why stop now? Keep swinging.’ ”

WVU missed 7 of 8 shots to finish the game but had enough room despite a shaky second half, when the Mountaineers missed 20 of 28 shots and 9 of 16 free throws. After Carter’s third 20-point performance in the past six games, Macon had eight points and 10 rebounds and Phillip had seven points and four assists.

“We obviously didn’t play very well,” Huggins said. “Didn’t shoot it very well from the line. Didn’t make layups. But they’ve been a good group because they want to win.”