Chris Webber and Bob Huggins have a 25-year reunion to commemorate the 1992 Final Four, and the West Virginia coach quite likely explains the key to tonight’s game.

Really, this Sweet Sixteen game is no different than the first two games the Mountaineers played in this NCAA tournament. They need to play big, and they’d better score.

Bucknell, of course, came with the 6-foot-9 Patriot League player of the year, and Nana Foulland was a problem until he found problems with fouling. But he affected shots with his defense and he finished shots on offense. Yet WVU was bigger and acted bigger, and that was the difference.

Gonzaga, of course, is enormous. Bigger and/or better than Texas or Baylor? Maybe. Maybe not. But big is big.

Two days after dispatching the Bison, WVU was again larger than the opponent and used that its advantage, but WVU also had to score with Notre Dame to beat Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish could not be counted on to commit turnovers and submit extra possessions to WVU, so the Mountaineers had to create and sustain exceptional offense. They did that, and a pretty rare performance has us here today.

Quite simply, WVU has to score just to score against what is perhaps the best defense in the country. KenPom says Gonzaga is No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency, and math says the Bulldogs are No. 1 in points per possession. (It is here where I say the Mountaineers are right there in both.)

Look, this is nothing new for WVU. At this stage, nothing is new. But at this stage, the teams are good, and when a team does something well, you can expect that something to be better. Gonzaga hasn’t allowed 80 points since Jan. 5. None of the 35 opponents have shot 50 percent from the floor. The Mountaineers have been OK on offense in this event, and they have what’s quite likely a familiar plan for tonight, but they’ll have to be better than that against a team that this year has reached new heights with its defense.

“I think everybody’s always over the years focused on Gonzaga’s offense,” Few said. “And we’ve been an elite program offensively for years. This team has been great defensively all year. It’s had elite-level rim protection and size.”

The Bulldogs are doing it with a batch of first-year players. Collins is new to college basketball. Williams is a transfer from Missouri, where he led the Tigers in blocked shots in 2015. Guard Jordan Matthews is a graduate transfer from Cal. Guard Nigel Williams-Goss is a transfer from Washington. Karnowski missed the final 28 games last season with back and leg injuries.

Few nevertheless had a hunch the new talent could produce a new strength.

“I think in the preseason he saw how athletic and how long we were, and we all have pretty good defensive instincts individually,” Collins said. “He kept telling us in the preseason, before we’d even practiced, we had the potential to be a great defensive team if we kept our heads, so when real practice started, one of the biggest things we focused on was defense, whether individually or as a team, man or zone.

“Every single practice, we emphasized defense. I definitely think it’s a credit to Coach to stay on us, but we’re also really gifted with size and length and athleticism.”