The cards West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins holds have been shuffled here lately. His best player returned. His best post player departed. His schedule got a tick trickier. Those last two are important, but the first one trumps them all. Having Jevon Carter on the roster assuages a lot of worries.

For most, I should say. For others, consider this a warning.

I haven’t talked to Carter since the night of the Gonzaga game, and it was crystal clear he was in no mood to talk. He took and probably needed a lot of time to calm and collect himself and speak to reporters in the locker room. He hated that the season ended, that he couldn’t get Nate Adrian, Tarik Phillip and Teyvon Myers deeper into the postseason, that he was complicit in the final possession and that he was going to have to discuss it.

That’s how he’s wired. He’s here for basketball and not public relations. He’s consumed by one and inconvenienced by the other. I understand that, and I realize that’s why he’d become the player he is.

And now, without those three seniors and without Elijah Macon, he’s back on campus after not only being told he was not yet ready for the NBA but that he wasn’t worth a spot at the freaking combine. He probably expected the former, but not the latter.

Can you imagine how hot that engine’s running today?

Well, you better, because that’s the horsepower he’s bringing into this season. No one knows, of course, how he’ll shoot, pass, guard, rebound and innovate next season, but we can be assured he’s working on the answers.

“If he would have been invited to the combine, I definitely think he would have opened some eyes, but I think he now has the mindset that people didn’t know who he was when he came here and he’s set on making sure they know who he is when he leaves,” Harrison said.

Carter cannot and will not try to do it by himself. He leads the way with his deeds and with his words, and given the constitution of the roster, deeds may not be enough. He’ll show people how to do things just by being a model citizen in the gym before, during and after practice, but that might not be enough to bring his teammates up to speed — his speed — this season.

He has Dax Miles, Esa Ahmad and, as far as experience goes, not much else. Sagaba Konate and Lamont West both played 400 minutes and averaged 10 per game last season. Beetle Bolden, Maciej Bender and Chase Harler, guys who pretty much have to make a leap, combined for 399 minutes. There are five newcomers and a place for many of them, but what can be reasonably expected from three freshmen and two junior college transfers?

This is Carter’s canvas. Those are his implements. If this is going to turn out the way he envisions, he’s going to have to put his hands all over it.

“Because Jevon’s gone through it, he’s got to make sure those guys understand some days are going to be better than others, and he can’t just let them give up, so to speak, when things get hard — because Jevon isn’t going to do that,” Harrison said. “We as coaches are going to be hard on him, and he’s not going to get preferential treatment, and I think the guys will see him go through it and do what he needs to do to be successful and realize that’s what they need to do.”

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