John McClain is not a fan.

It’s been 18 years — longer than just about anyone who will enroll at WVU in the fall has been alive — since Bob Huggins coached in the Final Four. He likes to say he doesn’t remember a lot about what happened, apart from not making shots and missing free throws, but it was the preamble that did stick out a little bit before he readied to return to his game’s greatest stage.

The Mountaineers had a private practice Tuesday and again Wednesday before leaving Morgantown, but it wasn’t always that way with Huggins. The practices before Cincinnati’s Final Four were open and very popular.

“I didn’t want them to get uptight and I was afraid if I started to pull back things, they’d get upright,” he said. “We ended up with like 12,000 people in there. It’s hard to practice with 12,000 people in there. That wasn’t very smart on my part. I think you have to do some things and me trying to keep things normal, I probably made things very abnormal.”

And, I suppose, the goosebumps, too. Enjoy the video prelude to the team’s send-off Wednesday.

It begins at 4 p.m. right here. If you care to provide commentary, that’d be nice. A lot of readers can’t stream video at work and you know someone is going to say or do something worth sharing.

As for me, national press to the left, out-microphoned to the right, my patience is yielding. Impossible to maneuver. Situation excellent. I am reporting.

On to the next one.

The truth about Duke? Well, it’s hard to get everyone to agree on it, but let it be known someone in Durham, N.C., is working for the Mountaineers. That special shoe Truck Bryant is literally leaning on as he hopes to play in the Final Four? He got it at Duke.

“I’ve told you this. I grew up in Midvale (Ohio), 500 people, one stop light, nine bars. I got in a truck with this guy one time and I looked and he didn’t have a rear-view mirror. I said, ‘You don’t have a rear-view mirror.’ He said, ‘I don’t back up.’ He said, ‘We’re going forward, son.’ And that’s kind of how I’ve lived my life.”

That’d be the stop light Huggins speaks of in Midvale. Picture courtesy of Colin Dunlap, of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who met with Charlie Huggins in New Philadelphia, Ohio, today.

Above the fold, A-1 of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

For a month now, WVU has rolled the ball on the floor and played better than the other team, winning 10 times in 10 games and taking Big East Tournament and East Region championships along the way.

A player has cemented a legacy, a coach has had his Hall of Fame credentials examined, a team has galvanized a state and a country has learned about a team that stays oh, so loose and seems to do no wrong.

True, it’s hard to avoid the “gee whiz” attitude whether you watch the team from up close or a distance. Even when bad, the Mountaineers are good. If you’re inclined to dislike them, you get to know them and feel different. I’m going to wake up in Indy tomorrow and see the headline in the Star: Huggins Saves Runaway Bus. I’ll turn to A-2 to check the obits and go about my day.

Lost in this perpetual pep rally is the reality WVU is still a team that sometimes has bad days, just not very many.

MFD is on their job.

The destructive behavior of some WVU students during victory celebrations often is reported by national media and sports commentators.

Morgantown Police Chief Phil Scott said his department has been planning for security after the game for almost a month. The State Police, Monongalia County Sheriff’s Department and University Police already have offered their assistance.

Far be it from me to give you this update, but WVU absolutely can win the national title. I think more interesting is the fact there’s no reason it absolutely cannot.

WVU, in essence, will have to win a national title game before it can play in the national title game. But right now, why not?

Look at the last top 25 poll of the regular season. The Mountaineers have already played eight games against the top 15 and gone 5-3. The wins? No. 2 Kentucky, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 9 Villanova and No. 14 Georgetown twice. Now they have to play No. 3 Duke and either No. 11 Butler or No. 13 Michigan State.

Nothing can be new. No one left will have more talent than Kentucky, a better player than Ohio State’s Evan Turner, better guards than Villanova’s and greater offensive effectiveness and efficiency than Georgetown. Comparable? Maybe. And you know what? It’s March so maybe someone still standing has or does something better than the aforementioned, but not so much better that the Mountaineers would he hopeless.