No, wait. That’s not right.

Having seen a few WVU basketball games the past few years, it can already be said five games into this season this team is most likely to be the most aggressive and assertive in the past … 10 years. And, yes, I know that’s not saying much.

However, these guys play with a physical purpose. They’re not very big, but they have to play bigger and that requires acting bigger. As a team with varying parts, they’re old enough, talented enough and athletic enough to do it. A few of them find that line, put their toes on it and play right there for as long as they can. (Some don’t. Others are learning.)

That’s what happened as the Mountaineers undressed an Iowa team that’s better than it was made to look, which only makes Saturday’s second half so perplexing. A lot of that aggression disappeared and Kentucky returned the favor in full.

Sadly, USF coach Jim Leavitt was understated on the Big East coaches’ teleconference and didn’t complete the three-punch combo against P-Rod.

What’s that? You don’t follow? Well, it started at Big East Media Day in July.

Here’s what Leavitt had to say when he was asked about new West Virginia coach Bill Stewart:

“He’s got a great reputation, because he is who he is. He’s a down-to-earth, good person, loves the game. … The people who wonder on how he’ll be (compared) with Rich are nuts. This guy’s probably better than Rodriguez. I’m worried about him. We beat Rodriguez. We haven’t gotten this guy. This guy worries me. I wish Rich would have stayed. But he didn’t, so we’ll have to go play Michigan now.”

Three months later, he threw again for no real reason.

On Monday, he had another comment about Rodriguez, talking about how upsets — like his own team’s loss to Pittsburgh in its last game — can happen anywhere.

“Who would have thought Toledo would go in and beat Michigan, with Rich Rodriguez and all his infamous wisdom, whatever it is there,” Leavitt said. “Who really would have thought that? My point is that you’ve got to be ready at any time to play. It doesn’t matter if Michigan is putting in a new offense or not, you would think the talent level would be a little bit different. It showed Toledo played with so much heart and desire and all that.”

Leavitt is a touch off these days, be it missing out on another chance to tweak the Product, bizarre ramblings or random handshakes with reporters during press conferences. Always entertaining, though. Maybe it’s all the Pepsi and Cheetos.

It’s too bad WVU is about to play its most meaningless game in a long, long, long time Saturday because there’s a lot of history and tension between the Mountaineers and South Florida.

Ideally — and this is what the schedule-makers had in mind — the Big East and the BCS bid would be on the line and two teams that don’t quite like one another would get it on for an ESPN national audience. In that perfect world, USF would show up wearing Red Sox hats.

…from the weekend that was. For your use in elevator rides, trips to the water cooler and other awkward moments on a Monday.

– The headline was a gimme, but the point — or maybe all 17 of them — remains.

- No small accomplishment, the women’s basketball team won it’s tournament. 

– Get your tickets now! 

– Hey, look who’s returning kickoffs for the Minnesota Vikings.

– No offense, but the WVU defense has been special.

– “Mickey Mouse bowls” await the Mountaineers.

– Surprised to learn USC wouldn’t be available, the Sun Bowl must be pulling for Louisville to beat Rutgers Thursday, yet also wondering if it really wants this Notre Dame team.

Assistant coach Billy Hahn, he of the perpetual black-on-black turtle neck and slacks, is wearing black slacks below a black short-sleeved mock turtle neck. The officials convened and decided to play the game after all.

Preceding WVU-Kentucky was an exciting finish in Iowa-Kansas State. The teams traded three quick scores in the final 30 seconds and the Hawkeyes won with a buzzer-beater. And not just a buzzer-beater, but a clearly intended pass into the post for a layup by Cyrus Tate.

Kentucky fans outnumber WVU fans maybe 3-to-1 in the Orleans Arena … and I say maybe because it may be greater than that. The Wildcats may need it, too. They figure to play seven people for most of the game whereas WVU will probably go nine deep in the first half and perhaps 10 if Coach Bob Huggins has faith in Dee Proby. The 6-foot-10, 240-pound junior college transfer hasn’t practiced all too well lately and didn’t play last night. Cam Payne did. If you’ve never heard of Cam Payne, well, that’s the point. The Mountaineers may need Proby tonight, if even only for a few minutes, against easily the biggest team they’ve played all season.

Tip is five minutes away. Enjoy.

The Mountaineers made easy work of an overmatched Iowa and advanced to play Kentucky in tonight’s championship game. The approximate tip time is 10:30 p.m. on ESPN2. The Wildcats had an equal parts ugly and effective performance in beating Kansas State.

Kentucky (3-2) defeated Kansas State, 74-72, and shot 68.8 percent from the floor, but also committed 31 turnovers. Huntington’s Patrick Patterson had 14 points and 12 rebounds in the win.

“I don’t know how good we are,” Huggins said. “We may be a top 25 team, we may be a top 20 team. I don’t know. (Tonight) will be a pretty good indicator for us.”

Meanwhile, the most commonly asked question of the young season was addressed: Joe Mazzulla will be fine. In the first real test of the season, he had 13 points and six assists and was more assertive than he’d been all season because he was more comfortable than he’d been all season.   

Mazzulla wasn’t allowing himself to have fun as he attempted to replace Darris Nichols, who he respects deeply. He was taking the challenge too seriously.

“It takes up my whole life,” he said. “Coach tells me that. My girlfriend yells at me about that. She hates me for it. I take it way too seriously. I realized I have to play relaxed, so I was telling jokes and trying to have some fun for a change and I think that helped.”

Mazzulla had six assists and repeatedly tried to get his offense a score in transition. If it wasn’t there, the offense reset and WVU had its most productive day out of its sets. The paint was rarely too crowded and the spacing gave Mazzulla chances to drive and either shoot or pass.

Las Vegas Invitational is something else. Media room has water and tea, almost-empty bowls of chips, pretzels and peanuts and seats for eight writers. I couldn’t find my seat on press row, but I did find one for “Make Casazza” who actually works for the Charleston Daily Mail. I hope he doesn’t show up because I rather like my seat.

Well, actually, I had to move because there were two power strips for about 80 seats on the second row of press row. So I grabbed Make’s nametag and moved down to seat with a power strip and plugged in.

No power.

That was rectified, though, and I’m seated behind Jay Jacobs, which is the biggest celebrity sighting so far. The arena is one-eighth full with a surprisingly large number of Iowa fans. Kansas State fans are out, too, and they cheered Huggins when he came out earlier. WVU is well-represented. It should be noted a few have specified their allegiances and they are quite clearly not WVU football fans. Leave it at that. Five minutes to tipoff and I need some of that water…

* It’s not his fault — not by a long shot — but Pat White did not take today’s loss well.

Through his tears in a postgame session with the media, White took complete blame for the loss by WVU (7-4, 4-2).

“It hurts, as you can see,” the southpaw Alabaman said. “I’ve been bawling my eyes out. I felt I gave it away. We played good enough to get a win, but I didn’t at the end. I felt my mistakes hurt us, those two picks at the end.

“He (Pitt cornerback Jovani Chappel on White’s second pick) bit on me. It was a bad read. Bad ball. I threw it right to him. Guess it looked like he was on my team, huh?

“I feel like it was personally my fault for the loss … Crunch time at the end of the game, a dumb play like that a veteran quarterback shouldn’t make.”

Sorry, it’s not even close to all on White’s shoulder pads.

* Hey, perhaps this was a contributing factor to the loss.

The real McCoy ran 33 times for a career-high 183 yards. The Mountaineers have one of the best runners in college football taking snaps, and he ran only 11 times.

What’s wrong with that picture?

* Anthony Leonard was nicked.

WVU played Friday without sophomore Anthony Leonard, who had started the last six games at middle linebacker. Leonard, from nearby McKeesport, did not dress because of a high right ankle sprain suffered in last week’s win at Louisville.

Filling in for Leonard in the middle of the 3-3-5 stack, making his first Mountaineer start, was redshirt freshman Najae Goode. He is WVU’s fifth different MLB starter in 11 games, following Pat Lazear (one game), Mortty Ivy (one), Reed Williams (two) and Leonard.

Right to the very end when Wes Lyons failed to get out of bounds and then committed pass interference. Between that ending, which was somewhat apropos, and the penalties and the bad passes and the penalties and the poor tackling and the penalties and the critical interception, WVU just killed itself today. That team is not good enough to make those errors and expect to win. In short, the Mountaineers made things much easier for a Pitt team that didn’t look as if it wanted to win that game. 

The game changed when Pat threw to the wrong team on third and 10 and set up a Pitt touchdown. The call itself goes Stewart’s philosophy because it let the defense make a play and allowed the opponent to get back in the game. Then again, you probably trust your senior quarterback not to make that pass. Yet he did and for as good as he’s been throughout his career, today was one of Pat’s poorer performances. The throws weren’t on and he ran the wrong way on a couple of plays, though Pitt did a good enough job complicating his decisions.

Funny thing is this doesn’t really change bowl prospects outside of making the Big East title and BCS bid unattainable. If USC beats Notre Dame and Rutgers beats Louisville, it’s still likely down to Pitt and WVU for the Sun Bowl. Head-to-head stuff doesn’t matter for the selection and the Sun will make a financially based decision.

Hunch? Charlotte and the Car Care Bowl only because WVU and it’s fans can do more with that game than anyone else.