MORGANTOWN - What a crazy, crazy world we live in, eh?
Back in mid-October, the Big 12 preseason men's basketball poll came out. West Virginia, despite returning many from a Sweet 16 team, was picked to finish sixth.
Today, though, ladies and gentlemen, we present your Big 12 leaders - those rugged, sometimes frustrating, always entertaining Mountaineers.
An 80-69 victory in Saturday night's Top 15 and Big 12 showdown with Baylor - coupled with an Oklahoma loss - puts West Virginia atop the standings with 56 percent of the season gone.
For a couple days anyway, the WVU team and its fans can enjoy. Sure, dead ahead is a Tuesday game at Big 12 preseason favorite Kansas.
Yet there is reason to celebrate on this day. OK, so the Mountaineers were smothered at Florida two games ago. But a victory at Iowa State and a win against Baylor is very, very impressive - especially since they were earned without Jon Holton, perhaps the team's best all-around player this season. That, my friends, is called a statement.
It should be fun for West Virginia fans to check out the polls on Monday.
Yet let's zoom back to Saturday's game before a rowdy sellout crowd of 14,069 at the Coliseum.
How did the Mountaineers win?
Well, many pointed to the Bears' leading scorer, Taurean Prince, as the key.
If it wasn't Prince, it was fellow forward Rico Gathers, the team's leading rebounder.
In this case, though, dish some credit to the Mountaineer coaches. See, their focus was on another Baylor player: point guard Lester Medford.
The game plan, in fact, was centered squarely on Medford.
Limit Medford's lane penetration, read the report, in order to limit Baylor's 3-point shooting success. Yes, the report also said Gathers needed to be blocked out.
But then it went back to Medford. He was to be trapped, it said. The ball was to be out of his hands as much as possible.
It wasn't an easy task. Medford entered the game with 28 career starts at point guard. He had 192 assists and just 54 turnovers for a 3.6 assist-to-turnover ratio. Within the Big 12, he and Iowa State's Monte Morris were the statistical leaders at the position.
When Medford had more than five assists, Baylor was 25-4 and 15-3 this season.
Guess what his final line was Saturday? Try 2-of-11 shooting, four personal fouls, nine points and, most important, three assists. Baylor as a team had 10 assists. By comparison, West Virginia had 20.
Baylor finished shooting 4 of 16 (25 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc, and some of those conversions were late.
WVU's Jaysean Paige, who had his high school coach, Ty Parker, in the stands from the state of New York, smiled. He, Jevon Carter, Dax Miles and Tarik Phillip shut down Medford.
"That was the head of the snake," Paige said. "Whenever you have a good point guard like that, everything runs through him. He gets their team going. You want to eliminate his touches and eliminate his points. I think we did a good job of that tonight."
Offensively?
"We shot the ball well," said the Mountaineer guard. "We shared the ball well and played as a team. We executed. We'd worked at that."
Indeed, the Mountaineers converted 27 of 55 shots for 49.1 percent, hit 7 of 14 3-point shots and made 19 of 28 free throws. Miles led the way with 20, but Paige added 17, Devin Williams had 16 and Nate Adrian added 11.
"We wanted to attack their zone down low," said Adrian, "and play solid [defense]."
That the Mountaineers did. At times they simply carved up Baylor's zone.
If WVU can get the aforementioned contributions on Tuesday, with a strong showing from Holton, who is expected back, Phog Allen Fieldhouse should be the stage for a terrific game.
Until then, West Virginia's team and fans should enjoy. A 19-4 overall record and 8-2 mark in the Big 12 just doesn't come along often.