As I made my way home from Brooklyn, after scrambling to change my flight late Friday evening, I saw the sun rising.
For a moment, I thought of snapping a picture and sending it out to the passionate WVU basketball fans with the message that, see, the sun did come up following the Mountaineers' embarrassing NCAA Tournament loss to 14th-seed Stephen F. Austin.
Then I thought better of it. I know the West Virginia fan base, and I knew the feelings from the loss were too raw at that point. Feedback to me ranged from your basic "we suck" to "WVU needs a new coach" to "I was so upset I couldn't sleep" to "it just made me sick to my stomach."
Very few fan bases live and die with their team like that of WVU. Folks have Mountaineer hangovers when their team loses. Then, when there's a loss like that of Friday, the hangover can last for days.
Perhaps what increased the intensity of the sting were the Mountaineers' comments afterwards. When Devin Williams and Esa Ahmad both said the players didn't take SFA seriously, it was stunning. When they said the Lumberjacks wanted it more, it was jaw-dropping.
This team, this lack-of-a-star, blue-collar, hard-working team, all of a sudden went Hollywood? After suffering last year's humiliating Sweet Sixteen defeat to Kentucky, they wanted it less than SFA?
Those that cover the Mountaineers sat in the postgame press conference incredulous. Actually, all were incredulous - even writers from the splashy New York Post.
If you know anything about the Post, you know not much can shock its writers. "HULK [Hogan] WINS $115M" screamed its Saturday front page and "SPARTY CRASHERS" was blasted on its back page.
But after running Williams' quote that the Mountaineers "just didn't take it seriously - and that's what happens in this tournament if you don't take it seriously," the Post's Paul Schwartz wrote this:
"Seriously? Upsets are the norm, and to not take anyone, even Stephen F. Austin, seriously is bracket blasphemy. Even a mid-sized school from a small Texas town can rise up in the big city, especially when these Lumberjacks are led by someone [Thomas Walkup] who actually looks like one."
After the postgame press conference, back in the WVU locker room, I can assure you the Mountaineers were feeling the reality, the finality, of the loss. Most of the players sat back against lockers, shell-shocked. Athletic director Shane Lyons was in a corner looking a mix of stunned and ticked. Fan favorite Jaysean Paige, tears streaming, was being comforted.
I approached Jevon Carter, who sat alone, and asked where the Mountaineers go from here.
"We just have to keep doing what we're doing," he said. "Just use this game as fuel, I guess."
Huggins, though, touched on what's needed going forward. First, he had a good line about Stephen F. Austin's pressure defense. "I don't know why anybody would waste energy pressing us," said the Mountaineer coach. "We'll throw it to you regardless."
Which is true. Who thought Beetle Bolden, a true freshman who sat out the entire season with an injury, would be sorely missed in the NCAA Tournament?
"You can't turn it over the way we turned it over," Huggins said. "You just can't. I mean, I've told them and told them and told them, and honestly, I think they've tried. We're just taking guys [like Carter] and trying to make them point guards."
"We can't pass," Huggins later said. "But we haven't been able to pass all year. ... I think sometimes you better go recruit some guys that can pass because I'm not sure it's something you can teach. It's kind of like shooting. If you're a bad shooter, you can become a little better, but you're never really going to be a good shooter. I think, if you're a bad passer, you can get better, but you're never going to be a good passer. It's a skill thing."
And that's what WVU needs: skill players. It needs shooters. It needs passers. Take a look at Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks had smaller, quick players - and one terrific shooter in Walkup. The Mountaineers had bigger, more physical players - and no terrific shooters or passers.
Now, the eligibility of Jon Holton and Paige has expired. The rest of the team, though, return. (There is, however, a rumor Williams might try to turn professional at some level.)
So is help on the way? Maybe, but it's yet to be determined whether signees Chase Harler and Maciej Bender will be ready to immediately help with shooting. Sagaba Konate is more of an inside presence.
Assistant coach Erik Martin considered the situation for a second before throwing up his hands.
"To be honest, we've been with these kids since summer in the Bahamas," he said. "I think everybody needs two or three weeks to just relax and get away from each other. Then, after that, I think we'll be able to have clear heads. This is the wrong time to be thinking about what to do next year because emotions are raw."
Apparently, throughout the Mountaineer nation.