Um, in case you haven't noticed, WVU's basketball team isn't playing as tough of a non-conference schedule as it has in the past.
Case in point: Wednesday night's walkover of Western Carolina by a 90-37 score before 8,384 at Charleston's Civic Center. Next up are VMI, University of Missouri-Kansas City (a school I admittedly didn't know existed), Radford and Northern Kentucky.
It's somewhat understandable because the Mountaineers have five on their roster - Beetle Bolden, Chase Harler, Lamont West, Maciej Bender and Sagaba Konate - in their first years of college ball. Then again, based on the victory at Virginia, maybe Bob Huggins and the schedule makers underestimated this group.
Watching Wednesday's game, I couldn't help but think of a youngster yelling "Not fair!" For it was not. WCU was so overmatched the score was 23-3 before a blink of an eye. At the half, the Catamounts had more turnovers (19) than points (12). Not exactly a recipe for success.
West Virginia had 57 points at one time and led by 41. It quadrupled Western Carolina's score at 80-20.
But enough about that. Let's switch to a difference between the Mountaineers from last season to this. I mentioned the non-conference schedule.
Yet also take a look at the team's fouls committed. In short, they are way down.
Last season, in 35 games, West Virginia committed 822 personal fouls. That's an average of 23.5 per game.
On Wednesday, WVU committed 13. And some of those fouls came in garbage time.
On the season, West Virginia has committed a total of 148 fouls over eight games. That's an average of 18.5 - or an average of five fewer fouls per game.
"I know, right?" said WVU guard Teyvon Myers. "We probably had three fouls with six minutes left in the first half and Jevon Carter looked at me on the bench and said, 'You know, we would have been in the double bonus last year at this time.'"
Without question. It's a problem that's plagued the Mountaineers ever since the inception of "Press Virginia." And, yes, WVU is playing a fair amount of overmatched cupcakes this season. Yet teams like Illinois, Temple and Virginia have been in there as well.
My questions: Have officials finally become accustomed to West Virginia's style? Are the Mountaineers giving more space between defender and ballhandler?
"We've just been trying to keep our hands out," Myers said. "We've been working on it in practice. We're not giving more space. Fouling just leads to the treadmill in practice - and no one wants to be on the treadmill."
"Coach has been putting an emphasis on us moving our feet without touching [the offensive player] with our hands," said fellow guard Bolden. "And if you foul too much or have too many turnovers, you hit the treadmill."
"It's kind of inevitable that we'll foul in our press," said Esa Ahmad. "But we try to make it an emphasis in practice."
He paused before restarting.
"A lot of it is effort," Ahmad said. "Make sure our defense and rotation is crisp. We practice hard at it."
So will the Big 12 officials continue the trend? That's yet to be determined. WVU begins league play at Oklahoma State on Dec. 30.
But West Virginia has found much success with its press. It's found a national brand with it. And now Huggins' team seems to be mastering the craft a little bit more by slowing the rate of fouls committed. If nothing else, the team has worked hard to do so. It's doing everything it can in preparation.
Add that to improved shooting over last season (47.9 to 44.9).
And even through a blowout like Wednesday night's game, you could learn a little more about this Mountaineer team.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.