MORGANTOWN - When you walked into WVU's Coliseum on Tuesday, there was a festive atmosphere among the small - announced as 8,311 - crowd filing in.
There was a man in a Santa hat. A girl and her mother wore reindeer antlers.
At the end, though, mom was in her kerchief. And, after the homestanding Mountaineers took a 53-22 halftime lead over Radford, the team settled down for a short winter's nap. (OK, so technically it wasn't winter, but work with me here.)
"Another game," said WVU guard Tarik Phillip. "The press overwhelmed them a little bit. It's a win."
The press overwhelmed the Highlanders, now 4-7, in the first half to the tune of 21 turnovers, but only eight after the break. No. 11 West Virginia hit but 10-of-17 free throws in the first half (58.8 percent) and, worse, 5-of-14 (35.7) in the second.
"That's the main thing," Phillip said of coach Bob Huggins' post-game address. "He was stressing that. Fifty percent is terrible. That's not going to do it in the Big 12."
Actually, the number was 48.4. So did Phillip and company learn anything from this one?
"Tough to say," he replied. "Turned the ball over a little. Tough to say."
You get the tone. WVU, now 10-1, turned the ball over 10 times. Radford outrebounded the hosts 40-37.
I promise I tried to find angles. Radford head coach Mike Jones, for instance, was an assistant at WVU for a year (2002-03) under John Beilein. And his assistant? Ex-Marshall and Georgia coach Ron Jirsa. (Now there's a little tumble for you.)
I watched to see if the Mountaineers would break the 100-mark. The answer was no. I watched to see if they would fare better than No. 8 North Carolina did against Radford. Again, the answer was no. (UNC won 95-50.) About all I could find was, hey, at least 84-57 looked better than No. 9 Creighton's recent 66-65 win over Oral Roberts.
"I try to be honest with them," Huggins said of his team. "Down the road it's not going to be all about the [Rating Percentage Index]. There will be other factors. We try to educate them on what people are going to look at. We educate them on those dynamics."
Huggins didn't go into specifics, falling back on preaching desire to embrace games after 12 months of work.
Anyway, there's only one more game for WVU in this five-game stretch of contests against outmatched opponents. The picture will become sharper after Christmas, beginning Dec. 30, when the Mountaineers start Big 12 play at Oklahoma State.
Certainly they'll be wide-awake at that point.
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A reader recently asked about WVU's Russell Athletic Bowl sales, so I tracked down Mountaineer senior associate athletic director Matt Wells.
"The response has been really good there," Wells said. "Between sales and those reserved internally for the band, official traveling party, coaches' families, players' families and staff, we've accounted for about 7,000 of the 8,000 tickets we're responsible for.
"We're still chipping away. Sales have slowed now, but certainly not stopped."
That's coming off an average home football draw of 57,583 this past season.
"That's the highest in eight years, since 2008, when we averaged 58,085," Wells said. "That season was also a 7-game home season, so it's an apples-to-apples comparison."
Keep in mind, however, the life blood of any department is season ticket sales.
"I'm pleased with the overall attendance even though the season ticket sales were relatively flat," Wells said. "We were able to generate a 2,750-ticket overall increase."
And of basketball?
"We sold 5,725 season tickets," he said. "That's basically the same as last year when we sold 5,750. Plus, we're still selling mini-packages. We still have three weeks to sell those."
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And finally...
I'll be taking some time off during the holidays, but I want to thank readers of my column and those of the Gazette-Mail and wish all a very Merry Christmas. It means a lot that you share your news and sports passion with the staff and I.
Please use this time to let those you love know it. Go the extra step with a gift, a phone call and/or a visit.
Oh, and, hey, the last time I checked, hugs are still free. Be generous with them.
Merry Christmas again, folks.