MORGANTOWN - Well, look who's back.
OK, yes, yes, No. 18 West Virginia's basketball team is back. Definitely. After two stinkers, the Mountaineers played like the team that catapulted to No. 7 in the Associated Press poll.
Yet look who else is back. Or, rather, look who is finally playing in the form expected when he signed with WVU.
Why, hello, Esa Ahmad. Nice to meet you.
Doing his best imitation of Devin Williams, who seemed to put on a cape when he faced Kansas, Ahmad busted out for 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting and tossed in five rebounds in his team's 85-69 Big 12 victory over the Jayhawks before 13,694 at the Coliseum.
"Of a team that played exceptionally well," said Kansas coach Bill Self, "he played the best game."
It seemed to come out of the rafters of the packed Coliseum. In his last game, against Kansas State, Ahmad had three points on 1-of-6 shooting. Against Oklahoma, he had six points. Against Texas, the 6-foot-8 sophomore had four points and five turnovers.
This from a two-time Ohio prep player of the year?
Maybe it just took a step up in competition.
"I feel like [KU's] Josh Jackson got him going today," said WVU forward Elijah Macon. "Just knowing he had to go up against a possible top-10 NBA draft pick like that got him going. It would me too. I'd just keep going at him."
Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins was asked after the game how Ahmad has improved so much.
"He hasn't for the last few weeks, the last few games," said Huggins with a shrug before restarting.
"I think he kind of rededicated himself, really after the Kansas State game," said the coach. "He wasn't really good in the Kansas State game. He wasn't very good in the Oklahoma game. He got in the gym. I know you guys get tired of me saying it, but that's what it takes."
Macon shook his head while looking over at his teammate.
"Man, it's crazy," said the 6-9 junior. "We've been trying to tell him. Once he got going again, it's going to be tough for people to stop us. I mean, he's a 6-8 wing guard, you know? Not a lot of teams have a 6-8 wing. There are going to be a lot of mismatches. We told him just keep going, keep your head up. He played pretty good."
The best, in fact, of his career. Previously, Ahmad's best performances were 19-point efforts against Manhattan and Temple. Now, he's the team's leading scorer for the season at 12.1 per game.
Where did the 27 come from?
"Today I had some fruit," he joked, "and I've been drinking a lot of Gatorade."
In actuality, though, Ahmad and WVU played with authority. That was the difference. The sophomore from Shaker Heights, Ohio, started strong with a dunk, a drive and a foul drawn on Jackson.
In the first half, he had 12 points - exactly what the Mountaineers needed.
In the second half, he took a long pass from Jevon Carter to make the score 42-35 and forced Self to call an early timeout. He had a reverse dunk shortly after.
It wasn't forced turnovers that electrified the partisan crowd on Tuesday. It was the forceful block by Macon. It was the Sagaba Konate jam. It was Nate Adrian's hustle.
And it was Ahmad.
"I was just aggressive," he said. "I knew I had two bad games. I've been in a slump. I just wanted to come out and be aggressive. I've been getting some extra shots up and it paid off today."
Just like Dr. Huggins ordered.
"He told me to get in the gym," Ahmad said. "He said just stay in the gym. I did."
He paused.
"My coaches and teammates kept me positive - and I love those guys for that, man."
Ahmad was asked what he noticed when watching video of his last couple games.
"I haven't been aggressive," he said. "I've kind of been passive. I've just been passing the ball around. I haven't been putting pressure on the defense and I did today."
And against Jackson. Before all those NBA scouts.
"I just tried to read the defender," Ahmad said. "I was trying to see where he was playing me. I just took what he gave me, whether it was the jumper or going to the basket. I just took what he was giving me."
We'll see where this takes the Mountaineers now. They regained a bit of that national respect with the game beamed on ESPN with Dickie V calling the action. Now it's important for the team to win in the Coliseum again Saturday against Texas A&M.
"This was a must win," Ahmad said. "We knew it was a must win. We knew we couldn't lose. That's what we talked about all week. It wasn't in our mind to lose."
Especially, it seems, on Ahmad's coming out party.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.