MORGANTOWN - Because of the situation in which West Virginia University's basketball team finds itself, the attention of those covering it had to be split on Saturday.
While the Mountaineers were hosting Kansas State at noon before an impressive crowd of 14,074 at the Coliseum, the NCAA tournament committee was unveiling a bracket preview.
Would WVU be credited more for its elite wins over Kansas, Baylor and Virginia or dinged more for losses, especially to Temple and Oklahoma? Would the Mountaineers even be among the 16 unveiled?
Well, around the 8-minute mark of the first half, names started to tumble out from the committee. Villanova, Kansas, Baylor, Gonzaga...
Meanwhile, West Virginia was struggling with K-State. The Mountaineers started the game with 3-of-10 shooting and again needed a spark from guard Beetle Bolden.
Then, around 5:19 of the first half, the committee unveiled WVU was a No. 4 seed heading into the day, behind Butler but in front of UCLA and Duke.
It's a complicated - and somewhat silly - exercise. The committee said WVU would be headed to the West region. But before you could understand why (West Virginia was eligible to go to New York City, but Oregon's placement in San Jose and Arizona's placement in Kansas City meant UCLA was blocked from those two regions, forcing the Mountaineers to the West and sending UCLA to the East) you saw the hosts were tied with K-State at halftime.
And you realized how the unveiled scenario was simply a sandcastle awaiting a wave.
Fortunately for WVU on Saturday, it was a second-half wave that hit K-State - as it is designed to do - and the Mountaineers won a foul-fest (54 between the teams) that had to send the officials shopping for new whistles.
"It was very important," Bolden said. "We lost to them at their house and we wanted to make a statement that that wasn't us there."
"We were just taking advantage of their weaknesses," said WVU's Jevon Carter, who led his team with 19 points. "We knew D.J. [Johnson] wasn't playing and they didn't have much of a shot blocker, so we were in attack mode to get to the rim."
Yet let's get back to this bracket deal. While many of us view it as pointless, Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins does not.
"I think it takes a lot of pressure off the committee," said the coach. "Now people can see what they're thinking. Before, it was like a big surprise... I think now people can do kind of what the committee does: watch teams, see who is playing well, see who is not playing well.
"We lost some games we shouldn't have lost. If we would have taken care of our business maybe we wouldn't be a four seed. We'd probably be a two or a one, I don't know."
WVU, though, has 20 wins. It has those elite wins. And it also has respect. That's what made Saturday's victory so important. Finally, upon given national respect, the Mountaineers didn't blow it. In fact, in the second half versus Kansas State, they played well against a zone, spreading out and attacking. They shot 58.8 percent in the span.
All, of course, might collapse Monday when West Virginia visits Kansas, but at least the Good Ship Mountaineer is on course heading into Lawrence. And that No. 4 seed sounds about right at the moment.
"It doesn't matter though," said Huggins. "We have to go play KU. We have to go play Baylor. If we go play KU and Baylor and happen to win, are we a four? No.
"We have a lot ahead of us. We struggled to beat Texas at Texas. We lost at Texas Tech and they're coming here. We're at TCU, which is playing well right now. This league is hard. I don't think people on the outside understand how hard it is."
Indeed, it is difficult. There's little doubt that the Big 12 is the nation's best conference this season. Statistician Ken Pomeroy calls it the best since the 2003-04 ACC.
In a way, it's like being in the NFL. Win by a point and be happy about it. Also, WVU has a built-in degree of difficulty.
"Being in another time zone [than the other league members] hurts us," Huggins said. "To say it doesn't is a lie. It hurts us."
There's nothing anyone can do about that though. The committee won't bend over backward for the Mountaineers.
"People are going to do what they're going to do," said Carter. "We just want to win, honestly. We just want to win."
"I feel we're in a perfect position right now," said Mountaineer guard Teyvon Myers, who finished with four points, four rebounds and two plugs up his nose. "If we stay resilient, ambitious on and off the court and make good decisions, we should be good."
So far, the committee agrees.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.