MORGANTOWN - You could read through and watch all the material that's been sent his way to make Bob Huggins believe in the rule changes coming to college basketball this season. You could have sat in the meetings he's attended and used all of his opportunities to ask questions and digest answers. You could even procure an invitation to the upcoming scrimmage against Temple and witness the certain carnage officials will levy that day.
With any or all of that as your source of knowledge, you could easily understand why the West Virginia coach is highly skeptical of the 2015-16 season.
Or you could simply get this from Curtis Shaw, the Big 12's coordinator of officials.
"The press was never supposed to be about attacking the basketball," Shaw said.
Tell that to the coach or players who led the nation in steals, forced turnovers, embarrassed opponents and scorned victims last season while winning 25 games before running into Kentucky to end a season that might have lasted longer if not for that Sweet 16 appointment.
That's how good WVU's defense was last season, and honestly, it's not good enough to say the Mountaineers were good. You need something with more buzz to describe what they did.
"They're like bees," Iowa State forward Georges Niang said. "They just keep coming and bugging you. No matter how many fouls are called against them, they just keep coming."
They were also the best - or worst, I guess - at fouling last season. No one did it more often, but it was inextricably attached to the defense they played, which is to say the attitude they inflicted on opponents. So tell the Mountaineers this isn't about them. Tell them they can still, as they like to say, do what they do while officials vow to strictly prohibit contact from defenders.
Long sentences and paragraphs could describe what's coming, but it can be accurately summed up in fewer words. You can't touch an offensive player anymore.
And it sure feels like you can't press.
"It doesn't mean you can't press," Shaw said. "It means defenders cannot initiate contact."
That's fine, but that's also only half of the intent. There are many areas of emphasis involved in the vision officials have for this season, and the major ones govern freedom of movement. Offensive players should be able to move with and without the ball, but defensive players are guaranteed the same privileges.
An offensive player isn't supposed to be initiating contact, either, and pardon Huggins for rolling his eyes at the thought of offensive fouls being called against players trying to avoid or escape the pressure.
Consider that officials are intent on eradicating physicality under the basket when players fight for post position and for rebounds. Their eyes are on the first contact that affects what the opponent can do.
The "exact same principal," Shaw said, is to be applied when a team is attempting to inbound the ball.
The Mountaineers jump into their press after baskets or timeouts and complicate the inbound. Opponents have to set screens or fight through defenders to get open. There are constant uncalled fouls, but now officials will look for who is guilty of the initial grab, hook and hold.
"What happens when we trap?" Huggins asked. "Is there contact? Sure. I'm not saying we don't foul. But there's going to be contact when they pivot to throw, when they try to split you to make a pass. That's all offensive contact.
"If they're not going to call that, but they'll call [a foul] anytime you barely touch someone, why press? If they're going to call the offensive part of it, if they're not going to let them travel out of traps, if they're going to enforce verticality both ways, then it's worth pressing."
Shaw insists the rules will accommodate the defenders, and he believes there's room in the game for pressure defense. Granted, he thinks many coaches will use token pressure, the sort of stuff that doesn't attack the basketball but takes time to overcome, as a way to make the most of the new 30-second shot clock, five seconds shorter than what it was.
But he also believes the Mountaineers can again be outliers and harass and succeed within the new constricts.
"They've got very athletic guards who are good at pressuring, but it just means the guards have to use their feet to maintain position instead of initiating contract," he said. "It shouldn't change the way they press at all."
But it almost has to, not because of the rules, but because of reality. In half-court defense, WVU does everything it can to keep the ball on one side of the floor. Basically, 75 percent of the floor is out of the picture and defenders are safer in a smaller space. When the Mountaineers press, they're patrolling the entire length and width of the floor.
"And now you can have no contact?" Huggins said. "We're not talking about pushing or grabbing people. They're saying slide your feet. How in the hell do you slide your feet to stay in front of somebody the length of the floor? That's not going to happen."