MORGANTOWN — Treysen Eaglestaff’s situation with the WVU men’s basketball team is anything but simple. Honestly, it has branches. A lot of them.

This was the question posed to WVU head coach Ross Hodge on Tuesday night, following the Mountaineers’ 90-58 victory against Little Rock (Ark.): Ross, where do you start with Treysen after that game Saturday?

Hodge’s reply: What do you mean?

In a weird sort of way, that 10-second exchange kind of sums up the thoughts and feelings that are out there on the WVU senior guard, in that maybe no one has it right about the 6-foot-6 guard from Bismarck, N.D., because we don’t fully understand all of the angles or what they mean.

We go back to the question, which was about Eaglestaff’s performance in WVU’s 75-66 loss against Wake Forest, in which he played a season-low nine minutes and never attempted a shot.

For someone with Eaglestaff’s credentials – he tested the waters of the NBA Draft prior to enrolling at WVU this summer – that kind of stat line is simply eye-catching for all of the wrong reasons, especially in a loss.

On the season, Eaglestaff is shooting 38.6% from the field, 28.6% from 3-point range and is averaging 8.5 points a game, which, again, is not exactly what was expected from a guy who dropped 40 points on Alabama last season when he played at North Dakota.

“You’re honest with him,” Hodge went on to say. “I’ve been really honest with you guys (the media). I’ve felt like Trey has been defending at a really high level for this whole year. He was doing a lot of other little things that were impacting winning despite not shooting the ball as well as he would have liked.

Against Wake Forest, “He gave up four catch-and-shoot threes. He gave up 12 points,” Hodge said. “At that point and time, just like with anybody else, we’re always going to start with our defensive accountability, and if you’re not defending at a high enough level, it’s going to be hard for you to be out there. It was his defense that limited his offensive abilities, which he knew.”

To Eaglestaff’s credit, he bounced back with five 3-pointers and 23 points against Little Rock, which, obviously, is in no way comparable to Wake Forest’s level of competition.

“Really, I just washed it off (the last game),” Eaglestaff said. “I didn’t play the greatest game (against Wake Forest) and that’s something I have to live with and get into the gym the next day and work it off. That’s something you can’t predict, when the work you put in will show. Today was one of the days it showed.”

And then come the branches. Hodge is going to protect his players publicly. He should. His explanation was great concerning the Wake Forest game, but does Eaglestaff doing “other little things” really tell the story?

The answer to that depends on perspective, which is where a whole mess of branches begin to form. By all accounts, Eaglestaff is a wonderful kid and a great teammate. He’s overcome quite a bit just to get to West Virginia, including overcoming being the high school kid from an overlooked state to developing into an athlete who was courted by dozens of big-name schools when he entered the transfer portal last spring.

“He’s got a great heart, a great spirit,” Hodge said. “He holds himself accountable. He’s hard on himself. He’s such a good teammate. He cares so much about this university, this program and this state.”

The other perspective is what sports writers around the country who cover college athletics, and certainly the fans, wrestle with on a daily basis in our current time.

Eaglestaff is a college kid. That means something totally different today than it did just 10 years ago. A decade ago, there was no such thing as NIL payments and revenue-sharing payments for college athletes, at least not legally.

A college athlete was not professional back then, and was shielded to a degree from hellfire and condemnation. Whether or not college athletes are pros is a very blurry line today.

Eaglestaff makes good money to play basketball at WVU. By citizens of West Virginia standards, he earns life-changing money.

So, what level of criticism is fair? Do you look at the college kid with a great heart or the one earning thousands upon thousands of dollars weekly and then has yet to truly live up to that investment?

Both perspectives are true, and to be fair, the criticism question isn’t just about Eaglestaff. It could be asked of many college basketball and football players around the country in the power conferences.

Throw in the fact the Mountaineers (8-3) have underperformed so far against competition most would deem to be NCAA-tournament worthy and it does nothing but send more eyes in Eaglestaff’s direction.

It ends up as a complicated subject, where, possibly, no one is right or wrong.

For Eaglestaff, his eyes center around what is to come, not what has already happened.

“Personally, sometimes I need to let loose and just not be as stiff as I usually am,” he said.