STRONG SEASON — WVU guard Honor Huff leads the Mountaineers with 84 3-pointers heading into Wednesday’s game against Utah. - Benjamin Powell

MORGANTOWN — There was a time, WVU guard Honor Huff admits, when a poor shooting night or a bad game ripped at his gut.

His team could have won by 20 points or just upset the best team in the conference, but if Huff’s stat line was 2 for 12 with four turnovers, he was going to feel a certain way about that.

“Last year, if I had a bad game, it was the end of the world,” Huff said Tuesday, as the Mountaineers were preparing for today’s 8:30 p.m. home game against Utah. “I didn’t care if we won or lost. If I played bad, that conformed my whole mood and day.”

It is a different time now for Huff, who has experienced a wide array of both good and bad, maybe as much as anyone could have wrapped up in just 25 college basketball games thus far.

The good has been Huff’s highlight reel 3-pointers, many of them taken from spots on the floor where, seemingly, nobody outside of Steph Curry should be taking a shot. So many of them fell in. Momentum was created and Huff’s reputation as a deadly shooter quickly spread throughout the Big 12.

The bad was going 0 for 8 against Texas Tech or 1 for 13 against Baylor, the type of nights that would have been sleepless ones for Huff in a previous life.

“This year, I’ve been able to think about the team more than just myself,” Huff continued. “If we’re winning, that’s more important. Staying focused on the season, I’ve been better.”

Huff places the credit to his team-driven transformation on the feet of WVU head coach Ross Hodge and the WVU coaching staff.

It makes sense. The Mountaineers (16-9, 7-5 Big 12), too, have been through the ringer when it comes to great wins and blowout defeats this season. After each type of instance, Hodge is quick to stand up in front of his team to remind them they are not great or they are not terrible.

“Coach talks about that ad nauseum,” Huff said. “Even after our last game (a road win at UCF), he goes, ‘Well, you’re not the 73-9 (Golden State) Warriors. When we lost to Baylor, he told us we’re not the worst team. We’re not the Charlotte Bobcats.

“It keeps our mind on the next goal. OK, we beat UCF, now let’s go beat Utah. It’s not, ‘Oh, we’re going to go celebrate and have a parade back in Morgantown.’ We have to stay focused and he does a good job of preaching that to us.”

A struggling, but offensively-charged Utah team stands in the way next. The Utes (9-16, 1-11) have lost seven in a row heading into today’s matchup inside Hope Coliseum. Not many teams sitting at the bottom of a conference’s standings have the type of firepower Utah has, with high-scoring guards Terrence Brown and Don McHenry combining for nearly 38 points per game.

It is a game, on paper, the Mountaineers need to win to continue to build their resumé for any type of run for the NCAA tournament. They are the favorite, which doesn’t happen all that often in the Big 12.

“Hey, we were the favorite against Baylor, too, and you saw what happened,” Huff quickly points out. “They may be 1-11, but it’s going to be a dogfight. We know that.

The goal now for the Mountaineers is to finish strong, to state their case to anyone who will listen they are, indeed, worthy of NCAA tournament consideration.

Huff doesn’t have to carry the Mountaineers to that goal. There is no climbing onto his 5-foot-9 shoulders and letting him carry the load.

If there is another 1 for 13 night out there laying in the weeds, so be it. It won’t define Huff, won’t have him tossing and turning at night. He’ll find other ways to contribute, either by passing the ball, playing good defense or maybe even driving to the basket instead of shooting a 3-pointer.

“This year, I’m not always playing well offensively, but what can you do to impact winning otherwise,” Huff asks. “I’ve expanded my whole horizon and my game with these (WVU) coaches. It’s something I’ve always wanted to work on and it was one of the reasons I wanted to come here and play for coach Hodge.”