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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia welcomed Jesse Edwards back onto the floor Saturday afternoon but there was no "Welcome Home, Jesse" party.
The only thing on the Mountaineers' face was eggs, not icing from a welcome home cake, and the only noise makers were Cowboys fans rooting their team down the stretch to a 70-66 victory over WVU.
There was no wet blanket tossed on the Oklahoma State celebration, as it scored its first Big 12 victory of the season after an 0-6 start while WVU is 2-4, oddly with its two wins over then-No. 25 Texas and then-No. 3 Kansas.
Edwards was the key man for the Mountaineers through the first nine games of the season, breaking the hearts of opponents as he was a central figure in the WVU offense, was their top rebounder and was an inside presence on defense.
That was right up until he broke his wrist after playing 16 minutes in a physical game with Massachusetts nine games back.
Oddly, that was how much he played on Saturday against Oklahoma State and the numbers he put up were scarily similar.
In the UMass game he scored two points with three rebounds while on his return he had four points and four rebounds.
But the player on the floor Saturday hardly matched the player who left the floor five weeks ago while averaging 14.8 points and 8.7 rebounds per game.
The Mountaineers are taking a cautious approach to the Syracuse transfer's return, using him as if he were a one-armed player, which is not far from reality as he comes back from surgery.
"The problem is Jesse is going to get you some hard rebounds down there, but you have to understand the wrist creates a situation with him shooting at the free throw line. If they sniff that out and start hacking him to get him to line, there's no benefit in that," coach Josh Eilert said on his post-game radio show.
"Hopefully each and every day he gets more comfortable and we ease him back into the equation and we get production from Pat (Suemnick) and we are a well-balanced team as we move forward with him being healthy."
As difficult as it's been without Edwards, the problems with the Mountaineers run far deeper.
The cracks continue to show on the road and matters reached a new low when they couldn't protect a 7-point lead over the final five minutes, scoring just one basket by Suemnick during that time.
What's more, in the midst of the game, Eilert suffered through another poor game from the player who was hopefully the missing ingredient as he awaited NCAA approval to play -- RaeQuan Battle.
After starting as no other player ever before began his WVU performance, scoring 29 in his debut, Battle has traveled an uneven road. He has scored 81 points over the last seven games, an average of 11.6 points per contest.
The last two games, both road losses to OSU and Central Florida, saw him score just seven points with three baskets in 44 minutes.
In Saturday's loss he had five turnovers, giving him more turnovers than points in the game, and one of those turnovers got Eilert's ire up.
" I got after him pretty good." Eilert admitted. "He tried to bounce a couple of times when he didn't need to and the ball was on the floor and he almost got hurt because he wasn't the first one to the floor (after the ball). He made a mistake and the ball was rolling and he's going to get hurt if he isn't the first to the floor after it.
"I was really disappointed with him in that moment and I got after him pretty good," Eilert said. "He sat a while. I need him to be more efficient for us and make good decisions."
At 7-12, WVU is getting very close to the time when the only way to punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament this year will be by winning the Big 12 postseason championship tournament.