Photo by Benjamin Powell/The Dominion Post WVU forward Brenen Lorient looks to make a move against Mississippi Valley State on Monday.

MORGANTOWN — If it was possible, we’d love to get that behind-the-scenes glimpse of how the WVU men’s basketball team and head coach Ross Hodge is going to tackle the next three months of Big 12 action.

The numbers, the strategy, the plan as to how the Mountaineers (9-4) will go about their business in a league that features six AP Top 25 schools — four of them currently in the top 10 — eight schools who are projected to make the NCAA tournament and probably either the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft in BYU’s A.J. Dybantsa.

Side note: The Big 12 will likely have the top two picks of the draft, but Kansas announced it is shutting down guard Darryn Peterson for the rest of the season due to injury concerns.

In any case, we don’t need to peel back the curtain, so to speak. WVU’s master plan has been on full display over its last three games, including the 86-51 victory against Mississippi Valley State on Monday. It was right there a little more than a week ago in that double-overtime loss against Ohio State, and if you can even still remember that game against Little Rock (Ark.), the plan of attack was there, too.

Which is to say the Mountaineers are going to play their brand of defense and hope for the best. Then, they are going to bomb away from the 3-point line and, again, hope for the best.

“That’s probably the plan,” said WVU guard Treysen Eaglestaff, who had 23 points against the Delta Devils. “In our very first scrimmage together, we had a lot of threes. I don’t remember how many, but I remember it was lights out. Threes are definitely worth more than twos and that’s definitely the plan. We’re just going to keep putting the work in.

“You can’t script everything, obviously. I’ve had some bad games and sometimes (the ball) just doesn’t go in. It’s part of basketball. We’re just going to keep working hard and try to get better everyday.”

Ah, that preseason scrimmage. You may remember the news that came out of that, because it’s quite possible that was the height of WVU’s hype for the season, a time when the fan base branded Hodge and his rebuilt roster an instant winner on social media.

It was a not-so-secret scrimmage against Maryland, which sat out a couple of injured players that day and is now a ho-hum 6-6 under Buzz Williams in what has been a brutal schedule for the Terps.

Honor Huff, according to the stats that leaked from the game, was an amazing 10 of 18 from 3-point range. He scored 32 points. Eaglestaff was lined up on the other side of the offense and added 22 points.

They formed a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don’t equation, in that if you went after one of them, the other just stuck a dagger in your back. Jasper Floyd dished out assists like Santa hands out presents and all was right in the basketball world.

It’s now two months later, and we’re sitting here asking ourselves just how competitive can WVU be over the next 18 games, in which 15 of them will come against teams ranked inside the top 100 of the NCAA’s NET rankings?

Well, I don’t have that answer today. It would be great to look over the rest of the schedule and say, “Here’s a win and here’s another win.” It’s been a long time since WVU faithful could do that and have that number climb up to 10, 11 or more.

What we will say is WVU has connected on a total of 39 3-pointers over its last three games. Even by John Beilein standards, that’s a pretty impressive number.

“Some of it may be getting more comfortable with everything that’s going on and really understanding where the shots — as a group — where we want them to come from,” Hodge said. “Whether I make it or miss it, this is a good shot for us. I think it’s a combination of the work they put in and becoming more comfortable with knowing the shots that I want them to take.”

Put simply, WVU’s plan the rest of the way will be to get Huff and Eaglestaff to shoot those threes with no conscience, and once the defense pulls out, take advantage of that extra space on the inside.

Defense will be the major question. Against better competition, WVU’s defense has been suspect. Can it make an impact in Big 12 games? That’s the question of the day.

“With our defense, I think we’re one of the best teams in the country when our threes are falling,” Eaglestaff said. “I think it’s really hard to guard. We’re going to make you shoot tough shots and we’re going to rebound. When our shots are falling, especially from multiple people, that’s dangerous.”