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MORGANTOWN -- In 1986, college basketball, aka the NCAA, gave in and added the 3-point shot to its game, something that actually started in 1961 in the ABA and that had flourished in the ABA and then the NBA.
That was 37 years ago. History tells us it changed the game, made it more wide open, more exciting, set up more comebacks and created a new brand of player.
It also ruined Saturday for West Virginia.
Not just once, but twice. In the men's game, where the Mountaineers ran into the buzzsaw that is the Houston Cougars, who took them apart piece by piece on defense enroute to an 89-55 victory that wasn't as close as the score indicated.
Then, in the women's game, the No. 10 Longhorns came into the Coliseum and ended the Mountaineers' undefeated season with a 70-49 triumph.
For both the men's and the women's team, the 3-point shot was nothing but fool's gold.
How this happens is difficult to understand, coming in games both starting at 2 p.m. and both played against a Texas opponent, but the men finished their day hitting just 4 of 23 from 3-point range, which is 17%, while the women were even worse, connecting on just 4 of 31 3s for 13%.
Anyone who has ever watched a practice or a pre-game shootaround or just a bunch of kids on a playground black top court realizes that the 3-point shot is probably practiced more than the free throw.
It is what today's game is made up of, yet WVU came to the arenas separated by 1,500 or so miles -- no, I'm not going to Google the distance from Houston to Morgantown -- and shot like every one was a rushed buzzer beater from past half court.
WVU's men can blame the Houston defense, which was smothering everything they tried to do, leaving so often late in the shot clock that they were rushing shots in desperation.
Interestingly, the two top scorers on those two teams were among the worst at shooting 3-pointers. The normally accurate JJ Quinerly went 1-of-12 from 3, although she found a way to get to the free-throw line enough to finish with 21 points.
WVU's RaeQuan Battle, benched for most of the first half with two early fouls, and frustrated throughout, did not hit a 3-pointer and went 1 for 9 from the floor.
For the men, it was as though Houston were playing with seven men on defense. Wherever the ball moved to, there was a double team.
"You have to make them pay for doubling the ball all around the floor," Eilert said. "If you don't get those hockey assists -- we kept talking hockey assists, hockey assists, and that's the one more pass -- you get in trouble and we weren't seeing that. As soon as we got it out, it just stuck.
"They probably do as good as anyone I've seen in the country of closing out with their speed and physicality. We have to take a page out of their book and play with a sense of urgency on defense."
Seemed like they needed a sense of urgency on offense, too.
Oddly, the women's bad day of shooting 3-pointers was quite different. They actually were looking to shoot 3-pointers, as they felt it was their best hope of beating Texas.
"I knew we had to make 3s to win this game, Coach Mark Kellogg said. "We felt going in that we had to outshoot them by five or six more 3s. That would be like 18 points. Early in the game we were taking good 3s. We just didn't make them. After that we started forcing them."
Quinerly's inability to hit 3s was surprising.
"She was looking forward to this game," Kellogg said. "She's played in big time games and this Texas game meant a lot to her. She was talking about it before the season."
Houston established its dominance over the men early with Baylor transfer LJ Cryer hitting four first-half 3s -- as many as WVU would have the whole game -- and finished with 20 points.
WVU had only one player in double figures and it wasn't anyone you would have named coming into the game, Pat Suemnick putting together another impressive performance off the bench and scoring 12 points.