You want to know where West Virginia stands in the RPI, or what the Mountaineers' strength of schedule rating is right now? It's a good bet Thoroughman has looked at it within the last few hours.

How about a shooting percentage for an opponent, or what team leads the Big East in assist-to-turnover ratio? Check with Cam.

So, naturally, it stands to reason that when Thoroughman, for the first time in his five years as a member of WVU's basketball team, scored in double figures Wednesday night in a 56-44 win over Seton Hall, he knew that he had at last broken that invisible barrier.

And he did. Not that he cared.

"Oh, yeah, I knew. I'm one of those stat people that looks at all that stuff,'' Thoroughman said after his 10-point performance against the Pirates. "But it doesn't mean anything at all.''

Well, it may not mean much to Thoroughman personally, but for the Mountaineers it's yet another piece to a puzzle that coach Bob Huggins continues to try to put together while going through the Big East schedule with just eight scholarship players.

Yes, suspended leading scorer Casey Mitchell could return at any time. That remains up to the coach. But in the meantime Huggins is looking for everything he can possibly find to generate points on a team that has few real offensive weapons.

And if it is Thoroughman hitting open jump shots when teams like Seton Hall ignore him defensively, so be it.

"I've been telling him to shoot it. I mean, he's wide open,'' Huggins said. "When they stand a guy in front of the goal and don't guard him at 10 feet, he's got to shoot it in. And he's capable of shooting it in.''

A lot of teams have been leaving Thoroughman open. The same goes for sophomore center Deniz Kilicli. Both are guarded around the basket, but when they venture away from the middle defenders often don't follow them.

Kilicli, for instance, found himself with the basketball twice in one possession off in a corner just behind the 3-point line during a game at Cincinnati last week. No one came out to guard him. Even the Bearcat fans were urging him to shoot. He didn't.

But then a possession later, when Kilicli found himself just to the left of the foul line at about 17 feet still unguarded, he pulled the trigger and made the shot. From that point on, Cincinnati guarded him.

Thoroughman is the same way. He had the ball ridiculously wide open outside the 3-point line several times against Seton Hall, and the home crowd sometimes groaned when he didn't shoot it. But the fact is Thoroughman has tried only three 3-pointers in his career, and he's missed all three.

But he was also wide open at other times inside the 3-point line. He made a 14-footer off the glass and then another standing just inside the 3-point line early against the Pirates. He made an 18-footer along the baseline in the middle of the second half. He missed another from just inside the 3-point circle, but finished 5-for-7 shooting to get to his career-high 10 points.

Seton Hall made the mistake of never really adjusting to go out on him, but if Thoroughman drops in a few more, other teams will adjust. No. 12 Villanova (18-4, 6-3 Big East), Saturday's noon opponent at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, certainly will not allow anyone to roam free.

Of course, if the adjustment is to pull someone away from the basket, that can only help a West Virginia offense that has to rely on close shots to score.

"He's a pretty good shooter when he steps into the shot and he has confidence,'' said point guard Joe Mazzulla, yet another of WVU's players who is often ignored defensively away from the basket, but who of late has made teams pay for that. "I mean, we're not going to run any plays for him, but we want him to be comfortable and have the confidence to shoot those shots.''

Even when Mitchell returns, No. 25 West Virginia (15-6, 6-3 Big East) will have to depend upon guys like Thoroughman to score when they find themselves open away from the basket. This team simply does not have guys who can consistently make shots. Mitchell himself is streaky, Kevin Jones is shooting only 25 percent from 3-point range, Truck Bryant is in the midst of a horrible shooting slump (since scoring 25 at Marquette on Jan. 1 he is 18-for-79 shooting and 7-for-34 on 3s) and John Flowers is still better around the basket than away from it.

"We don't have guys who can dribble the ball and make plays. So we have to rely on being able to screen, being able to cut, being able to pass and make open shots,'' Huggins said. "When we do that, we're pretty good. And when we don't we're not very good. It's really very simple.

"We're only going to be so good offensively because we can't shoot it straight a lot of days and we can make a play off the bounce. We've got to do those things.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.