MORGANTOWN — For the fifth time this season, West Virginia will host a nationally-ranked team when No. 20 Texas visits the Coliseum at 2 p.m. Saturday.
An expected sell-out is on hand, announced Friday by the WVU Ticket Office.
“I think it helps us a bunch,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said. “I think playing here in the Coliseum is really good for us. The people have been wonderful. You could not ask for a better fan base.”
As far as what will be seen on the court, Huggins said there would be little tinkering to the Mountaineers’ starting lineup or rotation of players, even though WVU has lost 12 of its last 13 games and would need a miracle in the Big 12 tournament to qualify for the NCAAs.
“I’ve never done anything in my life I never tried to win at,” Huggins said. “From basketball to academics to the myriad of other things my father threw me into. I don’t know anything else.”
Short of that miracle, WVU (14-14, 3-12 Big 12) still needs to win two of its last three regular season games just to assure itself of the minimum .500 record needed to receive an invite to the NIT. WVU’s last appearance in the NIT came in 2014, a first-round exit against Georgetown.
Other than the NIT, Huggins hinted he would also be open to the Mountaineers playing in the CBI, if that became the final option.
WVU last played in that tournament in 2019.
“I’m all for it. I’d play all summer, if I could,” Huggins said. “I think that’s how you get better. That’s why they call rookies ‘rookie,’ because they’ve never experienced what the older guys have.”
The CBI has a different format than it did in 2019. Rather than playing early-round games at campus sites, the entire 16-team single-elimination tournament is played at the Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Whatever postseason options become open, the Longhorns (20-8, 9-6) represent one last opportunity to build any positive late-season momentum for the Mountaineers.
Texas is not without its own drama lately, with junior forward Tre Mitchell officially leaving the team Thursday after having sat out the last three games for personal reasons.
Mitchell’s exit was not a quiet one, as his father went on a social-media rant against Texas head coach Chris Beard following his son’s departure.
Mitchell played in 24 games and started 17 of them. He was one of eight transfers brought in this season by Beard — Mitchell came from UMass — and he averaged 8.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
The remaining transfers on Texas’ roster have had their growing pains.
Timmy Allen — from Utah — leads the Longhorns in scoring (11.9 ppg) and Marcus Carr — from Pitt and Minnesota — is third on the team in scoring and leads the team in assists. Both players are well below their season averages of last season, though.
Other transfers like Devin Askew (Kentucky), Christian Bishop (Creighton) and Dylan Disu (Vanderbilt) have struggled to make an impact this season and Texas’ offense is ranked sixth in the Big 12.
Huggins signed three transfers for this season, but the Mountaineers have struggled to win. The WVU coach has made his dislikes on the rules surrounding the transfer portal and immediate eligibility well known.
That may have prompted Huggins’ take last week on how Beard built this Texas roster in his first season with the Longhorns.
“Let me just say this real quick, everybody was all ga-ga about Texas and all the great guys Chris got, and Chris is really a good coach, and they can’t win with those guys,” Huggins said. “I mean, what are we doing? The team he left at Texas Tech is pretty good. Those are guys, for the most part they’re transfers, but it wasn’t this portal stuff.
“They weren’t player of the year in this or player of the year in that. They were guys who were hungry and wanted to win.”
On Friday, Huggins said the Longhorns are starting to play more together.
“They’re more cohesive now,” he said. “Obviously, playing together for this amount of time, you’re going to get that way.”
Texas is also fourth in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents to an average of 58 points.
WVU was held to 59 points when the two schools met on New Year’s Day, but the Mountaineers played that game without guard Taz Sherman, who was in COVID-19 protocol at the time.
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