After another big win, No. 23 WVU must avoid a letdown against struggling Arizona State

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia’s hiatus as an AP-ranked team lasted all of one week, with the Mountaineers moving back into the poll at No. 23 on Monday.

Fitting, because WVU (13-4, 4-2 Big 12) has spent the entire season to this point bucking the trends.

Label the Mountaineers as underdogs and, well, that underdog has some serious bite.

Predict WVU near the bottom of the Big 12 and head coach Darian DeVries and point guard Javon Small have teamed up to keep the Mountaineers running near the top of the league standings.

WVU STATS

“We’ve talked about with our team from Day 1, don’t limit yourself on anything,” DeVries said following WVU’s 64-57 upset of No. 1 Iowa State last Saturday. “We’re going to come. We’re going to compete. These are the things we feel like we need to be good at to win and let’s go try and do that.

“I’ve never been a guy that’s been like, hey, we need to win this many games to be successful. It’s more about how can we maximize this group. If you can do that, then those wins follow.”

It sets WVU up for yet another encore performance. It was just three weeks ago when the Mountaineers walked into Allen Fieldhouse and knocked off Kansas and then followed that up with a strong performance against Oklahoma State.

There was no let down following that first big moment, and WVU isn’t expecting one now, as the Mountaineers get set to host struggling Arizona State (10-7, 1-5) at 9 p.m. Tuesday inside the Coliseum.

“It’s just one game at time,” said Small, the Big 12’s leading scorer at 19.8points per game. “We understand how big and how important the (Iowa State) game was. We just can’t come out on Tuesday against Arizona State and blow it off.

“We have to keep building momentum and keep racking up wins.”

In his 10th season at Arizona State, head coach Bobby Hurley has the Sun Devils struggling to keep their head above water despite an offensive stat sheet that boasts six players averaging 9.4 points per game or more.

That includes prized freshman guard Joson Sanon, a 5-star recruit who played his prep ball in Vermont. The 6-foot-5 guard is shooting 47.5% from 3-point range, but has missed the last two games with an ankle injury.

There’s no word on whether Sanon will play today against WVU.

Arizona State has lost five straight heading into tonight’s game and fell to Cincinnati 67-60 in its last game.

“We have to learn to play 40 minutes,” Hurley said after the game. “We didn’t come close tonight, especially with how we played offense in the first half. We had 20 points in the first half, and that’s just not good enough when you’re on the road.

“Things can turn fast. As a group, we’ve underachieved the last nine days. We’ve had a pretty good season until we stepped on the floor at Kansas. Since then, we’ve been spiraling.”

WVU is on the other side of the spectrum.

WVU is in a three-way tie for fourth in the Big 12 standings, but outside of one remaining home game against No. 7 Houston, the Mountaineers have already faced the brunt of the Big 12’s scheduling gauntlet.

With 14 games remaining in the regular season, there are no games remaining against Kansas, Arizona or Iowa State. A matchup against surprising Texas Tech doesn’t happen for another month.

That leaves WVU with plenty of opportunity to pad its NCAA-tournament resumé if it can continue to find consistency.

“We still have to do our part,” DeVries said.