Road opportunity awaits WVU when it travels to TCU

MORGANTOWN — Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue or just a simple mix-up of pronouncing WVU men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries’ last name.

Either way, Javon Small wasn’t going to let it slide.

“He ain’t going to say it, but it’s (pronounced) De-Vrees, not De-Vries,” the WVU point guard said in correcting a reporter.

Through all of the positives built in DeVries’ first season with the Mountaineers, apparently there is still much room before anyone on the program is a household name.

Which leads WVU (14-7, 5-5 Big 12) into the interesting situation it finds itself at 8 p.m. Wednesday inside Schollmaier Arena against TCU.

The matchup with the Horned Frogs (11-10, 4-6) features two teams hanging around the middle of the enlarged Big 12 standings, as well as the two lowest-scoring teams in the conference.

WVU is last in the Big 12 in overall rebounding. TCU is 14th.

Both TCU and WVU just ended three-game losing streaks heading into the game. The Mountaineers knocked off Cincinnati on Sunday, while TCU did the same to Colorado a few hours later.

It’s the type of ho-hum game that outside of a five-overtime thriller or a bench-clearing brawl won’t likely get much attention nationally.

It’s exactly the type of game the Mountaineers can’t afford to lose.

As the second half of Big 12 play begins, WVU has already secured plenty of signature moments with victories against Gonzaga, Arizona, Kansas and Iowa State.

ESPN’s latest bracketology predictions have the Mountaineers firmly into the NCAA tournament as a No. 9 seed.

The NCAA’s NET ranking has WVU at No. 39 overall with the Mountaineers’ strength of schedule ranked No. 25 in the country.

All of the metrics point in WVU’s favor for the moment, yet that can change in a hurry by not playing well against the lower-tiered teams in the Big 12.

Which is what was happening during WVU’s three-game skid with two of those losses coming against Arizona State and Kansas State.

Enter a solid road win against the Bearcats, in which WVU seemed to solve some shooting struggles, as well as playing good team defense again.

“I thought we made some opportunities that we hadn’t converted on recently,” DeVries said. “Guys were able to knock down some shots. That was a big factor, at least from our end, to make some shots and open up our offense a little bit.”

Over the final 10 games, WVU will face four teams ranked in the top 50 of the NET. The tricky part is only one of those four games are in Morgantown.

Of the other six remaining games against opponents outside of the top 50, four are at the Coliseum, and it’s those six games that could determine WVU’s postseason.

That stretch begins with TCU — ranked No. 77 overall — which suddenly takes a ho-hum matchup and puts a certain level of importance for both schools.

“Someone is losing, because we’re all playing each other,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said. “We had a tough stretch to start the season. We’ve got more losses than we certainly want, but I don’t think anyone looks at them as a bad loss.

“We’ve got West Virginia and we’ve got to respond. They had a big win. We have to figure out the best way to prepare for West Virginia, because we have to win that one.”