Weather, travel obstacles await No. 13 West Virginia on Texas road trip

MORGANTOWN — Think of West Virginia’s upcoming trip to the state of Texas as more of a business trip rather than a chance to simply get away.

A business trip with potential hazards around every turn.

And that doesn’t even account for the games.

“There’s a lot of issues,” WVU head coach Bob Huggins said Friday. “You have a situation with the planes, obviously. You have a situation with the hotels. In some cases, I think you have some situations with the arenas. They’ve got state-wide issues with power, heat, water, all kinds of issues. I think it’s a kind of wait-and-see situation.”

WVU STATS
NCAA NET RANKINGS
TEXAS STATS

No. 13 West Virginia travels to No. 12 Texas at 3 p.m. Saturday to play in a Frank Erwin Center that was without power until Wednesday.

Most of the state of Texas is under a severe winter advisory. Thousands are still without power in the Austin area. Thousands more do not have clean water.

The inclement weather had already forced a number of postponements, including the Longhorns’ game against No. 9 Oklahoma on Thursday.

Like the Mountaineers (14-6, 7-4 Big 12), Texas hasn’t played since last Saturday, a 70-55 victory against TCU.

Texas coach Shaka Smart, “Seemingly has a lot more confidence in his bench,” Huggins said of the Longhorns, who are tied for fourth place in the Big 12 with the Mountaineers, but did beat WVU, 72-70, on Jan. 9. “He’s playing guys off the bench more than he did at that point and time, but I think we all are.”

WVU’s focus is on the Longhorns (13-5, 7-4), and trying to make right what went wrong on that day in January.

Texas guard Andrew Jones hit a 3-pointer with 1.8 seconds remaining to give Texas a 72-70 victory in a game WVU held a lead for 33 minutes.

There are several bigger-picture concerns, though, Huggins said when it comes to looking at the entire road trip.

WVU will bus to Forth Worth following the Texas game to play TCU on Tuesday and then bus again to Waco to face No. 2 Baylor on Thursday before finally returning to Morgantown.

“There’s a lot of concerns about a lot of things,” Huggins said. “We’re taking guys out of class for a week. We then have a conference tournament, which they’ll be out of class. We then have the NCAA Tournament, which they’ll be out of class. I think that’s a concern. Certainly the weather is a concern. Travel is a concern.

“Quite frankly playing three games in six days and riding three-and-a-half hours on a bus in between games is a concern.”

Under normal circumstances, this schedule would be condemned by the college basketball world.

Then again, nothing has been normal about the 2020-21 season. The Baylor game on Thursday, for example, has been rescheduled three times due to COVID-19 protocols.

Huggins is not a fan of playing three games in six days, but even that gets worse for WVU.

Once the Mountaineers return to Morgantown early Friday morning, they’ll have to begin preparations to host Kansas State a day later.

Essentially WVU is playing four games in eight days with three of those games on the road.

“I can’t remember the last time we played three games in six days that wasn’t a pre-conference situation,” Huggins said. “We did that in South Dakota (to start this season), but the difference was the other teams were doing the same thing.

“It’s not in anyone’s best interest to play three games in six days, come on. We’re the only ones doing it.”

Notes

** Huggins said the time off has helped senior guard Taz Sherman, who has been dealing with a groin pull.

Sherman sat out last Tuesday’s victory against Texas Tech, but did come back to play 16 minutes in the double-overtime loss against Oklahoma.

“He was very good in practice (on Thursday),” Huggins said. “He was shooting the ball pretty well.”

** Huggins on Friday was named to the Naismith Men’s Coach of the Year watch list, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced.

Huggins was one of 15 coaches named to the list and one of four from the Big 12.

TWEET @bigjax3211