West Virginia navigated a difficult portion of the Big 12 Conference schedule with a win and a loss.
The Mountaineers took on a pair of top-ten teams with a loss on the road at No. 10 Houston, before knocking off No. 2 Iowa State for their first loss in the league.
But there are still 14 games remaining in the regular season and while the win over the Cyclones is certainly an important data point for the resume of the Mountaineers it doesn’t matter if they can’t take care of business moving forward. That makes the next contest against Arizona State a critical one for this basketball team.
The Sun Devils currently sit at 10-7 overall and just 1-5 in the Big 12 after losing four consecutive games at Kansas, Baylor, UCF, and then on the road at Cincinnati.
It will be the first meeting between the two programs and is an opportunity for the Mountaineers to continue to carry momentum moving forward after a strong 13-4 start and 4-2 in the Big 12.
“We understand how big and how important the game was. We just can’t come out here on Tuesday versus Arizona State and just blow it off,” senior guard Javon Small said. “We got to just keep building momentum and just keep racking up dubs.”
On the plus side, this West Virginia basketball team has shown the ability to quickly flip the script and move forward after both major wins and tough losses. The Mountaineers won the following game after all four of their losses this season and were able to put past the road win over No. 7 Kansas to knock off Oklahoma State in convincing fashion at home. That will be put to the test again this week.
After that matchup with Arizona State, the Mountaineers will hit the road to take on a struggling Kansas State team that has lost five straight games and will head to Baylor prior to hosting West Virginia.
The Mountaineers are 2-1 on the road in Big 12 Conference play at this stage of the season and even with how the Wildcats are struggling that won’t be easy to come out with a win there.
Those two games against teams that are a combined 2-10 in the Big 12 Conference will be the appetizers before Houston returns to the Coliseum for another shot at the Cougars.
So, while there won’t be as much flare with this week’s slate of games, it doesn’t make them any less important to the overall record for the Mountaineers. They must once again prove up for the task.
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