Flashback just one week and it seemed like this West Virginia basketball team could go on a run.
Fresh off a win against No. 2 Iowa State, the Mountaineers had a week in which they played two of the teams in the bottom half of the league standings. However, two games later, the Mountaineers find themselves on a two-game losing streak with an even tougher road ahead.
"It's a tough league. Good coaches, good players, good crowds. Great crowd today. You go on the road, you can't come out of the gates the way we did. You've got to have a full 40 and we didn't have that tonight," West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said.
The Mountaineers dropped their game Tuesday to Arizona State and now Saturday to Kansas State as their offense stalled and defense couldn't quite keep them in it.
WVU went a combined 8-for-50 across from beyond the arc in their two games this week, and now have to face the best defense in the country.
While WVU has now lost back-to-back games for the first time this season, their fate is far from sealed. Still, West Virginia sits at 13-6, and they are 4-4 in Quad 1 games, and now 1-2 in Quad 2 games.
The next three games will be very telling for the possible direction of this season. The Mountaineers return home to face a Houston team they lost to just last week on Wednesday, before heading to Cincinnati and TCU for a two-game road trip.
As it currently stands, West Virginia has six Quad 1 games remaining this season. Three of them come in their next three games.
While WVU would be in the NCAA Tournament if the season ended today, they are far from a lock and still have work to do if they want to get into the dance come March.
Wednesday's game becomes that much more critical due to the step back they took as a team with these two losses this week. A win over the Cougars would do a lot for this team in terms of confidence and in terms of NCAA Tournament projections.
A loss would send the Mountaineers packing for a two-game road swing, having to do something that's a hard task — win on the road in the Big 12.
"People have a bad game or two, you can't let it turn into three, four five. We're going to get on that plane, we're going to go home, and we're going to get ready for a huge home game against Houston on Wednesday. Back at our place, got a top-ten team in the country coming," DeVries said.
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