West Virginia just needs to find a way to win a basketball game, any basketball game.

Now sitting at 19-10 overall after losing six of the last seven, the Mountaineers will hit the road for the final time to take on an Iowa State club that is sitting at 12-17 and tied for eighth in the league.

“I think winning one in Sabraton would be good for confidence right now,” head coach Bob Huggins said. “We need to win. We need to win for a lot of reasons. I don’t know if home or road if it matters, we just really need a win.”

Projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament as recently as Feb. 8 and tabbed as an almost lock for a finish at the top of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountaineers are now fighting for their lives for a possible first-round bye in the conference tournament tied with TCU at 7-9 in the league. West Virginia has dropped to a projected seventh seed in the big dance and that starts with confidence.

Clearly a department that is currently lacking with this club down the stretch run, the Mountaineers are looking for anything that could spark them.

“We’re wishing shots would go in rather than knowing shots are going to go in,” Huggins said.

Iowa State has been without their top player Tyrese Haliburton since the Feb. 9 meeting with Kansas State but has gone 2-4 in that span with wins over Texas and TCU. The loss of Haliburton has affected some of what the Cyclones have done offensively but they have made shots.

“I think they’ve gone to running more sets and things now that they don’t have him create,” Huggins said. “They’re still going to try to score in transition and they make shots.”

Huggins has informed his players of where they sit in the NET rankings, where the remaining opposition sits and where the teams they have already beaten fall into the formula. The Mountaineers have certainly struggled of late, but Huggins reminds his team that it is the full body of work as opposed to this recent stretch that they’ll ultimately be judged off of when selection Sunday comes.

“You can’t just look at we’ve struggled here of late, we have, there’s no doubt about that and we’ve fallen from a potential two seed to a seven but a seven is a long, long way from not being in the tournament,” he said.

But Huggins is transparent with his team because while it might apply pressure going over where the team sits, it also avoids a situation where they can’t pretend that they didn’t know.

The Mountaineers currently sit at No. 21 in the NET rankings and tip-off for the Iowa State contest is set for 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

“We need to win some games obviously; we need to win some games probably more for our psyche than anything,” Huggins admitted.

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