Five Things to Know Before WVU vs. Oklahoma

West Virginia heads to Norman on Saturday to end an 11-game conference road losing streak and a current four-game losing streak against Oklahoma. Let’s take a look at five things to know before the game.

First Time Since 2007 Larry Harrison Won’t be on Sidelines for WVU

For the first time in nearly 16 years, West Virginia will be without associate head coach Larry Harrison on the sidelines. West Virginia’s basketball program parted ways with Harrison on Thursday.

Harrison has coached with Bob Huggins for 24 seasons, 16 at WVU from 2007-23 and eight at Cincinnati from 1989-97.

Bock: WVU Basketball Faces Copious Amount of Adversity to Overcome After Harrison Firing

Meet the Opponent: Oklahoma

Oklahoma comes into Saturday’s contest with a 10-6 (1-3 Big 12) record. The Sooners have defeated Texas Tech on the road for their sole win in conference play. Oklahoma played Kansas tough in Lawrence earlier in the week, only losing by four points.

OU is led by second-year head coach Porter Moser who returned a lot of his key pieces from last year’s bubble team. Oklahoma brought back Tanner Groves, Jalen Hill, Jacob Groves and others. Sooners did go out into the transfer portal and pick up All-Mountain West Conference recipient Grant Sherfield from Nevada. Sherfield is a former Wichita State teammate of Erik Stevenson. Sherfield averages 17.4 points on 45 percent shooting from the field and three.

Huggins Hints at Changing Rotation Around

Over the past week, Bob Huggins has hinted at switching around the rotation around, possibly playing small. With Harrison being gone, and controlling the rotations, Huggins will most likely control those duties on Saturday. During the Kansas and Baylor games, Huggins controlled the rotations at some points, more than usual.

Huggins has been on record wanting to give Seth Wilson, James Okonkwo and Pat Suemnick more playing time. Wilson arguably had his most complete game at West Virginia on Wednesday against Baylor, scoring 11 points in 24 minutes on 4-of-7 shooting.

If West Virginia plays small, they could throw Tre Mitchell at the five and work from there. Mitchell can make a shot on all three levels of the floor and can create spacing for himself and his teammates.

Betting Lines

The spread for the West Virginia-Oklahoma game is OU -4.0. The over/under is set at 137.0.

Where to Watch

West Virginia and Oklahoma will tip off at 12 p.m. inside the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday. ESPN2 will carry the broadcast.