Five Things to Know Before WVU vs. Texas

The West Virginia men’s basketball team opens up Big 12 play when they go to play No. 17 Texas, in Austin, on Saturday. Let’s take a look at five things to know before the conference opener for the Mountaineers.

West Virginia to be Short-Handed on Saturday

West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins made the announcement on Friday morning that his team would be missing a “couple” of players against the Longhorns, due to COVID protocols. The players that will miss the game have not been announced yet.

“Yeah, we have a couple that will be under the COVID protocol,” Huggins said.

Luckily for West Virginia, they have 15 players so depending on which players they are, it shouldn’t be too much of a hit for WVU.

Texas Isn’t the Same Texas

Shaka Smart? No more.

Enter Chris Beard.

Yep, the same Beard from Texas Tech that took the Red Raiders to the National Championship in 2019. The Longhorns let go of Smart and hired Beard over the off-season. As soon as Beard arrived in Austin, he went straight to the transfer portal to form this season’s team. Beard was able to acquire seven transfers from the portal and brought back big pieces from Smart’s team like Andrew Jones, Courtney Ramey and Jase Febres.

Timmy Allen (Utah), Marcus Carr (Minnesota), Tre Mitchell (UMass), Christian Bishop (Creighton), Dylan Disu (Vanderbilt), Devin Askew (Kentucky), Avery Benson (Texas Tech) are the new players for the Longhorns this season. Allen, Carr and Mitchell all average over eight points per game. This Texas squad is pretty balanced scoring wise.

“[They’re] really talented. They got a lot of guys that can score,” Huggins said on Friday. “A lot of size, a lot of depth. Chris [Beard] did a great job in the portal.”

Big Opportunity for WVU

Every road game in the Big 12, no matter the opponent, is a great opportunity to get a good road win. From here on out, almost every game is a quad one game for West Virginia. On Saturday, an opportunity to get a signature win on the road is up for grabs for the Mountaineers. Before the season, Texas was projected to finish in the top three of the Big 12, even receiving final four talks. Now, they may need some time again before those talks stir back up, but Texas is still an NCAA Tournament team.

If West Virginia can go on the road, without a couple of players, and defeat Texas, it would be a great resume building win for Selection Sunday. As of Friday afternoon, West Virginia is No. 35 in the NET rankings. The Mountaineers are 2-0 in quad one games, with those wins being UConn (56-53) and UAB (65-59).

Betting Lines

The spread for the West Virginia and Texas game is +7 WVU. The WVU money line is +300.

The over-under is 118.

How to Watch and Listen

You can watch West Virginia take on No. 17 Texas on Saturday, at noon, on ESPNU. The Big 12 Conference matchup between the Mountaineers and the Longhorns will take place inside the Frank Erwin Center, in Austin, Texas.

Mountaineer Sports Network will broadcast the game on the radio, with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs once again calling WVU games for the entirety of this season.