Texas Basketball: 3 most difficult remaining games this season

1. West Virginia Mountaineers (19-7, 7-6 Big 12)

The two most forgettable games by far this season in Big 12 play for the Texas basketball program came against the Iowa State Cyclones and West Virginia. Texas doesn’t tend to matchup well with a deep and well-rounded team on both ends of the floor like the Mountaineers. That doesn’t sound good for their chances in the Big 12 and NCAA Tournament.

Head coach Bob Huggins saw his suffocating defense and active big men torch the Longhorns. Texas was nearly doubled in total rebounds the first time around in their record-breaking (not in a good way) loss to West Virginia by the final score of 97-59. Texas at least gets West Virginia at home at the Erwin Center this time around.

The gameplan should be the same for the Longhorns in the second meeting between these two teams as it was the first time. Texas needs bigs like Royce Hamm Jr. and Kai Jones to come up big. And the backcourt duo of sophomore Courtney Ramey and Coleman needs to do their best to counter this West Virginia press defense with ball movement and better pace.

Shut down Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver, and West Virginia’s offense is at least going to be stifled. There’s really no way to completely shut down the West Virginia rotation since they’re so deep, but make it as difficult on them as you can. Oklahoma State showed in the first half of their last meeting against West Virginia that it can be done. But Texas needs to do it for a complete 40 minutes when they meet the Mountaineers on Feb. 24.