No. 7 West Virginia presses on, faces Texas Tech (Jan 03, 2017)
It's only one game into the Big 12 season, but so far the conference looks like a three-headed monster.
No. 3 Kansas is the perennial favorite to win the Big 12 regular-season title, No. 2 Baylor is the hottest team going at the moment, and No. 7 West Virginia is the biggest headache for anyone else in the conference.
The Mountaineers (12-1) opened conference play last week by destroying Oklahoma State 92-75 on the Cowboys' home floor.
Next up, West Virginia stays on the road to face Texas Tech (11-2) in Lubbock, Texas, on Tuesday night.
The Red Raiders threatened to claim a statement win of their own as they led Iowa State by 14 points midway through the second half in Ames, Iowa, on Friday. But the Cyclones roared back to win by seven.
Now Texas Tech, which gave up 15 turnovers in the loss to Iowa State, has to deal with a stifling Mountaineers defense that goes by the moniker "Press Virginia."
The Red Raiders landed a berth in the NCAA Tournament last season under Tubby Smith. During the offseason, Smith uprooted for the Memphis gig and former Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Beard took over at Texas Tech.
Although Beard is making his first trip through the Big 12 as a head coach, he was an assistant at Tech during the Bob Knight era. And Beard has a roster packed with veteran players who have been through the tough conference before.
Still, forward Justin Gray said Texas Tech learned another rough lesson last week.
"I just felt like we let up, honestly," Gray said. "I think everyone was feeling pretty good. We were just hoping to win the game with the lead that we had rather than finishing out."
The Red Raiders have a rugged start to conference play. After the trip to Iowa State and Tuesday's home game against the Mountaineers, Texas Tech travels to Kansas on Saturday.
There will be no looking past West Virginia, though, especially after the way the Mountaineers roughed up Oklahoma State.
Guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. combined for 37 points and West Virginia forced Oklahoma State into 19 turnovers. West Virginia established a double-digit lead in the first 10 minutes and controlled the game the rest of the way.
It was exactly like Mountaineers coach Bob Huggins drew it up.
"I think our pressure, that's what we do, I think it's the key to every game," Huggins said in his postgame press conference. "We give up some easy baskets because we take chances. If we're not turning them over and creating easy baskets for ourselves, then it's going in the wrong direction for us."
But Huggins knows that even with his team's intimidating defensive style and some momentum, a second straight Big 12 road win will take some work to achieve. The Mountaineers came from four points behind in the final 70 seconds to win in Lubbock last season.
"Those guys are a year older," Huggins said. "They've been through this league and they understand how hard the league is. Having veteran guys -- six seniors -- that's a lot of seniors."
