Texas vs. West Virginia: College basketball game preview, TV schedule

Texas pulled off a massive win versus Texas Tech earlier this week. Can the team get another top 10 win on their resume at West Virginia?

TV schedule: Saturday, Jan. 20, 2:00 p.m. ET. CBS

Arena: WVU Coliseum in Morgantown, West Virginia

The Longhorns has had an emotional, up and down last couple of weeks, after losing guard Andrew Jones to a Leukemia diagnosis over a week ago. They defeated the Horned Frogs of TCU, before losing to Oklahoma State on the road.

But for Texas 12-6 (3-3), home is clearly where they thrive, as they pulled off the biggest win of the season, beating No. 8 Texas Tech. After missing the past couple of games, Kerwin Roach returned to score a game-high 20 points. Mo Bamba had one of his more complete games of the season, on both offense and defense. Matt Coleman is getting more comfortable as the starting point guard, dishing out seven assists in the win.

But now, they’ll have to travel on the road to face a West Virginia team 15-3 (4-2) that somehow lost at home versus Kansas. It was a game where the Mountaineers controlled throughout, until a Jayhawk run gave them the lead, before winning outright. Esa Ahmad has given the team a scoring punch in his return, while Sagaba Konate has established himself as one of the best frontcourt players in the conference.

In this week’s edition of Busting Bracket’s Bracketology, both the Longhorns and the Mountaineers are both projected to be in the NCAA tournament – with WVU as a two seed and Texas as a nine seed (before the Red Raiders win). Of the five Big 12 games on Saturday, this is the only battle between teams likely to be in the tournament.

The fun matchup to watch will be between Bamba and Konate down low, but the most consequential position battle will be between Coleman and Texas and Jevon Carter of the Mountaineers. The senior point guard for WVU is one of the best defenders in all of college basketball and will look to disrupt the freshman for Texas all night.

Next: Where Texas and West Virginia rank in latest Big 12 rankings

Texas is a far different team at home than on the road but will be traveling to play an angry team that felt like they let one slip away on Monday. West Virginia will likely roll in this one, but Texas still accomplished what they needed to do this week by beating Texas Tech. So it’s okay if a blowout happens.

Prediction: West Virginia 77 – Texas 62

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