Saturday, February 14
Orlando, Fla.
6 p.m.
West Virginia University
at
UCF
Mountaineers Hit the Road for Key Clash at UCF
February 13, 2026 02:55 PM | Men's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Have you checked the Big 12 men's basketball standings lately?
No. 1-ranked Arizona and No. 3 Houston are tied at the top with 10-1 records, of course, while ninth-ranked Kansas is in hot pursuit, just one game behind them in the loss column.
Fifth-ranked Iowa State and 16th-ranked Texas Tech are two games back at 8-3. Then beyond them is a collection of eight teams separated by only two losses.
At the top of this grouping at 6-5 are BYU, West Virginia and UCF, with five-win TCU and Cincinnati lurking.
Then come four-win Oklahoma State, Colorado and Arizona State, with three-win Baylor below them.
Yes, life in the middle of the Big 12 can be very unpredictable!
UCF, which West Virginia faces on Saturday, has been a tough team to beat at home. The Knights have collected home victories over Kansas and Texas Tech, with easy-to-understand defeats coming against 19th-ranked Vanderbilt and Arizona.
No. 22 BYU was once sitting near the top of the polls before entering a gauntlet of games that included losses to Texas Tech, Arizona, Kansas, at Oklahoma State and Houston.
Was it poor play or poor timing for the Cougars?
West Virginia got Kansas before its big turnaround and also picked off Cincinnati twice, while earning an underrated win at Arizona State late last month.
TCU is always tough to beat at home and recently picked off Iowa State, while Cincinnati, once left for dead, has gotten an injection of life with back-to-back wins over UCF and Kansas State.
As mentioned above, Oklahoma State recently defeated BYU and has 16 overall wins; Arizona State recently collected a victory over Oklahoma State, and Baylor, which has owned West Virginia in Morgantown, got another win in the Coliseum two weeks ago.
The margins in the middle of this league are extremely narrow. One slipup or one night off and you're toast.
Nobody knows this better than West Virginia's Ross Hodge.
"Whether it's Arizona, Houston, Iowa State or Kansas … not that those teams can't lose to anybody any night, but they have separated themselves a little bit," he said Thursday afternoon. "I think what you see in the middle portion, or the bottom part of the league, is just a very small margin of error and separation on a nightly basis with any team really having the capability of beating any team."
Cincinnati's Wes Miller, who spent some time after his team's second loss to West Virginia apologizing to fans for his team's performance, will readily agree with Hodge.
Miller's Bearcat team has been living on the edge for the last month and a half.
"As soon as you want to write somebody off and leave them for dead, they jump up and that's where it's so hard for all of us," Hodge observed. "Obviously, the media has a job to do so you've got to write some sort of narrative after a game and what it means. A couple of weeks ago, we beat Arizona State on the road, and everybody was like, 'You should just beat Arizona State on the road because they are whatever.' Well, looking back on it now and you're like, 'Shoot, that was a pretty good win.' The same thing with Cincinnati.
"You beat them and everybody has this weird idea like, 'Oh, we should beat Cincinnati.' Well, they beat Iowa State by 25 at home and they beat a very good (UCF) team at home, and they went on the road and (blew out Kansas State), so it's just hard to kind of like (project games)," Hodge added.
They say location is important in real estate. Well, timing is just as important in a league as large and expansive as the Big 12, which stretches across multiple time zones.
West Virginia dealt with that a couple of weeks ago coming off a long Arizona trip before facing Kansas State and Baylor in succession. The Mountaineers pulled out a tough victory against the Wildcats but were not as fortunate four days later against the Bears.
"Sometimes, you can play a team at home, but if you were on a long road trip and they had two home games in a row, they are probably the more rested team than you, even though you have the home-court advantage," Hodge explained.
The talent in this league on a nightly basis is yet another factor. Everybody has got good players, including 17-6 UCF, which boasts four of its five starters averaging double figures led by Jamichael Stillwell's 14.3-points-per-game average.
Those are the knowns. The coaches habitually worry about the unknowns.
"Because all of the players are talented in this league, and all of the coaches are good, some nights there might be a player you didn't (expect) jump up and have a hot hand and he beats you," Hodge said.
As he points out, because there are still games left to be played in the regular season, the narratives are still forming.
"Over the course of this last month, I think you can see a lot of movement both ways and that's where from my standpoint, and our team, it's boring and no one wants to hear it, but you better just be thinking about that next game and not stray too far off from that," he explained.
In West Virginia's case, that means facing a motivated UCF team looking to rebound from its 20-point loss at Cincinnati last Sunday.
Saturday's game at Addition Financial Arena will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on FS1 (Jake Marsh and Jess Settles).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn tips things off at 5 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
No. 1-ranked Arizona and No. 3 Houston are tied at the top with 10-1 records, of course, while ninth-ranked Kansas is in hot pursuit, just one game behind them in the loss column.
Fifth-ranked Iowa State and 16th-ranked Texas Tech are two games back at 8-3. Then beyond them is a collection of eight teams separated by only two losses.
At the top of this grouping at 6-5 are BYU, West Virginia and UCF, with five-win TCU and Cincinnati lurking.
Then come four-win Oklahoma State, Colorado and Arizona State, with three-win Baylor below them.
Yes, life in the middle of the Big 12 can be very unpredictable!
UCF, which West Virginia faces on Saturday, has been a tough team to beat at home. The Knights have collected home victories over Kansas and Texas Tech, with easy-to-understand defeats coming against 19th-ranked Vanderbilt and Arizona.
No. 22 BYU was once sitting near the top of the polls before entering a gauntlet of games that included losses to Texas Tech, Arizona, Kansas, at Oklahoma State and Houston.
Was it poor play or poor timing for the Cougars?
West Virginia got Kansas before its big turnaround and also picked off Cincinnati twice, while earning an underrated win at Arizona State late last month.
TCU is always tough to beat at home and recently picked off Iowa State, while Cincinnati, once left for dead, has gotten an injection of life with back-to-back wins over UCF and Kansas State.
As mentioned above, Oklahoma State recently defeated BYU and has 16 overall wins; Arizona State recently collected a victory over Oklahoma State, and Baylor, which has owned West Virginia in Morgantown, got another win in the Coliseum two weeks ago.
The margins in the middle of this league are extremely narrow. One slipup or one night off and you're toast.
Nobody knows this better than West Virginia's Ross Hodge.
"Whether it's Arizona, Houston, Iowa State or Kansas … not that those teams can't lose to anybody any night, but they have separated themselves a little bit," he said Thursday afternoon. "I think what you see in the middle portion, or the bottom part of the league, is just a very small margin of error and separation on a nightly basis with any team really having the capability of beating any team."
Cincinnati's Wes Miller, who spent some time after his team's second loss to West Virginia apologizing to fans for his team's performance, will readily agree with Hodge.
Miller's Bearcat team has been living on the edge for the last month and a half.
"As soon as you want to write somebody off and leave them for dead, they jump up and that's where it's so hard for all of us," Hodge observed. "Obviously, the media has a job to do so you've got to write some sort of narrative after a game and what it means. A couple of weeks ago, we beat Arizona State on the road, and everybody was like, 'You should just beat Arizona State on the road because they are whatever.' Well, looking back on it now and you're like, 'Shoot, that was a pretty good win.' The same thing with Cincinnati.
"You beat them and everybody has this weird idea like, 'Oh, we should beat Cincinnati.' Well, they beat Iowa State by 25 at home and they beat a very good (UCF) team at home, and they went on the road and (blew out Kansas State), so it's just hard to kind of like (project games)," Hodge added.
They say location is important in real estate. Well, timing is just as important in a league as large and expansive as the Big 12, which stretches across multiple time zones.
West Virginia dealt with that a couple of weeks ago coming off a long Arizona trip before facing Kansas State and Baylor in succession. The Mountaineers pulled out a tough victory against the Wildcats but were not as fortunate four days later against the Bears.
"Sometimes, you can play a team at home, but if you were on a long road trip and they had two home games in a row, they are probably the more rested team than you, even though you have the home-court advantage," Hodge explained.
The talent in this league on a nightly basis is yet another factor. Everybody has got good players, including 17-6 UCF, which boasts four of its five starters averaging double figures led by Jamichael Stillwell's 14.3-points-per-game average.
Those are the knowns. The coaches habitually worry about the unknowns.
"Because all of the players are talented in this league, and all of the coaches are good, some nights there might be a player you didn't (expect) jump up and have a hot hand and he beats you," Hodge said.
As he points out, because there are still games left to be played in the regular season, the narratives are still forming.
"Over the course of this last month, I think you can see a lot of movement both ways and that's where from my standpoint, and our team, it's boring and no one wants to hear it, but you better just be thinking about that next game and not stray too far off from that," he explained.
In West Virginia's case, that means facing a motivated UCF team looking to rebound from its 20-point loss at Cincinnati last Sunday.
Saturday's game at Addition Financial Arena will tip off at 6 p.m. and will be televised nationally on FS1 (Jake Marsh and Jess Settles).
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage with Tony Caridi, Brad Howe and studio host David Kahn tips things off at 5 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
United Bank Playbook: UCF Preview
Friday, February 13
Ross Hodge | UCF Preview
Thursday, February 12
Ross Hodge | Texas Tech Postgame
Sunday, February 08
Brenen Lorient & Harlan Obioha | Texas Tech Postgame
Sunday, February 08
