MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The shoe is on the other foot for Bob Huggins' West Virginia Mountaineers when they face Baylor tonight at the WVU Coliseum.
 
It was right around this time last year when West Virginia faced Scott Drew's top-ranked Bears at the Coliseum in a game WVU won 89-68.
 
Well, tonight it's West Virginia nearly at the top of the national polls at No. 2 and Baylor looking to come in and upset the apple cart. Huggins has been in this position before with his Cincinnati teams and he took some time on Sunday to impart some of his wisdom from those experiences to his young team.
 
"I told our guys the dog with the bone is always in danger and we've got the bone now for a while so you've got to hang on to it," Huggins said.
 
His '96-97 Bearcat team began the season ranked No. 1 and spent two weeks at the top of the rankings before losing by seven to Kansas.
 
In 1999-2000, his team, led by national player of the year Kenyon Martin, once again began the year ranked No. 1 and spent most of it at the top of the rankings, never falling below No. 3 until Martin broke his leg in the Conference USA tournament against St. Louis.
 
Misfortune that year derailed a possible national championship season, not complacency from his players.
 
Huggins said he isn't worried about complacency with this year's West Virginia team, which hasn't been ranked this highly in 58 years.
 
"I swear, I used to think I was smart and I knew what they were thinking and I was dumb for thinking that," Huggins pointed out. "I have no idea. It's hard to think about all of the people that talk to them, what they say and how they react to it."
 
Huggins is concerned about how his team is going to react to Baylor's tremendous length and size tonight. Drew once again has one of the biggest teams in the Big 12, featuring 7-foot, 222-pound center Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. and a pair of 6-9s flanking him in Nuni Omot and Tristian Clark.
 
Those three are accounting roughly 35 points and 20 rebounds per game.
 
In the backcourt, the Bears have 6-foot-3, 215-pound King McClure and 5-foot-11, 175-pound Manu Lecomte - two double-digit scorers.
 
"They're pretty much the same," Huggins said of Baylor. "Their guards are good. They've got great length. They play that 1-1-3 and Scott does a great job of finding guys to fit his system and they're really, really long."
 
Baylor (11-4, 1-2) got its first conference victory of the year last Saturday when it defeated Texas 69-60 at the Ferrell Center. Lual-Acuil Jr. and Lecomte scored 17 points each and Mark Vital came off the bench to contribute 10.
 
Baylor overcame a two-point halftime deficit despite shooting just 41.7 percent in the second half. The Bears had a 23-9 advantage over the Longhorns in bench scoring and 44-30 edge in points in the paint.
 
The Bears are averaging 80.1 points per game and are shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor as a team. All four of Baylor's losses this year have come against teams ranked in this week's AP Top 25 - fifth-ranked Wichita State, eighth-ranked Texas Tech, 10^th-ranked Xavier and 16^th-rated TCU.
 
Huggins knows the Bears will be eager to come in to the Coliseum tonight trying to knock off second-ranked Mountaineers (14-1, 3-0) to get a quality road win on its NCAA Tournament resume.
 
"I think you get everybody's best shot but the reality is if you're really No. 1, 2, 3 or whatever you ought to be able to sustain it," he explained. "I've said this before, I asked Al Maguire once when he knew he had arrived and he said when you walk into any venue without fear. I think our guys have confidence. I think we've got two guys (senior guards Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles Jr.) that have pretty much seen it all and I think they will respond. It seems like whenever JC and Dax respond everyone else responds."
 
Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Jon Sciambi and Tom Crean). The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's pregame coverage begins at 6 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app TuneIn.
 
Pregame Notes: Baylor leads the 12-game series with West Virginia 8-4, but the Mountaineers have won three out of the last four … The two teams split last year's games, both winning at home … Baylor began last year 15-0 before losing its first game of the season to WVU … The Bears committed 29 turnovers in that game - their most since 1999 … Guard Manu Lecomte, who leads Baylor in scoring with an average of 16.8 points per game, missed last year's rematch in Waco … Lual-Acil Jr. posted double-doubles in both games last year versus the Mountaineers … Baylor is seeking its 14^th road win over a Top 25 team in program history, 10 of those coming under Scott Drew … West Virginia's 14-game winning streak is now the longest active winning streak in the country, and the longest in school history since 1988-89 … WVU is seeking a 4-0 start to league play tonight for the second time since 2015-16 … WVU's Teddy Allen was honored as the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week for his 20-plus-point performances in wins against Kansas State and Oklahoma … Allen is now averaging 9.7 points per game and is shooting 50.4 percent from the floor … West Virginia is 10-6 in its last 16 games against Top 25 teams … Senior guard Jevon Carter continues to lead the country in steals with 55 and has boosted his school-record total to 273 heading into tonight's Baylor game … Carter (1,368 career points) is within six of passing forward Ricky Robinson for 21^st place all-time in school history … Daxter Miles Jr. also continues his climb up the scoring charts as well, needing just 15 to move past Joe Herber for 45^th place with 1,069 career points … Sophomore forward Sagaba Konate is just seven blocks shy of reaching 100 for his career … Only 10 players have blocked 100 shots or more during their Mountaineer careers … West Virginia continues to turn its opponents over at a rate equal to the number of field goals they make (304 to 314) … WVU's record since the adoption of 'Press Virginia' following the 2013-14 season is 93-29 heading into tonight's game against the Bears.