MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is looking to snap its three-game Big 12 losing streak on Saturday afternoon against the one Big 12 team it has struggled the most to beat at the WVU Coliseum – Oklahoma State.
 
Yes, Oklahoma State. Not Kansas. Not Oklahoma. Not Texas. Not Baylor nor Iowa State.
 
The Cowboys have been the biggest thorn in West Virginia's side in Morgantown.
 
Take last year's game, for instance. Oklahoma State, just 4-7 in Big 12 play when it came here last February, got a late 3 from Lindy Waters and a breakaway dunk from Jeffery Carroll to pull off an 88-85 victory over the 19^th-ranked Mountaineers.
 
In 2017, it was a similar deal. An Oklahoma State squad with a sub-.500 record in conference play came in here and tasered West Virginia 82-75. Guard Phil Forte was the catalyst that day with all 13 of his points coming in the second half to stun the seventh-ranked Mountaineers.
 
Before that, the Cowboys won back-to-back games here in 2013 and 2014, giving OSU four wins at the Coliseum since 2013 - more than any other Big 12 team.
 
So, if West Virginia is going to snap out of its current three-game funk against a 7-8 Cowboy team by simply showing up on Saturday, well, that's not going to happen.
 
And that's why veteran coach Bob Huggins made a plea to the fans on his postgame radio show following WVU's stunning 71-69 loss at Kansas State on Wednesday night to come out and support his team on Saturday.
 
His message: the Mountaineers need you now more than ever.
 
"If you pay any attention to anything the league puts out, according to the other coaches this is one of the hardest places to play in the league, and it's hard to play in places where you have enthusiastic fans," Huggins said. "That's the case at Kansas. That's the case at Iowa State. That was actually the case at Kansas State. They didn't have any students, and they had a packed house for us. We need help. We're struggling and downtrodden a little bit here and (the fans) can help."
 
For a good portion of Wednesday night's game, it appeared West Virginia was going to get its first Big 12 win of the season. The Mountaineers jumped out to an early 20-3 lead and had a comfortable 15-point advantage at halftime.
 
In the second half, WVU expanded the margin to 21 points before the roof collapsed. West Virginia went scoreless for nearly six minutes and its 21-point lead dwindled to four.
 
The Mountaineers briefly got it back to 10 before struggling to stop the Wildcats' straight-line drives to the basket down the stretch.
 
A critical play came with 1:33 left and West Virginia leading by one with the basketball. Following a Huggins timeout, Esa Ahmad lost the ball as he was trying to make a move to the basket, and Kansas State wound up getting points at the other end with 29 seconds left.
 
Another timeout and another designed set play to win the game was also unsuccessful.
 
The two areas that have really hurt West Virginia this year showed up once again Wednesday night at Kansas State – free throw shooting and turnovers.
 
The Mountaineers missed nine of their 23 free throw attempts and also turned the ball over 17 times. West Virginia has the highest turnover rate in the Big 12 and the worst turnover margin in the conference at minus-3.1.
 
"We've got to get the ball in the hands of some people that won't give it back," Huggins said. "We're very charitable with the ball.
 
"Our turnovers are ridiculous, and that's an area where we should and can get better," he added.
 
WVU is also at the bottom of the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio, and while West Virginia is fourth in free throw percentage, the Mountaineers have been missing them at inopportune times.
 
"We should be a very good free throw shooting team and we're not," Huggins said. "That's another area where we should and could get better."
 
Huggins said on his postgame radio show that he planned to lift the redshirt of true freshman guard Trey Doomes because he's the best straight-line driver on the team. He reiterated that before Friday's practice.
 
"He's going to play," Huggins said.
 
Based on the success West Virginia has had with freshman Derek Culver scoring close to the basket, finding a player who can get to the rim might be the offensive spark this team needs.
 
Culver has been West Virginia's most reliable player since his early-season suspension was lifted last month. The 6-foot-10-inch, 255-pound forward has scored double figures in each of his last four games, including back-to-back, 17-point performances against Texas and Kansas State.
 
Culver is now averaging 12.2 points and 8.2 rebounds per game with a pair of double-doubles.
 
Junior forward Lamont West is coming off a 21-point night at Kansas State, but lately he has struggled to put together two good games in a row. He scored 18 in a recent win over Jacksonville State and followed that up with just two against Lehigh.
 
Then, it was 22 in the loss to Texas Tech before he failed to register a point at Texas. If West sticks to this current pattern, then Huggins may need to search elsewhere for points on Saturday against the Cowboys.
 
Junior guard Chase Harler is still searching for his shooting stroke. The junior has made just five of his last 27 field goal attempts since early December, but Huggins said Harler gave the Mountaineers some good minutes in Manhattan.
 
"Chase kind of came out of his slump a little bit, and it hasn't been that he hasn't played well, he hasn't shot the ball very well so we've got to get him more minutes," Huggins said.
 
Junior guard Jermaine Haley is coming off his most productive scoring night as a Mountaineer with 13 points at Kansas State, so perhaps he is another option Huggins can look to on Saturday.
 
Another is junior guard Beetle Bolden, who played 20 minutes against Kansas State before taking himself out of the game.
 
"I asked him if he could go back in in the Kansas State game and he didn't think he could go and he's a tough guy. If he can't go he really can't go," Huggins said.
 
The coach said Bolden practiced yesterday and is expected to practice today.
 
Oklahoma State is coming off a 61-58 home victory on Tuesday night against Texas after dropping competitive league games to Iowa State and Oklahoma.
 
Earlier this season, the Cowboys knocked off 19^th-ranked LSU, 90-77, in Orlando.
 
Six-seven, 220-pound junior forward Cameron McGriff is a player to watch for Oklahoma State. He shows averages of 13 points and eight rebounds per game this year, and he scored 20 and grabbed nine rebounds for the Cowboys in last year's win in Morgantown.
 
Saturday's game will tip at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Jay Atler and Bryndon Manzer).
 
The Mountaineers Sports Network from IMG's radio coverage begins at 11 a.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular WVU GameDay app.

Friday Sound