MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia's annual trek to Ames, Iowa, has fallen under a similar pattern for the last four years – play the Big 12/SEC Showdown on the weekend and then three days later hop on an airplane and face Iowa State at Hilton Coliseum on a Wednesday night.
 
It happened in 2016 when the Mountaineers played at Florida and then traveled to Ames.
 
It happened again in 2017 when West Virginia faced Texas A&M at the Coliseum and then three days later journeyed to Iowa.
 
It occurred last year when WVU played Kentucky in Morgantown and then played another midweek game at Iowa State.
 
If two is a coincidence and three is a trend, what does four in a row constitute?"
 
"Computer generated," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins answered Tuesday afternoon.
 
His team is jumping from one frying pan into another. Last Saturday at top-ranked Tennessee, WVU saw an early, 12-point lead against the Vols evaporate by halftime on the way to a 17-point loss before 22,149 at Thompson-Boling Arena.
 
Despite historic frigid temperatures in the Midwest this week, Huggins is expecting to face another overflow crowd Wednesday night against the Cyclones.
 
"I doubt it affects their attendance at all," he said. "As we saw in Kansas City for however many years, they've got great fans."
 
Great fans excited about a team looking to build its NCAA Tournament resume coming off a disappointing 13-18 season in 2018.
 
In some ways, what Iowa State (15-5, 4-3) endured last year with injuries and players not performing up to expectations is happening this year at West Virginia.
 
The Mountaineers (9-11, 1-6) will be down a key player on Wednesday night because Huggins revealed today that guard Beetle Bolden will not be making the trip. Bolden injured his ankle last Saturday at Tennessee and is going to remain in Morgantown to receive additional treatments.
 
"I asked Beetle (on Monday) if he wanted to make the trip or pretty much stay here and get treatment all day and he said he really wanted to play," Huggins said. "He wanted to be with the team, but at the same time he wanted to get back as fast as he possibly can so I think it will be better for him to stay here. It was his decision."
 
Not having possibly the team's most dependable scorer, who is averaging 14.6 points per game in Big 12 play, further complicates things for Huggins.
 
"I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt us," he said. "At times he's been our only offense so we're going to really miss him. On top of that, he's been a great teammate. He doesn't worry about whether he's starting or coming off the bench. He just wants to win."
 
The next man up is going to be a freshman, either Jordan McCabe or Brandon Knapper.
 
"Theoretically, you bring in guys that can play here so they're going to get an opportunity to play," Huggins explained. "They need to prove why they're here and why they're on the floor, I guess."
 
Iowa State's best player this year has been Virginia transfer Marial Shayok, who is averaging 19.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-6 senior scored 17 points on six-of-nine shooting in Iowa State's 87-73 win over Ole Miss last Saturday.
 
Talen Horton-Tucker, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard, scored a game-high 23 points and handed out five assists against the Rebels.
 
"They added Shayock, who is a really good player; they had a really good recruiting class and some guys have matured for them," Huggins said.
 
Wednesday's game will tip at 7 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Clay Matvick and Tim Welsh).
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at 6 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Iowa State holds a 7-6 advantage in the series, although West Virginia has won five out of the last six regular season meetings.
 


Briefly: West Virginia senior forward Esa Ahmad is now one point shy of reaching 1,000 for his career … According to the NCAA's NET rankings, the Mountaineers have faced the 14^th-toughest schedule in the country … WVU has used 12 different starting lineup combinations this year, the most recent against Tennessee consisted of Andrew Gordon, Wesley Harris, Ahmad, Jermaine Haley and Chase Harler … Freshman forward Derek Culver is coming off a 7-of-11 shooting performance at Tennessee to finish with 15 points, "He gets a lot of points off of offensive rebounds, but he's our best option in the post," Huggins said. "I don't think there is any doubt about that. Who else are you going to post? We try to post Drew and he's probably better off off the dribble than in the post" … Huggins said Tuesday one of the smart things Steve Prohm has done at Iowa State is keep some of the things Fred Hoiberg's teams did well at Iowa State while sprinkling in some of his own stuff, That's what good coaches do," Huggins said. "Their spacing is terrific and I'm sure some of that comes from Freddy but you've still got to teach it and they do a great job of spacing" … As for the historic low temperatures that could get down to 45-below-zero, Huggins said he told his guys to bring a heavy coat, "What else are you going to tell them? It's not like they are going to go outside and have snowball fights," he said. "They are going to go from the lobby of the hotel to the bus and from the bus to the arena."