MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What is West Virginia going to get tonight in Stillwater, Oklahoma? 
 
The Oklahoma State team that beat Ole Miss by 41 and Houston by six on the road, or the one that lost by 19 to Wichita State and by 35 last Saturday at Texas Tech?
 
If it gets the former and, the Mountaineers are going to have their hands full coming off last Saturday's tough, 60-53 loss at No. 3 Kansas.
 
West Virginia (11-2, 0-1) had the Jayhawks down 10 in the first half and led by six at halftime before going ice cold in the second half.
 
Kansas outscored West Virginia by 13 after intermission, getting a lot of their offense from lobs to the rim.
 
Freshman forward Oscar Tshiebwe, named Big 12 Newcomer of the Week earlier today, scored 17 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in the loss. Fellow freshman Miles McBride was the only other WVU player to reach double figures with 13. He won last week's Big 12 newcomer award.
 
Meanwhile, Oklahoma State (9-4, 0-1) hit a wall in the second half at Texas Tech after trailing the Red Raiders by only six at halftime.
 
Similar to what happened to West Virginia at Kansas, the Cowboys made just 6-of-24 from the floor and were outscored 49-20 after intermission. Senior guard Lindy Waters III was the only OSU player to reach double figures with 13 points.
 
The guy who really makes Oklahoma State go is 6-4, 215-pound sophomore guard Isaac Likelee, who has missed four games this year because of illness.
 
He scored 26 in Oklahoma State's 86-72 victory over Syracuse earlier this season, and he had two outstanding games in a pair of wins against West Virginia last year. He scored 23 points, grabbed nine boards and handed out three assists in an 85-77 win last January in Morgantown, and he went eight, nine and six in an identical win two months later in Stillwater.
 
In nine games this season, the Arlington, Texas, resident is averaging 11.9 points, 4.7 rebounds and a team-best 4.5 assists per game.
 
Waters is Oklahoma State's top scorer at 12.9 points per game. Yor Anei, a 6-10 sophomore forward from Overland Park, Kansas, shows averages of 10.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game.
 
Senior Cameron McGriff has been another Mountaineer slayer; the 6-7 forward has scored 50 points and grabbed 24 rebounds in Oklahoma State's last three games against WVU.
 
McGriff is averaging 9.6 points and 6.8 rebounds per game this season.
 
Tonight's game will tip off at 9 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Bob Wischusen, Fran Fraschilla and Kris Budden). The MSN from Learfield IMG College coverage will begin at 8 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Briefly:
 
* West Virginia has lost three in a row and four of its last five to Oklahoma State dating back to 2017. In its four victories, the Cowboys have scored 82 points or more each time.
 
* West Virginia dropped from No. 10 to No. 12 in this week's NCAA NET rankings following the loss at Kansas, which checks in at No. 2 this week.
 
* The Mountaineers dropped one spot to No. 17 in this week's Associated Press Top 25 Poll. West Virginia has now been ranked at least one week in 10 of Bob Huggins' 13 seasons at WVU and a total of 103 weeks in the AP poll under Huggins and 123 weeks since Jan. 3, 2005, which represents the longest period of sustained success in school history.
 
* Speaking of success, Huggins is just five victories shy of tying legendary coach Adolph Rupp for seventh place in all-time victories with 876.
 
*After tonight's game, four of West Virginia's next five Big 12 contests will be played at the WVU Coliseum, including Saturday's conference home opener against surging Texas Tech, now 10-3 and ranked 22^nd this week.
 
Tickets still remain for the TCU and Texas games and those can be purchased by logging on to WVUGAME.com.
 
* And finally, Chuck Machock, 82, who spent two seasons as an assistant coach on Sonny Moran's WVU basketball staff in the early 1970s, passed away over the weekend. Machock was brought here to improve the Mountaineers' recruiting after serving a three-year stint as Steubenville (Ohio) College's head coach.
 
He wasn't here long enough to do that, but he did make an impact later at Ohio State when he got Cleveland's Clark Kellogg to sign with the Buckeyes.
 
Machock and Bob Huggins crossed paths several times during their careers, first at West Virginia when Huggins was a player and then at Ohio State, Central Florida and later at Cincinnati when Machock worked on Huggins' UC staff before transitioning into broadcasting.
 
Machock became nationally known for his supreme loyalty to Huggins when Huggins got ejected during a 2003 NCAA Tournament game against Gonzaga and Machock also got tossed soon after when he got into an exchange with referee Mike Kitts, who threw out Huggins.

Machock, as longtime Cincinnati broadcaster Dan Hoard told Cincinnati Enquirer reporter Fletcher Page yesterday, was simply sticking up for his friend.
 
Their friendship was long and unwavering. One of the great stories the great storyteller Huggins tells involves his great friend Machock. 
 
Here is the Cliffs Notes version:
 
Years ago, when Huggins got things going at Cincinnati he was adamant about having a television show similar to the one Bob Knight had in Indiana, and he wanted Machock to serve as its host. Machock agreed to do it, although he had reservations. He had never done live TV before and wasn't sure if he could pull it off.
 
Huggins proved too persuasive so Machock relented.
 
On the very first show they did, Machock froze as soon as the studio lights came on and the camera in front of him turned to red.
 
All viewers saw was Chuck Machock and Bob Huggins sitting there together on the set.
 
Immediately, the quick-thinking Huggins came to the rescue: "WELCOME TO THE BOB HUGGINS SHOW, I'M BOB HUGGINS AND NOW HERE IS YOUR HOST, CHUCK MACHOCK!"
 
Once the ice was broken, Machock did great and eventually became an iconic voice for UC basketball as one of the school's biggest promoters.
 
Our heartfelt condolences go out to Chuck's family.