MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Sometimes the decisions you make can produce unexpected results.
 
Consider what the sixth winningest coach in NCAA history, Bob Huggins, did earlier this week against Oklahoma State by changing his starting lineup for the first time since the Nicholls State game.
 
Instead of providing the offensive spark Huggins was seeking, Tuesday's smaller five consisting of Taz Sherman, Jermaine Haley, Miles McBride, Emmitt Matthews Jr. and big Oscar Tshiebwe got the Mountaineers into an early 10-point hole to begin the game.
 
The rest of the first half was spent digging out of that hole and when the second half began, Huggins had his other big, Derek Culver, back out there with Tshiebwe.
 
What Huggins ended up getting from Culver was 10 rebounds (the most he's pulled down in a game this month), a couple of blocked shots and a pair of baskets in West Virginia's 65-47 runaway victory.
 
The big fella was the primary reason why West Virginia was able to turn off the spigot and hold the Cowboys to just 14 second-half points. After sitting and watching to begin the game, Culver returned to the floor and played the way Mountaineer fans have come to expect him to play. 
 
"It motivated Derek," Huggins said Friday. "That's as well as Derek has played in a long time. He's the guy who turned the game around, if you are going to point to one guy.
 
"He started blocking shots so they were not as eager to penetrate. He did a great job of guarding on the perimeter, and he rebounded the ball. He got double-figure rebounds in a half," he added.
 
West Virginia (19-7, 7-6) is going to need more of that from Culver this weekend when it faces TCU on Saturday in Fort Worth and then turns around and plays Texas on Monday night in Austin.
 
These next two, in rapid-fire succession, are important for West Virginia if it wants to avoid finishing outside of the top six in the league standings and playing a Wednesday night game in the Big 12 Tournament.
 
Right now, the Mountaineers are in good shape in fourth place, one game behind third-place Texas Tech. But Oklahoma (6-7) is just a game behind West Virginia and TCU and Texas are lurking at 5-8.
 
Stumble this weekend in Texas and the door opens for the teams immediately below West Virginia. That's why these two are so vitally important.
 
"They are because of the situation we've put ourselves in," Huggins noted. "You can't lose three in a row in any league and not think that you don't have some making up to do. Getting a bye in a conference tournament is important. Four games in four days is tough."
 
Containing TCU's 3-point shooting is Huggins' biggest worry leading into Saturday's game. When the Horned Frogs make 3s, as they did against Iowa State, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, they can be a handful.
 
When they don't make them, they struggle mightily. TCU (14-12, 5-8) has lost seven of its last eight and nine of its last 11 because it has lost its 3-point shooting stroke. In those nine defeats, TCU has made less than 25 percent of its 3-point tries.
 
"They're set up to shoot 3-pointers. That's how they think they can score," Huggins said. "(Center Kevin) Samuel has gotten better and better, but they don't have a lot of guys they can throw the ball to (close to the basket). Everything is penetrate and pitch."
 
Defensively, the Horned Frogs have allowed seven opponents to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor this year – unheard of for Jamie Dixon-coached teams. West Virginia, which shot a season-high 57.7 percent in an 81-49 victory at the WVU Coliseum earlier this year, was one of those.
 
The Mountaineers didn't shoot it great on Tuesday night against Oklahoma State (42.4 percent), but that's dramatically better than what they shot during their three-game losing streak to Oklahoma, Kansas and Baylor.
 
West Virginia shot less than 35 percent in each of those defeats.
 
The Mountaineers are going to need to shoot it well on Saturday against TCU, and then cover the Horned Frogs tightly when they line up from behind the arc to let it fly.
 
Hopefully, TCU rediscovers its 3-point shooting stroke next Tuesday night at Iowa State.
 
Tipoff for Saturday's game is 2 p.m. ET. ESPNU (Clay Matvick and Bryndon Manzer) will televise the game nationally.
 
West Virginia owns a 14-2 overall record against TCU with both Horned Frog victories occurring in Fort Worth during the Mountaineers' last two visits.
 
Briefly:
 
* Huggins said on Friday that West Virginia's two-game Texas road swing was something he requested the Big 12 try to accommodate in the schedule to help reduce the number of cross-country flights his team had to make.
 
"We asked if they could find something in the schedule like they did at the start of the (Big 12) season at Kansas and Oklahoma State," Huggins said. "It's only fair to our guys, instead of getting back at 3 o'clock in the morning and having to get up to go to class."
 
* With the Mountaineers about to hit the final three weeks of the regular season, Huggins said he has limited the amount of practice time for his guys to preserve their legs.
 
"We try to cut back on the time a little bit and watch more film - do more shooting and that kind of thing," he explained. "We try not to run them up and down, not any more than get loose. We're going to guard at half court so they know what's coming, where they're going to get screened and so forth. It's not as taxing this time of year. You want to keep them as fresh as you can keep them, but I don't want them to walk out there unprepared."
 
According to Huggins, the team has already gone through two-day preps, down in Mexico in November and also to begin Big 12 play when it played at Kansas and Oklahoma State.
 
"It's kind of a walk through in a hotel ball room," he said. "It's more just familiarizing them with personnel and style of play than it is anything."
 
* Asked on Friday if he plans to continue bringing Culver off the bench, Huggins said he hasn't really thought much about it.
 
"I've been trying to make sure that we don't get ambushed at TCU - trying to make sure we're prepared," he answered. "They may make a bunch of shots, and they're capable of doing that."
 
* West Virginia continues to show up well in the computer rankings. In the latest NCAA NET rankings, used to aid the NCAA Tournament selection committee, the Mountaineers are No. 10 with the second strongest schedule in the country.
 
WVU also remains the nation's most efficient defense, according to statistical guru Ken Pomeroy.
 
In the latest NCAA statistics, West Virginia ranks first in offensive rebounds per game (15.1), second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (27.7), eighth in field goal percentage defense (37.8) and sixth in rebounds per game (41.0).
 
WVU is rebounding 40.2 percent of its missed shots, ranking No. 1 in the country. The national average is 28.1 percent.