MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia travels to Austin, Texas, to face the 17^th-ranked Texas Longhorns in its Big 12 opener on Saturday afternoon at the Frank Erwin Center.
 
The Mountaineers (11-1) have been idle since defeating Youngstown State 82-52 at the WVU Coliseum on Wednesday, Dec. 22.
 
In that game, West Virginia got a game-high 23 points from guard Sean McNeil and 16 from guard Taz Sherman in its biggest blowout victory of the season.
 
The trip to Texas was originally scheduled to be a two-game swing with the Mountaineers continuing on to Fort Worth to play TCU on Monday night, but the game has been postponed because of COVID issues within the Horned Frog program. No makeup date has been announced yet by the Big 12 Conference.
 
West Virginia, too, is dealing with some COVID issues as coach Bob Huggins revealed today on a zoom call with media that he's got some players currently in COVID protocol and will not be available against the Longhorns.
 
He did not disclose who those players were.
 
Texas (10-2) has won four straight since dropping a 64-60 decision to 23^rd-ranked Seton Hall on Dec. 9 as part of the Big 12's challenge with the Big East. Since then, the Longhorns have won consecutive games against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Stanford, Alabama State and Incarnate Word.
 
Texas' only other loss was to then-No. 1-ranked Gonzaga 86-74 on Nov. 13.
 
Chris Beard, who won 112 games in five seasons at Texas Tech, including a NCAA runner-up finish in 2019, is in his first season with the Longhorns after replacing Shaka Smart.
 
As he did at Texas Tech, Beard is using the transfer portal to fortify his roster. Four of the five probable starters for Saturday's game are transfers: forward Timmy Allen (Utah), forward Christian Bishop (Creighton), forward Tre Mitchell (Massachusetts) and guard Marcus Carr (Minnesota).
 
Guard Andrew Jones, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior, is the only Smart holdover in the starting lineup. He's averaging 9.3 points and 2.5 rebounds per game.
 
Allen (11.9 ppg.) and Mitchell (10.9 ppg.) are averaging double figures, while Carr (8.6 ppg.) and Bishop (7.3 ppg.) are close.
 
Guards Courtney Ramey and Jase Febres are two other familiar names to Mountaineer fans. Ramey is averaging 8.3 points and is shooting 40.6% from 3-point distance while Febres is shooting 35.3% from 3 and has been effective in games against WVU in the past.
 
"They're really talented," Huggins said Friday morning. "They've got a lot of guys that can score, they've got great size and a lot of depth. Chris did a great job in the portal. They've got size, and he's put together a heck of a squad."
 
The Longhorns are outscoring their opponents by an average of 21 points per game and are holding their opponents to averages of 51.3 points per game and 39.1% shooting.
 
"Chris has always done a great job of stopping penetration," Huggins explained. "It's not Pack Line, but they do pack a side and they pretty much try and make you play on one side of the floor and outnumber you and he's perfected it.
 
"But it's like anything else, you get some new guys and it takes a little while to adjust to the newness of it, but in watching their games they're getting better and better defensively there," Huggins added. "They're certainly not getting worse."
 
It's a matchup of two of the better defensive teams in the country as West Virginia has held its last six opponents to less than 60 points per game, the first time that's happened since its Final Four season in 2010.
 
"We've got to sit down and try and stay in front of them as best as we possibly can and limit their number of shots," Huggins said.
 
Sherman and McNeil are West Virginia's two big guns, averaging 20.9 and 14.0 points per game respectively. Sherman currently ranks 13^th nationally in scoring and is one of just 25 players in the country averaging better than 20 points per game.
 
West Virginia's other tentative starters include forwards Jalen Bridges and Isaiah Cottrell and point guard Kedrian Johnson.
 
The Mountaineers are 6-3 in Big 12 openers and Saturday's game will be the seventh time in the last 10 years WVU has begun conference play on the road.
 
Texas holds a 13-10 edge in overall series play, but West Virginia has won six of the last 11 meetings including an 84-82 win in Austin last season.
 
Huggins owns a 7-5 record against Beard.
 
Saturday's game will tip off at noon and will be televised nationally on ESPNU (Rich Hollenberg and Tim Welsh). Mountaineer Sports Network coverage with Tony Caridi and Jay Jacobs begins at 11 a.m. ET.
 
West Virginia will now return to Morgantown immediately following Saturday's game.
 
Briefly: Huggins, once again eligible for induction into the Naismith Hall of Fame, recently recorded his 100^thcareer victory against a ranked team when WVU downed Connecticut 56-53 earlier this month … Fifty-five of those wins have come at West Virginia … Huggins earned career win No. 911 against Youngstown State and is nine wins shy of tying Jim Calhoun for third all-time on the NCAA Division I wins list … So far, Sherman is the only Big 12 player to be named Big 12 Player of the Week twice this season … WVU ranks seventh in the country in turnover margin this week at +6.7 … The Mountaineers have held nine of their 12 opponents below 60 points so far this season … Forward Gabe Osabuohien once again leads the team with 82 deflections after posting a team-best 171 deflections and 23 charges taken last year … Saturday's game features the No. 14 and No. 35 teams in the latest NCAA NET Rankings … All 10 Big 12 teams are in the top 82 this week.