MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Through the beginning of February, only top-ranked Gonzaga was comparable to Baylor in terms of offensive explosiveness.
 
We got a first-hand look at what the Zags were capable of doing in early December when West Virginia played them in Indianapolis.
 
Baylor (18-1, 10-1) has similar firepower with four different players averaging between 16.4 and 10.5 points per game. The Bears are averaging 10 made 3 pointers per game and have topped the 100-point mark already this year against Louisiana, Alcorn and Kansas State twice.
 
"They're terrific offensively," West Virginia coach Bob Huggins said Monday morning. "They play really hard, and I think, defensively, their bigs have really helped them. They're veteran, they don't get rattled, they play at a great pace and they're terrific at playing in space."
 
In a late January game against the K-State at the Ferrell Center, Baylor basically ran the Wildcats right out of the gym. An 84-72 victory over Auburn in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge and an impressive 83-69 victory at Texas followed.
 
Then, COVID-19 hit the Bears, forcing them to press the pause button for three weeks. At the time of the interruption, Baylor was averaging 87 points per game and shooting better than 50% from the floor as a team.
 
When the Bears finally resumed basketball activities and played its first game against Iowa State last Tuesday night, Baylor struggled to beat the two-win Cyclones 77-72.
 
Four days later at Kansas, Baylor lost its first game by scoring its fewest points of the season with just 58. The Bears shot 34.8% for the game and connected on only 23.1% of their 26 3-point attempts.
 
Since its return, Baylor is shooting 39% overall and 27.4% from 3. The Bears' second-half shooting is 35.8% overall and 24.1% from 3.
 
Is this just coincidental?
 
Well, that's what we're going to find out Tuesday night when the third-ranked Bears and the sixth-ranked Mountaineers hook up in college basketball's marquee game, which happens to be a 5 p.m. matinee on ESPN.
 
"I can't imagine what they went through with (21) days," Huggins said. "I know our guys would have gone absolutely crazy. They would have been trying to sneak into the practice facility or they'd go out on a playground and shoot. It would drive them insane to not touch a ball that long."
 
West Virginia's COVID-19 interruption in early January was approximately a week shorter than Baylor's.
 
"Our situation was totally different than theirs," Huggins explained. "They were (21) days, and we were seven or eight and really the biggest thing that happened to us was we had a guy who lost about 20 pounds, and he obviously wasn't the same. He's got that back now and he's playing really well, but that's the biggest thing that hit us."
 
Game conditioning could be an issue for the Bears right now, particularly in the second half. Some coaches believe it takes about three games to get back to where a team was before a long pause and Tuesday's game will be Baylor's third since the interruption.
 
"You can run on a treadmill all you want and cardiovascular-wise does it help you? Sure. But it doesn't in any way mirror what happens running up and down the floor," Huggins said.
 
Over the last six years, West Virginia-Baylor games have been relevant to the national picture. Twelve times since then, one team or the other has been nationally ranked, and eight times both have been ranked when they've played.
 
Last year, fourth-ranked Baylor came to the WVU Coliseum to conclude the regular season and West Virginia came away with a surprisingly easy 76-64 victory.
 
That was the last time Baylor lost a basketball game for almost a year.
 
West Virginia's 21-point victory over the No. 1-ranked Bears here at the Coliseum on Jan. 10, 2017 was the largest margin of defeat a No. 1-ranked team has ever absorbed in AP poll history. Before that, Baylor had won three out of four against the Mountaineers in the Coliseum.
 
Tuesday's game could be pitting a potential NCAA Tournament No. 1 seed against a No. 2.
 
Jared Butler, Baylor's top scorer averaging 16.4 points per game and its second-best playmaker, handing out 93 assists, is a strong contender for Big 12 Player of the Year honors.
 
So is West Virginia's Derek Culver - the only player in the Big 12 averaging a double-double with15 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Not even Oklahoma State freshman sensation Cade Cunningham can claim that.
 
Both teams have outstanding complementary players.
 
Baylor's MaCio Teague is averaging 14.8 points per contest and has one of the most eye-opening stats of any player in college basketball; he's committed just 15 personal fouls in close to 600 minutes of court time this season.
 
West Virginia's Deuce McBride is averaging 15.6 points while handing 4.5 assists per game, fourth-best in the Big 12 with one week left in the regular season.
 
Baylor and West Virginia can comfortably go eight-deep or beyond. And both can spread the floor and score points in bunches.
 
That should make Tuesday's game a fun one to watch. It's just the eighth time two top 10 teams will match up for a college basketball game in Morgantown – seven of those coming under Huggins.
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage begins at 4 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday.
 
Baylor is one of three Big 12 opponents West Virginia has at home to wrap up the regular season.

The Mountaineers will entertain TCU on Thursday night at 7 p.m. and will conclude the week with a 2 p.m. game against 17^th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday.