MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With a Tuesday night victory over Iowa State in tow, Bob Huggins' West Virginia Mountaineers now have the opportunity to get back into the Big 12 race.
 
The two teams on horizon – Oklahoma State in Stillwater on Saturday afternoon and Kansas State in Manhattan on Monday night – are immediately ahead of West Virginia in the league standings. Both teams sport 4-7 conference records.
 
West Virginia (14-9, 3-7) defeated Kansas State and Oklahoma State in succession at the WVU Coliseum last month, a feat the Mountaineers are hoping to duplicate in the next three days.
 
Oklahoma State recently snapped its four-game losing streak against Oklahoma last Saturday but dropped a four-point decision at TCU earlier in the week.
 
The Cowboys are the first Big 12 team this year to dip below .500 at 11-12 overall but are still No. 61 in this week's NCAA NET rankings. Of course, Oklahoma State is ineligible for NCAA Tournament play this season because of NCAA sanctions.
 
Kansas State is eligible for tournament play, but like West Virginia, the 12-11 Wildcats have a lot of work to do to put themselves into consideration. K-State has the lowest NET ranking of the 10 Big 12 schools at No. 69.
 
West Virginia is in better shape in that regard at No. 59, with the opportunity to really enhance its standing before the regular season concludes.
 
After these two games, West Virginia's remaining schedule includes a home date against Kansas (No. 8 in the NET), at No. 55 TCU, at No. 39 Iowa State, at home against No. 15 Texas, at No. 46 Oklahoma and then back at the Coliseum against the Horned Frogs to wrap up the regular season.
 
If West Virginia goes .500 over those remaining eight games that equates to 18 victories heading into Big 12 Tournament play, which would put the Mountaineers in the NCAA Tournament conversation. Right now, they are not, according to Joe Lunardi's latest tournament projections released this morning.
 
Lunardi has Miami, North Carolina, Creighton and BYU as his last four teams in the tournament with Florida, San Diego State, UAB and Memphis the first four out. Lundardi's next four after that are Belmont, Saint Louis, Mississippi State and Michigan, meaning somewhere beyond sits West Virginia.
 
Superstitious coaches are reluctant to bring these things up to their players, but Huggins is not and he's never operated that way. He wants his guys to know exactly where they stand at all times.
 
"We're very transparent with our guys," Huggins said Friday morning. "I know some people don't believe in doing that and maybe it puts pressure on them, but I'd rather have them feel a little bit of pressure than come to me after the fact and say, 'Why didn't you tell us that? I think we would have played harder or paid more attention if we had known what was on the line.' I want them to know what's on the line."
 
The Cowboys have Big 12 victories this year against Texas, Baylor, TCU and Oklahoma, so they are certainly capable of knocking off West Virginia on Saturday. Senior guard Isaac Likelee, a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder, from Arlington, Texas, has been a matchup issue for the Mountaineers all four years he's played at Oklahoma State.
 
He can comfortably play inside or out against bigger or smaller people. Surrounding him, Oklahoma State has three guys who can make 3s – Keylan Boone (33 of 98), Avery Anderson III (26 of 71) and Bryce Thompson (20 of 69).
 
Anderson (11.0 ppg.) and Thompson (10.2 ppg.) are Oklahoma State's two best scorers.
 
"We've got to do a better job on Isaac Likekele than we have been," Huggins said. "They're a four-out team with those three guys and Likekele. They have one post guy (Moussa Cisse) and they play around the post guy. They don't ball screen a lot - it's mostly penetrate and pitch and we're going to have to do a great job of guarding the ball."
 
West Virginia played much better last Tuesday night in its 79-63 victory over Iowa State. Senior guard Taz Sherman played perhaps his best all-around game with 16 points and career highs in rebounds (eight) and assists (six). He's second to Kansas' Ochai Agbai in scoring, averaging 18.7 points per game.
 
Senior guard Sean McNeil shows averages of 13.5 points and 2.8 rebounds, while sophomore forward Jalen Bridges has increased his scoring to 9.2 points per game while grabbing 5.1 boards per contest.
 
Bridges has produced 30 points in his last two games against Texas Tech and Iowa State.
 
West Virginia used a starting lineup against the Cyclones consisting of Sherman, McNeil and freshman Kobe Johnson in the backcourt, with Bridges and senior Pauly Paulicap up front.
 
West Virginia had a 37-28 rebounding advantage on Tuesday night against Iowa State for one of its best rebounding performances of the season. Turnovers, though, were another story.
 
"We turned it over 20 times, which was a season high, and we can't continue to do that and win, particularly on the road against good teams," Huggins said.
 
The first time West Virginia and Oklahoma State met at the Coliseum on Jan. 11, Bridges led the way with a season-high 22 points. He was 10 of 10 from the free throw line and West Virginia connected on 21 of 22 for the night.
 
Williams led the Cowboys with 12.
 
West Virginia has won six of its last seven meetings at Gallagher-Iba Arena and is 6-3 overall in the facility.
Saturday's game will tip off at 2 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Dave Neal and Jon Sunvold). Mountaineer Sports Network coverage on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday begins at 1 p.m.
 
Following Saturday's game, the Mountaineers will travel from Stillwater up to Manhattan for a Monday night game against the Kansas State. The Wildcats have a Saturday afternoon game at Iowa State.
 
"I think we're excited and ready to go," Huggins said. "We've played pretty well at Oklahoma State, probably better than at Kansas State, but they're both really perimeter-oriented, which kind of fits into what we do so it ought to be a lot of fun."