MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Believe it or not, West Virginia is about to enter another difficult portion of what is now considered the seventh-toughest schedule in the country.
 
The Mountaineers (14-11, 3-9) will play Kansas (No. 8 in latest NCAA NET rankings) on Saturday night at the WVU Coliseum.
 
Then, it is on the road for their next two, at No. 56 TCU and at No. 43 Iowa State, followed by a home game against No. 15 Texas. WVU is back in the friendly skies to play at No. 38 Oklahoma before wrapping up the regular season against the Horned Frogs at the WVU Coliseum on March 5.
 
"Obviously, I've (upset) the schedule makers," coach Bob Huggins joked Friday afternoon. "We've got to get the games in so we've got to do what we've got to do. It may be a wakeup call, who knows? Sometimes you deal with something you're not happy about and it ends up being the best thing for you."
 
West Virginia, despite losing its last two road games at Kansas State and Oklahoma State and dropping nine of its last 10 conference games, is STILL in position to have a say in its NCAA Tournament fate.
 
The Mountaineers' NET ranking is 68, which can easily be boosted into the 40s or even the 30s with some upset wins down the stretch. That's what Huggins is explaining to his basketball team when he tells them there are opportunities still out there for them.
 
"We've got six games to go and they're all winnable – but we're going to have to play a lot better than we have played, but they're winnable," Huggins pointed out.
 
West Virginia missed an opportunity last Monday night when it led Kansas State by 10 early in the second half before coming unglued. The Mountaineers also were right there in recent close losses at Baylor and at home against Texas Tech. 
 
A favorable call or a better bounce of the ball could have possibly led to different outcomes.
 
"We're certainly due," Huggins said.
 
Considering everything that's happened to his team this year – the bad breaks, the injuries, the difficult travel and the inexperienced players he's had on the floor, particularly near the basket - it's really remarkable that West Virginia still has control of its postseason chances this late in the season.
 
But it does.
 
Of course, upsetting Kansas (21-4, 10-2) on Saturday night inside a jam-packed WVU Coliseum could be a big adrenaline boost for everybody involved and in order to do that, Huggins said his team is going to have to figure out a way to play better in the second half.
Second halves have really been a struggle for the Mountaineers of late, particularly since losing 85-59 at Kansas on Jan. 15. During its last 10 games, beginning with its 23-point loss at Kansas, West Virginia has been outscored by an average of 9.1 points per game in the second half.
 
Kansas outscored WVU by 24, Oklahoma State by 17, Texas Tech by 13, Baylor and Kansas State by 12, Texas Tech in Lubbock by 11, Baylor in Morgantown by five and Oklahoma in Morgantown by two.
 
West Virginia played Arkansas even in the second half after falling behind 38-29 at the break, and it outscored Iowa State 40-35 in its 79-63 victory over the Cyclones in Morgantown back on Feb. 8.
 
Huggins said he's running out of ideas on how to get his guys to play better once they return to the floor after intermission.
 
"I might have to trick them," he said. "I've had teams in the past that I've had to trick, lie to a little bit just to get them ready to go. Anything to get them ready to go."
 
If Taz Sherman and Sean McNeil can match Ochai Agbaji and Christian Braun's production on Saturday night, the game could come down to figuring out a way of neutralizing David McCormack and Jalen Wilson. Those two guys combined to score 42 points and grab 23 rebounds against the Mountaineers the first time in Lawrence.
 
Sherman and McNeil were limited to a combined 15 points in that game, which required Malik Curry to come off the bench to pour in a season-high 23.
 
Huggins said he gave his team Tuesday off and they did a lot of shooting during Wednesday's practice. The remainder of the week has been focused solely on the Kansas Jayhawks.
 
"Now we've got to really hunker down and figure out how we're going to stop Kansas and how we're going to score against Kansas," he said.
 
Saturday night's game will tip off at 8 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN (Rich Hollenberg and Chris Spatola). Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday begins at 7 p.m.
 
Satellite radio coverage will be on XM channel 384 and channel 974 on the Sirius/XM app.
 
The game was announced a sellout late last month.
 
"I think our people have done an incredible job, in spite of us not playing as well as we're capable of playing. We're averaging over 11,000 a game and that's never happened here before," Huggins said. "It just shows how hungry the people in our state are for us to get this thing turned and go start being relevant again, because we went a long time being relevant and now we're not relevant."

Later this evening, Huggins will be at Mylan Park to take part in his 10^th annual Fish Fry to benefit the Norma Mae Huggins Endowment at the WVU Cancer Center. Barstool Sports personality Dave Portnoy will be on hand, as well as special invited guest Bill Self.
 
"We could hit $2 million tonight (in total donations to the Cancer Center), think about that - at a fish fry!" Huggins said. "It's going to be a fun night. I sincerely believe that we can raise the money to build a cancer hospital here; and we need it in this state in the absolute worst way.
 
"Instead of people going to Cleveland Clinic, they come here. I think it's the right thing to do and if I can leave this state with anything in a positive way that will remain relevant to help the people of West Virginia, I surely would want to do that," he concluded.