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MORGANTOWN -- In an 18-game Big 12 season, certainly it's too early to call the third game of the year the most crucial West Virginia will play, right?
Maybe once upon a time it would be, but all of a sudden the Mountaineers are teetering on the edge of a cliff atop the tallest mountain anyone climbs -- the Big 12 conference.
At 6 p.m. on Saturday night they go out before a sold-out crowd in the Coliseum with an 0-2 start on a season that they all felt would be one in which they could contend for both the Big 12 and the NCAA title.
They take on the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks and if you think they don't need a victory to keep this year from coming untangled just as last year did in league play, you are wrong.
Every game in the Big 12 is crucial. Erik Stevenson, the Mountaineers suddenly controversial guard, said the Mountaineers can beat anyone in the Big 12.
"Every team in our league is beatable. Every team in our league is good, but every team in our league is beatable, if that makes sense. It's a heck of an opportunity. We started out 0-2 and everyone thinks we're falling apart, but we're not. We just had some tough breaks and we're confident.
"We can win any game in this league. It's going to be brutal, but it's going to be brutal for every other team in the league as well."
Kansas is No. 3 in the nation but no one really believes it is head and shoulders above everyone in the league. The fact is that the Jayhawks had to overcome a big deficit to win their first game in the league and eked out a victory in their other.
How tough is the road going to be from start to finish?
Well, during WVU's game against Oklahoma State, they put on the broadcast a ranking of the 10 toughest schedules for the rest of the season across the nation and, guess what:
Nos. 1 through 10 were the 10 Big 12 teams, as difficult as that is.
It's kind of like in the old days when Miami was No. 1 in football in the nation and their intrasquad scrimmages were tougher than most team's Saturday games.
Bob Huggins puts it this way:
"Think about this, our league is 16 in the NET. Baylor is 0-2 just like we are ranked in the Top 25 in the country. Texas Tech is 0-2 and had run 27 in a row at home before they lost to Kansas. Oklahoma is 0-2 and their losses are by a total of four points.
"We lost two road games that got away from us at the end. Kansas State scored 100 points against Texas (that was No. 6 Texas and it wasn't 100 points, it was 116).
"The Big 12's average ranking in the NET is 26.8. The next league closest to that is 60.1."
In case you don't get the point, Huggins translated the analytics for you.
"That means we are playing in the best league in America, against the best people in America who are coached by the best coaches in America. We've had every opportunity to win and we didn't finish the games. That's on all of us."
It can wear on you.
"I've been blessed to coach against the greatest coaches of all time," Huggins said. "I just didn't have to do it night after night after night."
WVU's road losses to Kansas State and Oklahoma State are only part of the challenge they face. They go into the Kansas game without their point guard, Kedrian Johnson, who is out with a concussion from the Oklahoma State game.
See, did we mention that play also gets a whole lot more physical come Big 12 play?
That's a hard blow.
"I've said since the beginning I think he's the best on the ball defender in our league. That says a lot," said Huggins, who will replace Johnson with Joe Toussaint. "That puts a lot of pressure on the guys going in for him."
WVU had 35 turnovers in the past two games and now they play without Kedrian Johnson.
"We watched it, we discussed it, we drilled it," Huggins said.
In the end, though, WVU has to do three things. It has to play clean without turnovers, find its shooting touch which disappeared in the past couple of games and they have to make free throws.
The truth is that the last two games -- close losses -- were games they would have won had they done those things but they did not do well in any of them.
Toss in Stevenson's transgression against Oklahoma State when he made a gesture to the fans after shooting WVU back into the game only to draw a technical and put him in position to foul out two minutes later, sins for which he apologized to the coaches, team and fans on Friday, and you see there is little wiggle room.
"We're coming back home, we're going to get our swag back, get our mojo back, get the one against Kansas and start on a run," Stevenson said.