Having won three of its last four games, West Virginia has kept its season afloat early into Big 12 play, while displaying progress since failing to record a notable non-conference win.
The Mountaineers, however, remain without a victory outside Morgantown in six tries, something they’ll need to change in the near future to continue heading in the right direction.
The first opportunity comes Wednesday at 9 p.m. with a matchup against Arizona State at Desert Financial Arena that can be seen on Peacock.
“Because the venues, crowds, players and coaches are so good, it’s like triple whammys and you have to execute at an incredibly high level,” WVU head coach Ross Hodge said. “You have to have good plans and you have to have a lot of guys play well on a given night. You can’t just have one or two guys play well. You have to have some really impressive performances from some individuals and then the collective grit, scrap and fight that it takes. We have to continue to grow in that area.”
WVU (12-6, 3-2) defeated Colorado 72-61 last Saturday to move back above the .500 mark in Big 12 play and improve to 12-0 at Hope Coliseum.
But for as much as the Mountaineers have been able to rely on protecting home court throughout the 2025-26 campaign, they’re 0-2 on the road with the losses by an average of 25 points after dropping all four neutral-site games in non-league play.
“We have to figure out ways to be as consistent on the road as we can be at home,” said guard Honor Huff, who leads the Mountaineers in scoring at 17.1 points. “Obviously, that’s easier said than done and it gets difficult at times, but putting together stretches where we’re at our best just has to happen on the road. We’re getting too many stall outs where we’re not consistent enough within the game and when we get down, it’s not the same as when we have the crowd rallying around us. We have to stay focused and be more sharp. We have a long trip coming up, so we have to stay sharp.”
The Sun Devils (10-8, 1-4) have largely sputtered against Big 12 competition to this point, securing a three-point home win over Kanas State on January 10 for their only triumph in conference play thus far. Otherwise, ASU lost at home to Colorado and suffered road setbacks to nationally-ranked opponents in BYU, Arizona and most recently Sunday at Houston, 103-73.
The Sun Devils have surrendered at least 84 points in every league game, 95-plus in three of five and at 80.7 points, they allow the third-highest total on average of Big 12 teams.
ASU is allowing opponents to shoot 46 percent from the field and 35.5 percent on three-pointers, which ranks last in the Big 12.
That adds intrigue to the matchup with West Virginia, which shot 52 percent from the field against the Buffaloes, but is the lowest-scoring Big 12 team at 73.2 points and has yet to reach 60 in either road game.
Only Houston, at 60.1 points, allows a lower total among Big 12 teams than the 63.1 WVU surrenders.
“You have to be able to get stops, and more important, you have to be able to finish it with rebounds,” Hodge said. “We’ve been in a couple situations where we’ve really been able to anchor down on the defensive end.”
The Sun Devils are last in Big 12 rebounding margin at minus-1.7, though they have forced the fourth-most turnovers of any conference team at 248.
Guard Maurice Odum is Arizona State’s top scorer at 16.3 points, though the 6-foot-2 senior shoots 37.8 percent from the field and has been below 50 percent in seven straight outings.
Massamba Diop, a 7-1 center, and 6-3 guard Anthony Johnson follow at 14.2 points apiece. Diop is second in the Big with a field goal percentage of 64.
Huff is second in the Big 12 with 68 three-pointers. Forwards Brenen Lorient and Chance Moore follow him in scoring at 10.4 points, while guard Treysean Eaglestaff averages 9.9 points and enters off his most productive performance in Big 12 play, having scored 22 on 9 of 14 shooting.
Center Harlan Obioha has been instrumental in West Virginia’s last two wins, totaling 21 points and 19 rebounds. In the team’s two road losses, the 7-footer has a combined five points and three boards.
For the season, Big 12 teams are 31-14 in conference games at home.
Only Arizona (3-0), Houston (2-0), Texas Tech (2-1) and BYU (2-1) have a winning record away from home in league play.
“You look at what’s going on around the league, it’s been tough sledding to go on the road,” Hodge said. “We’ve done what we’re supposed to do [at home] and now we have two monster challenges in a row.”