West Virginia Mountaineers at Texas Longhorns Betting Preview

The Big Monday college basketball schedule includes a Big 12 matchup between the No. 17 West Virginia Mountaineers and Texas Longhorns. On the road, the Mountaineers are four-point favorites with an over/under of 125.5 points.
At the moment, the Longhorns remain on the outside of the NCAA Tournament picture at 16-11 and 6-8 inside the Big 12. The good news for Texas is that they’ve won two in a row.
However, they almost certainly need to win their final four games of the regular season to put themselves into the NCAA Tournament conversation, starting with Monday’s game against West Virginia.
As for the Mountaineers, they are desperate to put a stop to their February swoon. West Virginia has lost four of its last five games, dropping them to 7-7 in league play and 19-8 overall.
In fairness, two of those losses have come against Baylor and Kansas. The Mountaineers are also solidly in the Big Dance, although they are trending in the wrong direction.
Find Some Offense
West Virginia’s defense has not been an issue this season. Despite the recent losses, the Mountaineers are among the top-15 teams in the nation defensively, allowing just 61.5 points per game. Even in their recent losses, the play of the West Virginia defense hasn’t been a problem.
However, finding consistent scorers on the offensive end has held back the Mountaineers, especially against quality teams.
West Virginia relies on being able to dominate teams inside the paint with forwards Oscar Tshiebwe and Derek Culver. They are the only two Mountaineers who average over 10 points per game. Unfortunately, Tshiebwe is failed to score in double figures four times in his last eight games while Culver has scored six points or less in four of his last five games.
Meanwhile, West Virginia shoots just 29% from the perimeter, so they don’t have an answer from their backcourt when their big guys aren’t scoring.
Find Some Offense (Part 2)
When it comes to scoring, Texas is even worse off than West Virginia. The Longhorns are also solid defensively but are one of the lowest-scoring teams in the country, which is why they’ve struggled in conference play after taking care of business throughout the non-conference portion of their schedule.
Unlike West Virginia, the Longhorns are a perimeter-oriented team. The trio of Matt Coleman III, Courtney Ramey, and Andrew Jones all average over 10 points per game. Coleman, Jones, and Jase Febres are all strong outside shooters, which enables Texas to put some points on the board if those guys can get hot.
However, Jericho Sims is the team’s only consistent post presence. If he doesn’t play well or gets into foul trouble, the Longhorns often get beat up on the boards and can’t find inside scoring to complement their outside shooters.
Long Trip
While West Virginia is undoubtedly going to play in the NCAA Tournament, the Mountaineers are just 1-6 on the road in Big 12 play. That shouldn’t inspire much confidence in a team that’s a road favorite. Bet on Texas against the spread in Monday’s game with West Virginia.