For the first time this season, the West Virginia Mountaineers have lost three straight. Tuesday night, they erased another 14-point deficit in the second half, but some miscues in the overtime frame led to a 91-84 loss. This drops them to 16-12 on the season and 7-8 in Big 12 play, the first time they’ve been under .500 in league play since the first conference game against Iowa State.

Here are a few of my thoughts from this one.

Interior defense has to be a main focus this offseason

The lack of physicality from Harlan Obioha and whoever else West Virginia throws at the five spot this season has been troubling, and that was evident tonight, particularly in the first half, when Obioha was all by himself in the post. The Cowboys were hunting that matchup with Fallah/Vuković on Obioha, and it was darn near automatic. An elite rim protector would be nice, but those guys don’t grow on trees. They just need a couple (yes, two) who can put their body into someone and knock them off their base. Obioha didn’t do much of that tonight, if at all.

Played Oklahoma State’s game

Very few teams in the country score more points per game or attempt more shots per game than Oklahoma State. They want to get out and run and waste very little time before they get shot up. Because of that, the ball pops around quickly and freely. WVU’s ball pressure was not good whatsoever, nor were their rotations. Playing with a high tempo is not something WVU is accustomed to, and neither is hoisting up 21 threes in the first half. The Cowboys dictated the pace of this game outside of that stretch in the second half where the Mountaineers made their run. You’re not going to beat them at their game.

Another massive late game miscue

For the third straight game, Jasper Floyd made a bad pass late in the game that proved to be a costly turnover. I understand the natural flow of an offense is going to hit the point guard’s hands, but he’s been careless way too many times with the basketball in key situations to have the rock with less than ten seconds on the shot clock. He has to be aware of his strengths and weaknesses as well and get the ball into the hands of Honor Huff, Chance Moore, or Treysen Eaglestaff before the shot clock hits single digits.

Fourteen Big 12 contests down, four to go for West Virginia, and the squad will be back in action tonight in Stillwater to take on the reeling Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Is this the night WVU snaps out of its funk? Or will it be Oklahoma State that snaps out of theirs? My picks for tonight’s game are in.

Spread: Oklahoma State -1.5

Prediction: West Virginia covers.

In a game like this, I’ll take the points with West Virginia. The two are both in a rut right now, yet WVU is probably the more desperate team because it has much better odds of making the NCAA Tournament, although its own odds are very slim at this point.

Yes, the Cowboys are a much more polished product on the offensive end of the floor, averaging 83.6 points per game (29th nationally), but if you remove the overtime loss to TCU, they’re averaging just 65.2 points during this losing streak. That bodes well for West Virginia, which is going to defend at a high level, regardless of whether or not shots are falling. It also helps that Oklahoma State’s defense has been putrid this season, ranking 334th out of 365 teams in scoring defense.

Over/Under: 141.5

Prediction: Under.

Once again, we have a matchup of contrasting styles. Oklahoma State wants to ramp it up and throw the ball at the rim as much as possible. West Virginia, of course, does not want to play that way. In most games where this has been the case — Kansas State, Baylor, Texas Tech, UCF come to mind — they’ve still been low-scoring affairs. The Mountaineers have finished in the 50s in six of their last eight games, and I don’t see that changing even against a poor defensive club in Oklahoma State. It clearly didn’t matter against Utah.

Tip is set for 7 p.m. ET on NBC or CBS Sports Network. After the game, head over to our YouTube page (West Virginia On SI) for the Mountaineer Postgame Show, where we’ll take a look at the final numbers, talk about the positives, what needs to improve, and much more.

Note: Our predictions are not to be taken as gambling advice. These predictions are simply to give an opinion on what we think will happen in this week’s game.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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