College Basketball Odds, Pick for West Virginia vs Texas

As the Mountaineers head south to face the Longhorns, both teams find themselves in the bottom three in the conference standings.

A win for Texas would help solidify their place in the NCAA tournament field, while the Mountaineers will look to play the role of spoiler in what figures to be their last game in Austin for quite some time.

Here's college basketball odds and a pick for West Virginia vs Texas.

West Virginia is a much different team than the one that began the season.

Josh Eilert stepped into the position of interim head coach amidst chaos, creating a situation that made attracting recruits quite difficult. And there were plenty of roster openings to fill. WVU had three key roster pieces graduate after last season while also losing Tre Mitchell to John Calipari and Kentucky in the transfer portal.

Many of his pieces were still missing as Eilert began to establish a new lineup. Sidelined was RaeQuan Battle, potentially Eilert's most important player entering the season. A federal ruling granted a temporary restraining order allowing two-time NCAA transfers immediate eligibility about six weeks ago, clearing the way for Battle to take the court.

Since Battle and his teammates Akok Akok, Jesse Edwards, and Noah Farrakhan have become available, the Mountaineers have improved.

The issue has been the strength of WVU's schedule in the Big 12. Eilert's led his team to a few impressive wins that may have surprised casual fans. Still, any Big 12 win is hard-earned, and the Mountaineers have found victories hard to come by.

If Eilert is going to lead his team to any conference road win, Saturday in Austin may be the perfect opportunity.

Jesse Edwards and Akok have enough size to compete with and bother the interior strength of Texas. Dylan Disu and Kadin Shedrick provide a formidable Longhorn frontcourt, but WVU's size should provide enough of an offset so long as they avoid foul trouble.

If Battle and Kerr Kriisa can make enough shots, West Virginia can keep this one close for 40 minutes.

It's been a bumpy ride for Rodney Terry and the Longhorns in their final season in the Big 12.

Many bracketologists have Texas still clinging to a spot in the NCAA Tournament. However, Texas has to be careful to avoid bad losses on their home floor for the remainder of the season. A loss to the Mountaineers would likely qualify as "bad" in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament's selection committee.

Max Abmas was recently named to the Bob Cousy Award watchlist, recognizing the nation's best point guard. Abmas is one of college basketball's all-time leading scorers.

His recognition on the Cousy watch list was nice but somewhat misleading.

In reality, Tyrese Hunter is the primary ball-handler for Texas, allowing Abmas to move off the ball and utilize his superior conditioning to hunt open shots. West Virginia doesn't have a great defensive matchup for the problems Abmas can cause, so the Oral Roberts product should eat.

Disu was a significant reason Texas got hot at the end of last season. His interior presence made it difficult for opponents to score inside, as he forced guards to finish over his height and wingspan. Disu also has enough finesse to make the close-range eight-to-10 floating jumpers over taller defenders.

With the pair of Disu and Virginia transfer Shedrick, the Longhorns expect to win games by playing through their frontcourt. If Abmas provides ample shooting to stretch the defense away from the paint, West Virginia's shaky defense might break.

The must-have app for college basketball bettors

The best NCAAB betting scoreboard

Free picks from proven pros

Live win probabilities for your bets

DOWNLOAD NOW

West Virginia has plenty of firepower to hang with Texas.

Road environments are always difficult, so the Mountaineers must battle through the early wave of emotion the Texas crowd will likely bring.

Still, I think the Mountaineers are still undervalued in betting markets. They aren't the defensive stalwart they used to be under Bob Huggins, so they'll need to keep pace offensively with Texas if they hope to hang around.

I expect WVU to cover a far overinflated spread.

Pick: West Virginia +12 (Play to +10.5)

ESPN Bet is now live! Make sure you're ready for all the action with our exclusive ESPN BET promo code TANBONUS.