Feb 19, 2026 By Justin Jackson 5 min read

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As far as opportunities go, West Virginia didn’t miss the bus Wednesday night. Instead, the Mountaineers may have been run over by it.

Utah, the last-place team in the Big 12, came into Hope Coliseum and just may have taken away all hope from WVU in reaching the NCAA tournament this season following a 61-56 victory over the Mountaineers.

“I’m just happy for our guys, because we’ve lost a couple of close games like that at the end,” Utah head coach Alex Jansen said. “I think we made the plays defensively, even though we struggled offensively, which was fun for a coach to see.”

On the other side of the story was West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge, who said the blame was on him for many of the things that transpired, including WVU (16-10, 7-6 Big 12) falling behind early and having that deficit grow to 15 points in the second half.

Hodge also blamed himself for not calling a timeout with 25 seconds remaining with WVU trailing 57-54. WVU guard Honor Huff instead hoisted up a contested 3-pointer that was partially blocked by Utah forward Seydou Traore.

“(Utah) started the game with force, pace and shot-making,” Hodge said. “We just didn’t match that. A coach has a lot of responsibilities, one of the biggest ones is making sure your team is ready to play. There’s been too many times when we haven’t quite been ready to play. I’ll take the blame for that.

“The last possession, I’ll take the blame for that, too. We were down three with 25 seconds. In that situation, you don’t necessarily have to have a three. A quick two is more of what you want. Once the play broke down, I shouldn’t have left Honor out there on an island by himself. I should have called timeout. That was on me, as well.”

The misery of the evening drug out like a toothache. It was already painful enough watching West Virginia dilly-dally around to the tune of going just 2 for 12 from 3-point range in the first half, getting killed on the boards by the 15th-best rebounding team in the Big 12 or simply being unimpressive at the free-throw line.

And yes, there was another dreadfully slow start for the Mountaineers. This one saw Utah jump out to a 9-0 lead in the opening minutes, before taking that out to a 17-3 lead seven minutes into the half.

“We start out abysmal at home and on the road,” Huff said. “I really don’t have an explanation. It’s something we have to figure out as a group.”

Once you added in four instant-replay reviews and two coaching challenges over the first 20 minutes, as well as a few timeouts here and there, the pain just seemed never ending.

If the Red Panda had performed at halftime, she would have likely ended it black and blue and with a flat tire.

It was just that kind of start for the Mountaineers, something they’ve been a part of many times this season, but never against a team that has struggled to the point Utah (10-16, 2-11) has.

The Utes never trailed in the game, ended a seven-game losing streak and picked up just their second conference win of the season. The Utes also ended a 15-game road losing streak that dated back to last season.

With the loss, WVU got served up a big shrug of the shoulders, because there really is no way to truly analyze what happens from here for the Mountaineers. They have now lost three in a row at home, with two of those losses coming to Utah and Baylor, who have combined for a 5-21 record in Big 12 play this season.

There is likely not enough time or games remaining on the schedule to make up for the damage by those defeats, at least not in terms of qualifying for the NCAAs. The one exception would be for a miracle run through the upcoming Big 12 tournament, a long shot for the majority of the teams in the league with four Big 12 teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the nation.

“It’s just little things that are being replicated game after game,” Huff said about WVU’s struggles. “We as a group have to figure it out, because it’s really hurting us. It’s deterring what we want to do in our end goals.”

As for Wednesday, Utah dominated on the glass with a 38-28 advantage on the boards and West Virginia finished 7 of 15 from the foul line. WVU had seven two-shot opportunities at the foul line against Utah and went 1 for 2 all seven times.

“The rebounding was the difference in the game,” Hodge said. “Our physicality and urgency to block out wasn’t good enough. All you can do is continue to work on (free throws) and try to find creative methods and different ways and put them in different situations.

“Those guys want to make those, they really do. If you’re going to get out-rebounded by 10, then, yeah, you can’t go 7 of 15 from the foul line. If you’re going to miss 30 shots and only get seven offensive rebounds, then you better make your free throws.”