West Virginia University forward Jimmy Bell, Jr., attempts to shoot a hoop in a game during the fall semester. Courtesy photo

SHEPHERDSTOWN — With Emmitt Matthews Jr., Erik Stevenson and the Johnsons (Kedrian and Kobe) doing much of the early-season heavy lifting, West Virginia has beaten Pitt, Florida and Alabama-Birmingham.

Now comes the loaded-for-bear Big 12 Conference schedule.

That means Kansas, Texas Christian, Baylor, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and Texas Tech, one after another. And that means every night will be full of quality teams who don’t take any prisoners.

The black-type question before the basketball world is, “Can West Virginia get its inside players to at least hold their own against conference opposition?”

Can Mohamed Wague (6-feet-10, 225 pounds), Jimmy Bell, Jr. (6-feet-10, 285 pounds) and Tre Mitchell (6-feet-9, 225 pounds) provide some consistent scoring, inside defense and rebounding to keep the Mountaineers afloat?

West Virginia University forward Tre Mitchell is anticipated to make a difference in the Mountaineers’ basketball future. Courtesy photo

Coach Bob Huggins has tried using a four-guard lineup at times in the earlier November-December games. Four guards mean an increase in speed and versatility. It gives Huggins an option of using a pressure defense and improves the team’s free throw percentage.

In an overtime loss on the road to Kansas State, Wague went 4-for-10 from the foul line and as a team the Mountaineers were only 20-for-38.

In that loss, there were a combined 53 fouls called against the two teams. West Virginia and the Wildcats combined to shoot 72 foul shots.

West Virginia once held an insecure 14-point lead in the first half but it was whittled down and K-State took the game into overtime where it outscored the Mountaineers by six points to win, 82-76.

The negatives literally spewed out of the game. West Virginia committed 20 turnovers and kept intact a conference losing streak that saw it go winless on the road in 2021-22 in the nine conference games it tried.

West Virginia’s rebounding supremacy couldn’t save the night even though it claimed 50 rebounds and the Wildcats had 36.

Every Big 12 team needs versatility and ways to find wins with back-up plans if methods they’ve practiced don’t yield positive results on any given night.

Road trips often have only a day in between games — not long to ready for the second opponent on a two-game trip.

Teams don’t just stumble onto wins in the Big 12 — especially on the road where the crowds are large and noisy.

And these aren’t players who have been together for two or three years and have a useful camaraderie and long-time trust in each other.

These are players for the most part who were scattered elsewhere last season before coming to Morgantown to replace the large number of those players departing for elsewhere for the 2022-2023 season.

Consistent winning in the Big 12 takes more than just individual brilliance or two or three players carrying a team on a given night.

For the Mountaineers, winning in the steeled competitiveness that is the Big 12 will require quality contributions from the likes of Bell Jr., Mitchell and Wague.