OK, so Ashton Gibbs and his 16.3 points per game are gone tonight and Pitt’s offense, which is No. 2 in the Big East in scoring, will be affected as it goes up against WVU, which is  No. 1 in scoring defense and No. 4 in field-goal percentage defense in Big East games.

Prior to that, though, the idea was — and probably still is — the Mountaineers cannot simply lean on rebounding and defense and expect to win. They’ll have to outwardly outscore some of the remaining opponents.

WVU’s demanding stretch of games to end the season began with the Wildcats, who were the first of seven ranked opponents in the last nine games.

Of the remaining six ranked teams, all six average more points than WVU. Five of the six have a better field goal percentage than the Mountaineers and the exception is seventh-ranked UConn. The Huskies have the conference’s second-leading scorer in point guard and national player of the year candidate Kemba Walker.

WVU has had trouble containing opposing guards. Saturday Villanova’s Corey Fisher and Maalik Wayns combined for 33 points and nine assists. They made 12 of 21 shots and 5 of 8 3-point attempts.

“There will definitely come a point in time where we’d like to, but we won’t be able to hold every team to under 50 or 60 points,” West Virginia forward Kevin Jones said. “That’s the time we have to take advantage of our opportunities and score more than we have.”