You are looking live at the Ferrell Center, site of tonight’s now-or-never for both No. 10 West Virginia and No. 11 Baylor. Remember when the Bears was undefeated? Fifteen straight wins to start the season? Ranked atop the polls? They’re 8-6 since then, and all that time and energy spent angling for the conference title or a top-two or top-three seed in the Big 12 tournament is on the line tonight. Baylor can’t finish in second place and could finish as far down as fifth in the standings.

The Mountaineers, meanwhile, are on a pretty good run of play. They’re back in the top 10. This will be their 11th game in the top 10, and they’ve split the first 10. Scores can be manipulated. Outcomes cannot. After the Oklahoma-Kansas State blip, WVU is 7-2 with a (home) loss to streaking Oklahoma State and an overtime loss at Kansas. Consequently, WVU can’t finish worse than fourth and can finish as high as second. In fact, a win tonight and an OKlahoma State win tomorrow at Iowa State gives WVU the No. 2 seed.

I can’t even begin to explain to you how volatile the standings and tiebreakers are for the final eight regular-season games if Baylor wins tonight. The Mountaineers would do everyone a favor with a win. That’d be four in a row after going 1-6 against the Bears upon entering the Big 12.

No Esa Ahmad, if you were curious or hopeful that he might heal and appear. Not to take away from WVU’s struggle, but TCU played without a starter/surging scorer Saturday, and by the looks of warmups, in appears the Bears will go without Manu Lecomte. That’s a bigger loss than Ahmad or TCU’s J.D. Miller.