Photo by Benjamin Powell/The Dominion Post WVU guard Honor Huff has scored 20 or more points seven times this season.

MORGANTOWN — They have been a see-saw of sorts for a WVU men’s basketball team that faces the ultimate challenge at 2 p.m. today, when the Mountaineers walk into the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. to face No. 1 Arizona.

Combined they are WVU’s wings, that being Treysen Eaglestaff on one side and Honor Huff on the other. Both transferred to WVU this season with the thought of being some type of balancing act, one that would feed off each other offensively and cause nothing but headaches for opposing defenses.

The balancing theory behind the duo is their play would keep defenses from ganging up on the other, forcing defenses to spread out and be more selective with how it chose to defend in the paint.

That is exactly what WVU (13-6, 4-2 Big 12) needs to play out today against the Wildcats (19-0, 6-0), who are just one of three teams left in college basketball that’s still undefeated and they’ve dominated their opposition with an average margin of victory of 21.3 points per game.

“I worked for coach Larry Eustachy for five years, and when he was at Iowa State, he won the Big 12 two times,” Hodge said. “He would say that sometimes the problem isn’t you. Sometimes the problem is who you have to play and where you have to play them.

“We’ll still come up with a game plan that we feel gives us the best chance to win going up against a team that could very well win a national championship.”

Arizona is built around balance and forcing defenses to make difficult decisions. The Wildcats have — basically — six players averaging double figures in scoring, which is why Arizona averages 90 points per game.

Arizona also gets to the free-throw line more than any other team in the Big 12. It’s led by a pair of freshmen in 6-foot-8 forward Koa Peat (14.6 ppg) and shooting guard Brayden Burries (14.2 ppg).

Then you throw in 7-2 center Motiejus Krivas and forward Tobe Awaka. They combine for 17 rebounds per game. As a team, Arizona also has five players who have recorded more than 40 assists on the season.

Meanwhile, WVU’s balancing act with Huff and Eaglestaff is still a work in progress. Seemingly when one is hot, the other is either ho-hum or struggling.

“All year long, Honor has been our most consistent player, on a night-in, night-out basis,” Hodge said. “All those other guys have had big games in big moments. The more ways you can win a game, the better. (Huff) gets so much attention that it opens up the floor for those other guys to step into those moments really well.”

Huff earned the respect of defenses early, scoring in double figures in six of his first seven games. He’s scored 20 or more seven times this season and has had two games in which he connected on eight 3-pointers.

Eaglestaff got off to a slow start, scoring in double figures in just one of his first six games. He’s had five games in which he’s scored 20 or more, with two of those being in the Mountaineers’ last two games. Eaglestaff has connected on nine 3-pointers over those two games, hopefully a sign of things to come against Arizona, but it also tells a great story of a young man who never got down on himself when things were sour.

“It should be an inspiration to all of us,” Hodge said. “To have hard times, don’t blame people. Don’t point the finger. Don’t blame coaches. Don’t blame your teammates. Just keep working, trusting the process, keep believing. That’s where basketball is such a metaphor for life.”

Here’s the thing, though, over the course of 19 games, Eaglestaff and Huff have both scored in double figures at the same time just seven times.

They’ve both scored at least 20 points in the same game just once, and that came back on Dec. 9 against Little Rock (Ark.), a game that has been long forgotten.

What if the second time came today against Arizona?

“Eaglestaff and Huff both made difficult shots when you kind of needed them to,” Hodge said about the duo following WVU’s 75-63 win against Arizona State on Wednesday.

If the basketball gods deem it so, and Eaglestaff is one side making plays and Huff is on the other side connecting on 28-footers, it would seem the Mountaineers would have a better chance than the 9.8% they are currently given by ESPN’s metrics to win the game.

WVU is 5-11 all-time against the No. 1-ranked team in the nation, with only one of those victories coming on the road. That came in 1957, against North Carolina.

“He’s just one of these guys who knows how to win basketball games,” Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd said of Hodge. “His teams always have a real identity on the defensive end of the floor. Offensively, they have a shooter, or two, who can knock down multiple threes. It sets up for a big game on Saturday.”