Before the start of the season, West Virginia coach Mike Carey knew his team was in for a challenge in its new conference.

After watching film of a couple of Texas Tech’s recent games on film, the veteran coach reiterated his thoughts Monday.

“I tell you what, we got some tough games coming up,” Carey told West Virginia reporters in a news conference Monday morning. “This Big 12 is tough. I’m telling you this Big 12 is tough, but we can’t make excuses — we got to play. We’re pretty good, too.”

With teams now through a third of their Big 12 Conference schedules, the conference race for second place is shaping up. The Lady Raiders sit in a tie for third with Iowa State, and the Mountaineers are in sixth.

But only No. 1 Baylor has positioned itself where it will likely finish at the end of the season. The Bears have won each of their league games by at least 18 points.

Either West Virginia (11-6, 3-3 in Big 12) or Tech (14-4, 4-2) can start to separate itself from the crowd in a 6 p.m. game Tuesday in Morgantown, W.Va.

Tech and West Virginia have never played.

“We’ve got our hands full on both ends of the floor,” Tech coach Kristy Curry said Saturday after her team’s 70-63 win against 23 Kansas. “We’re just looking forward to something different.”

Something different for Tech may also be eerily similar.

Both the Lady Raiders and Mountaineers have benefitted from stellar guard play recently, and both play stout defense.

Tech has allowed an average of 59 points per game in six conference matches, while West Virginia allows an average of 59.7 points.

“Of any game we’ve played so far,” Carey said, “they probably get after it defensively like we do. They get up the lane. They’re very athletic. They attack you at all times.”

Tech’s offense has been humming along in its last two games thanks to Casey Morris and Chynna Brown’s hot hands.

Carey said the Lady Raider offense isn’t just those two guards, though.

He singled out Tech forward Jackie Patterson as a player who can “create havoc” off the dribble for his bigs.

Brown, who is coming off two of her best all-around performances on the season, was all business when talking about playing the Mountaineers for the first time.

“I’m just looking forward to playing them now that they’re in the Big 12,” she said after Saturday’s win..

West Virginia is led offensively by guards Christal Caldwell and Taylor Palmer, who average 12.9 and 12.2 points per game, respectively.

The Mountaineers lost starting center Asya Bussie to a season-ending injury just before the season started, but they return nine other players from last year’s NCAA tournament team.

“They’re an NCAA tradition-rich tournament team,” Curry said. “There’s no doubt that we’re going to go up there in one of the toughest places to play in the country against a great team.”

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