Golden: Vic Schaefer's Texas Longhorns welcome the rest before Big 12 showdown in Norman

Prince’s 1980s classic "Let’s Work" rang down from the Moody Center speakers Sunday, 45 minutes before the Texas Longhorns put some real work on West Virginia.

Moody music master DJ Mel, a fan of old-school funk and hip hop, graciously added one of my favorite jams to the pregame playlist after a Saturday night request from yours truly.

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As for the Horns, these next few days are a welcome respite from a long season. Gretchen Wilson's "Work Hard, Play Harder" would have been a better request since the No. 17 Horns have left it all on the floor through 28 games with only one five-day break between conference games, that coming between the Feb. 13 loss at Iowa State and Sunday's 74-48 win.

Sunday was a systematic beatdown overall, despite some offensive struggles in the second quarter. Texas raced to an early 15-2 lead and was never really threatened. Head coach Vic Schaefer bemoaned the scheduling that has taken a physical toll on his undermanned squad, particularly at guard, where team leader Rori Harmon came within five minutes of going wire-to-wire for the ninth time this season.

With fellow guard Sonya Morris still not practicing after being shelved with a leg injury earlier this month, Harmon, Shaylee Gonzales and Shay Holle have been logging the heavy minutes at the guard position, which is a huge concern with the postseason coming up.

A week off couldn't have come at a better time for Texas

“This is our first week of having a bye,” Schaefer said. “I don’t know how you can make a team go that long and not give them a bye. There has to be a better way to do this, just for the safety of the kids. We’ve got to be the last team in the league to get a bye week.”

When Schaefer asked Gonzales about taking some time off, the guard said, “Yeah. We need to rest our bodies.”

“What she said,” Harmon added.

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One day after having a nice dinner with alumni who were recognized along with coaching legend Jody Conradt at halftime, the Horns shrugged off fatigue and dominated in their fourth game in 12 days. Harmon’s jumper wasn’t falling — she was only 3-of-10 from the field — but she smartly attacked the paint against the undersized Mountaineers, got to the free-throw line and knocked down 10 of her 12 attempts.

Gonzales led the way with 18 points and made all seven of her free throws while 6-foot-4 forward Khadija Faye was a terror on the glass, notching a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. The Texas bigs bludgeoned the Mountaineers in the paint with 53 rebounds — 20 on offense — to WVU’s 26.

The Horns were bigger and better. The 18-for-31 shooting from the field in the first and third quarters added up to a relatively easy day at the office.

For Texas, it always comes back to solid defense

When asked what made the Horns such a tough matchup, first-year Mountaineers coach Dawn Plitzuweit used terms of effort in her description.

“Their ability to defend,” she said. "Their ability to rebound. Their ability to put pressure on you. All those things make it really challenging.”

Schaefer preaches a brand of ball that demands maximum effort, particularly on defense. And with a roster that’s not deep in the backcourt, he has to guard against foul trouble when it comes to his best player (Harmon) while still trying to steal some rest minutes for her. Harmon played all but 2:37 of the second half Sunday.

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Morris was averaging 12.1 points with a team-leading 46 made 3-pointers. She also has 10 blocks, which is quite impressive for a 5-foot-10 guard.

If the Horns can continue winning at this clip, the hope is Morris can be back in time for the Big 12 Tournament. It starts March 9, but the Horns are pretty assured of a first-round bye and won’t play until the next day. That would bolster the backcourt and ease the load on the other guards.

Of note, Schaefer told me that guard Kyndall Hunter — Rori Harmon’s Houston Cypress Creek teammate — would not be back after playing 21 games last season but not appearing in a game during the current campaign.

With three games remaining in the regular season, Schaefer can’t empty the holster now knowing that there are some huge goals in front of this group. Yes, winning a Big 12 title is a priority and the Horns (21-7, 12-3) are tied for first with Oklahoma, their opponent on Saturday.

So expect plenty of ice baths and treatment between now and then, particularly with the 5-foot-6 Harmon, who took a couple of blows on her forays to the bucket. Harmon, the head of this basketball snake, is averaging 35.3 minutes, a huge number considering she plays in only one gear.

With the needed rest that will come this week, expect her to log another 35-plus minutes in Norman on Saturday because a win would put the Horns in the driver’s seat for a regular-season league title and would presumably move them up the pecking order when it comes to seeding for the NCAAs.

Before this latest win, the NCAA’s NET rankings had Texas No. 11, six spots better than the AP poll. ESPN’s most recent mock bracket has the Horns as a No. 4 seed hosting Illinois State in the first round.

Postseason success will simply come down to keeping Harmon and the other guards healthy and getting a healthy Morris back. The bigs have depth and can hold up their end, but like Schaefer has said many times, it’s a guard’s game and guard play will determine who goes deep and who goes home early.

They know what’s at stake over this next month.

So Let’s Work, Texas. Your money games are coming up.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Longhorns rout West Virginia and welcome their first bye week