With the season beginning on Monday, West Virginia men’s basketball head coach addressed the media on Friday.
“We’re ready, we’re excited to play,” DeVries said of the upcoming season opener on Monday.
Robert Morris, the team the Mountaineers will face in their season opener, had a scrimmage against Villanova and held their own, creating a very competitive atmosphere.
“Yeah, they did play them really well. They have a ton of new faces just like we do. I thought, you know, [it was a] very competitive game. They present some challenges there that we’re going to have to prepare for,” DeVries said of Robert Morris and their scrimmage.
Questions about the rotation loom with almost a completely new team.
“I think we have a pretty good idea what the rotation is going to be like; it can always change. Like I tell the guys all the time, your role is not permanent. Maybe you’re a starter playing 30-some minutes, but don’t be satisfied,” DeVries said.
He also mentioned that he plans to play around eight to 10 players on a nightly basis for now. Eight players will get “significant minutes.”
DeVries noted an injury to one of his players: “Jaden Stone will be out for a period of time. We’ll see how long that is, with kind of an upper-body injury. That’ll be kind of day-to-day as we move forward there.”
Stone, a senior guard, transferred to WVU this offseason from the University of Detroit Mercy, where he averaged 20.8 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.7 assists last year.
“I think we have a good group of guys that, you know, have given us great effort in practice, and it’s starting to show up in the two exhibition games that we had,” DeVries said of his team.
The Mountaineers are returning only one player, Ofri Naveh, and DeVries compared the situation to having multiple returning players.
“They’re both fun; they are just completely different. You know, when you’ve got all these returners back and you kind of know what you have versus a group of new guys, and you don’t know for sure on game night what that’s going to look like. I think that’ll change as the season goes,” DeVries said.
The Mountaineers’ schedule is daunting, as is typical for Big 12 teams. Five teams in the conference are ranked in the AP Preseason Top 10, and WVU is set to play seven of those teams throughout the season.DeVries was asked how he and his team were preparing for that physically and mentally.
“Yeah, I mean, we know what’s in front of us, and we’re excited about those challenges as they come up to us, but in general, it’s going to be like, we got Robert Morris on Monday. That’s all I care about right now,” He said.
WVU opens up at the Coliseum on Monday, Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. EST. The game can be streamed on ESPN+.
