For the first time ever, the West Virginia men’s basketball team stepped into Allen Fieldhouse and defeated Kansas on Tuesday.
With the win, WVU also has surpassed their total wins from a season ago. The loss for Kansas was the first in a conference-opener game since 1991.
Despite the significance of the upset over the No. 7-ranked Jayhawks, Mountaineer head coach Darian DeVries is looking forward to the next task at hand and will not allow his team to get stuck on it.
“We understand that was just one game. It was one 40-minute game. I mean we appreciate what that win (means) or how hard that win is to get in Allen Fieldhouse for sure. I mean we’re not taking away from that by any means, but we also know that was great. That was a great moment for us, but uh we, we have, you know, a new task at hand, and we turned that page pretty quickly,” DeVries said.
With the win, West Virginia moved to 10-2 on the season, opening conference play on a positive note. The Mountaineers picked up their third win over a ranked opponent, which gives them a positive outlook for the season and possible postseason to come.
Next up for WVU is a matchup against Oklahoma State on Saturday at home. DeVries explained how the team doesn’t have much time to even celebrate the win due to the quick turnaround.
“We enjoyed it for the appropriate amount of time, but now we got another Big 12 opponent coming in in a couple days,” DeVries said. “Basketball you don’t get much time to celebrate. You got to move on pretty quickly win or lose. You just can’t hang on to it very long.”
Looking to continue his promising start in year one with a revamped roster, DeVries will look to lead West Virginia over Oklahoma State to get out to a 2-0 record in Big 12 play.
