Coming off a roller coaster of emotions with a win over Iowa State and a loss to Arizona State, WVU Men’s Basketball Coach Darian DeVries held a media availability over zoom on Friday afternoon.
During the press conference, DeVries was asked about his big time wins this season and what the reasons were behind this team’s ability knock off the top teams.
“I think our guys have played incredibly hard in those wins. I think they played together and that’s kind of been our formula for most of the year. And when we’ve been able to do that we’ve had success, and some of the nights where we don’t quite have that it’s been a little bit more of a challenge for us.”
So far this season, the Mountaineers have beaten four teams that were ranked inside of the top-25 including the program’s first ever win on the road against Kansas, and a win over the No. 2 Iowa State Cyclones. The other wins over ranked teams are Gonzaga and Arizona. The team to this point in the season already has a 4-1 record against teams in the top-25.
Not much was expected from this WVU team coming into the season as it was a completely new roster with only one returning player and a brand new cast made up of transfers from around the country. Not many people knew what this team was capable and according to coach DeVries, sometimes it can take a while to find out.
“You see a lot of teams with all new rosters and things, it just takes a while for some teams to gel.”
Despite having those big wins this season, the team has still had some roster turnover throughout the season including the loss of Tucker DeVries, the team’s second leading scorer, to an upper body injury with no timetable to return. The team has also missed players like Amani Hansberry and KJ Tenner for a couple games this season as well.
“We’re still figuring some things out with injuries and stuff like that. We’ve had to continue to try and find new ways to do things at both ends of the floor.”
The Mountaineers will look to continue their great start to the season against Kansas State on the road on Saturday at 6:00 p.m. ET.
