The West Virginia men’s basketball team is 0-2 since their upset over No. 3 Iowa State. Both losses have been against unranked teams. Head coach Darian DeVries said that while their shooting has been off, their defense has not been up to par either.
“Some of it is shot selection and then other parts are just missing,” DeVries said. “It ultimately still is about our defense.”
In the Mountaineers’ loss to Arizona State, they shot 31% from the field compared to the Sun Devils’ 48.1%. As for defense, they struggled to regain the ball, only putting up 19 defensive rebounds compared to Arizona State’s 32.
West Virginia hit the road to take on Kansas State following their loss at home against Arizona State. The Mountaineers consistently made shooting mistakes but were unable to shut down the Wildcats’ offense.
“Both of those nights where we didn’t shoot it well, our defense wasn’t what it has been either. That was our main issue,” DeVries said. “We couldn’t keep up.”
DeVries shared he plans to take his team back to the fundamentals to reduce isolation in their defense. He said the team knows they had a bad week but cannot let a previous loss affect the next one.
The Mountaineers hope to turn their game around tomorrow evening in their matchup against No. 7 Houston.
