MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Darian DeVries wasn’t aware of West Virginia’s basketball schedule in full Tuesday when he met the media to discuss the start of preseason practice.
That was revealed Thursday with the announcement of the Big 12 Conference portion of the slate, which in turn, finalizes the Mountaineers’ schedule for the upcoming season — DeVries’ first as head coach at WVU.
DeVries didn’t need to see the finished version to understand the challenges that lie ahead, which will include four of the team’s six first Big 12 contests against likely preseason top 15 teams Kansas, Arizona, Houston and Iowa State.
“It’s a good league. We all know that,” DeVries said. “On the top end, you understand preseason rankings don’t mean a lot, especially now in the portal era, but it also says a lot about some of those teams, what they have returning and how good the league is. Our guys are excited about that and they’re excited about the challenges and opportunities in front of us, but they also know every night you’re going to be playing one of the best teams in the country.”
In ESPN’s ‘Way-Too-Early-Top 25’ published earlier this month, the Jayhawks (1), Cougars (4), Wildcats (9) and Cyclones (7) combined with Baylor (6) to give the Big 12 half of the top 10.
Gonzaga, another WVU opponent, was No. 5, meaning the Mountaineers have seven games scheduled against teams among the aforementioned preseason top 10.
West Virginia opens Big 12 play on New Year’s Eve at Kansas and will play in arguably the toughest venue for an opposing team to win at in all of college basketball. There’s a home-and-home with Houston in January, home games against Arizona and Iowa State that same month and a February contest at Baylor. That’s part of a conference schedule that has increased from 18 to 20 games in the new-look 16-team league.
But before any of those, the Mountaineers meet the Bulldogs on Thanksgiving Eve to begin play in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Two days later, Arizona is one of four potential opponents in WVU’s third and final game of that event.
“We made sure we challenged ourselves right away in our first year here,” DeVries said with a laugh. “It’s a good non-conference schedule and we know what the league schedule is now going to 20 games. We understand that in order to be successful, we’re going have to be really good in certain areas and those are the things we’ll continue to focus on.”
Growing pains can be expected to at least some extent for West Virginia, which has 14 new players in addition to an entirely new coaching staff.
DeVries’ son, Tucker DeVries, was a two-time recipient of the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year while starring under his dad’s watch at Drake. Guard Javon Small is proven at the Big 12 level after averaging 15.1 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists last season at Oklahoma State.
While WVU is likely to rely heavily on both, its entire roster continues to develop an understanding of how to play alongside one another as the team acclimates to a new system.
“Our goal is to compete every night and try to win every single game,” coach DeVries said. “That’s going to be our goal every day moving forward. Our guys are preparing to go do that. The wins and losses will play out as we get into the season, but we have 29 practices left before our first game and that’s our focus.”
While West Virginia used a summer trip to Italy and three games against international competition as an opportunity to mesh, the Mountaineers have since added a pair of front court players to their roster in Abraham Oyeadier and Haris Elezovic.
Additionally, DeVries believes practices at this point have a different feel with the understanding the Mountaineers have an exhibition against University of Charleston in three weeks and the November 4 season opener against Robert Morris is slightly more than a month away.
“We are in basketball mode. I think we’ve been in it for a while, but it does change,” DeVries said. “When it is official practice, you get that sense of urgency like that first game is around the corner. We told the guys, 42 days before our first game and we get 30 practices. Now there’s 29 left. It doesn’t stop. We have a lot to do and feel like we’ve made a lot of progress from June until now, but there’s more steps to take between now and then and throughout the season. They’re working hard at it and I like their approach.”