Quick Hits: Battle 4 Atlantis Preview, Playing as the Underdog + More

WVU head coach Darian DeVries discusses this week's Battle 4 Atlantis even in the Bahamas.

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries. / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

This week, the West Virginia Mountaineers will get a good feel for where they are as a team by playing in a challenging Battle 4 Atlantis tournament that begins Wednesday against top-10 Gonzaga.

Head coach Darian DeVries met with the media today to preview the Zags and this week's event.

Initial thoughts on Gonzaga

“Great opponent. They’re off to a terrific start. They’re in the lead in a lot of different things. They are a very good team, a very balanced team. A tremendous challenge to slow them down as people have seen. They are certainly deserving of their early season accolades and rankings.”

What he’s looking to see from his team in this tournament

“I think the biggest thing for us is just continuing to get better and continuing to grow. I think we’re making some good strides throughout the year and this is a tremendous opportunity to get a feel for where we’re at with things. But most of all, just come down and compete. That’s the biggest thing we want from our team. Every possession, just leave it all out there and that’s been our focus here.”

Gonzaga’s uptempo style

“They are incredibly fast. We certainly haven’t played anybody with this type of speed. They’re very good in transition; they are elite at it. They play to it every single game. That’s a huge challenge. How do you slow them down? I think the biggest thing is making sure you take care of the basketball number one and making sure you’re getting good shot selection so that you’re not playing in transition all the time.”

Handling scouting reports for unknown opponents this week

“From my standpoint, my entire focus is on Gonzaga. The staff takes different teams and they go through that stuff. And since we did have a week to practice, we looked at all of the opponents and said is there maybe something unique out there that we need to prepare for a day in practice since we had multiple days to prepare. You don’t get any practice time in between games, unlike a conference tournament where you would have already seen everybody once or twice, so you kind of have an identity there. Outside of that, the focus has been on Gonzaga and getting ourselves in the best position possible there.”

Playing in the underdog role

“Our mindset is pretty much the same every night. We want to put the best version of ourselves out there, no matter who we’re playing and that’s what we’ll try to do every single game this entire season. Our focus every night is here’s our opponent, what gives us the best chance to try to win this game and prepare for that.”

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