Can WVU Compete in the Big 12 with Undersized Roster?

West Virginia may have some issues rebounding the basketball in year one under Darian DeVries.

West Virginia University center Eduardo Andre / Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

By taking a quick glance at the West Virginia men's basketball roster, the one thing you'll notice right away is the lack of size first-year head coach Darian DeVries has to work with. The Mountaineers only have one true center on the roster in Eduardo Andre (6'11", 250 lbs) while Amani Hansberry, who is more of a four, is the second option at the five, who checks in at 6'8", 240 lbs.

This isn't necessarily by design and is not how DeVries will construct his roster in the future. Although he was hired quickly after Drake's exit in the NCAA Tournament, the supply of bigs in the transfer portal just wasn't there. Realizing this early on, DeVries and his staff knew they had to go guard-heavy in year one but made sure that the guys they were bringing in could not only shoot but take care of the basketball.

On Tuesday, DeVries spoke about the team's size, or lack thereof.

"Love to have size and sometimes you don't have it. So, how do you offset it? There's still a physicality that can make that a more even benchmark for us and that's the piece that we're growing into and learning to understand is if we're going to be undersized, you got to do certain things to make sure that we can still survive on the glass, to make sure we can survive guarding then the ball, whatever those things may be and there aren't any shortcuts to it. And even in a scrimmage like today, where you see one team get up by 17,18, they're making shots and other team wasn't. But it's more about how do you stay in those games when you're not making shots? And that's why you have to rely on your defense, you have to rely on rebounding because you're not going to shoot it well every night. So, you need to be able to stay in those games and find a different way to win and that's the best formula is to guard better and rebound better."

This will, however, put a lot of pressure on Andre to be effective in the paint as a rim protector and on both ends of the floor as a rebounds. Over his last two seasons at Fresno State, he averaged 7.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks per contest while shooting 60% from the field.

“I feel like Eduardo has made tremendous strides in that last six weeks," DeVries stated. "I thought his last two weeks, you could really see him doing some good things and that’s been critical. We are a little undersized but he’s the one guy that does have the length that you need and gives us some rim protection. I like the production he’s been giving us these past couple weeks. He’s certainly finding his way a little bit on both ends of the floor and getting more comfortable.”

The Big 12 is a physical league from top to bottom and just about everyone has size and length. Playing small ball doesn't automatically translate to a lost season as we've season Kansas do it a handful of times and win the conference while doing so. Baylor's 2020-21 national championship team did the same thing. Valuing the basketball and playing defense at a high level will be the Mountaineers' recipe for success this winter.

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