What Darian DeVries Said Following the Loss to Pitt

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries provides his initial thoughts following the lopsided loss to the Panthers

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

The West Virginia Mountaineers (2-1) were manhandled by the Pitt Panthers (4-0) Friday night inside the Peterson Events Center 86-62.

Overall thoughts on the game

We didn’t come out and play the way we wanted to, and I thought Pitt got going early got a little confidence shooting it from three. I thought we had some decent looks early in the game that didn’t go down and then we could never really get some traction to claw back into it as the game went on.

Pitt’s defense in WVU forward Tucker DeVries

I thought they did a nice job [on him]. They did a good job limiting his catches. Played tough and physical. So, certainly, did not get a lot of good looks. I thought they did a nice job there.

I thought we did a nice job, but we were concerned with dribble penetration, getting to the rim, so we were able to get some rakes or hands on balls but unfortunately to do that some you have to over commit on some gap help, and they were able get some of those kickout threes. So, it was a little bit of give and take from our standpoint – from a strategy standpoint and we were wrong, and they made us pay with some of the kickout threes and they got us from multiple people there early in the game.

Pitt senior guard Damian Dunn’s 23 points

Good player. Versatile. He’s strong. He can score at all three levels. I thought they did great of that too of getting to spots at 12 to 15 feet and able to rise up over us and score, getting post up too as well and he made some good reads out of it early. When we were coming to trap him out of those back downs, and he made some good skip bounces for threes. So, just a tough matchup overall.