What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over Iona

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries gives initial thoughts in the dominating win against the Iona Gaels

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

The West Virginia Mountaineers (3-1) handled the Iona Gaels (1-4) Wednesday night 86-43.

Offense

We were better. There was certainly some things that I thought – we moved the ball better. I thought we were more connected. Obviously shot the ball better, that always helps. You hit 15 threes that’s usually a good night for you so, we’ll certainly take that. But, overall, I was pretty happy with our ball movement against a team that typically extends their pressure to some degree on and off throughout the game. Sometimes its hard when you’re getting pressed to find that nice fluid motion, but I thought our guys did a good job of finding it periodically throughout the game.

Defense

Overall, our guys were pretty good. Holding them to 23.7% [from the field], I believe that’s their lowest in 20 years. I thought our guys did a great job of trying to take away their paint touches – not letting them get down hill and they put stress on every single bounce to try to get into the paint. So, the guys did a nice job there and it takes a lot of communication too because they do a lot of little brush screens and things like that so, I thought our versatility of being able to switch at times one through five and guys were able to still fight. I thought we had some good double teams off of mismatches as well that guys executed not only the double team but the rotations on the backside.

Freshman guard Jonthan Powell’s 11 first half points

He was great. He gives us such a spark off the bench. He comes in, he’s full of confidence. We love that about him. He understands what he’s good at. He knows how to finds his spots and he’s not afraid to let it go. When you have a little lead and you got to your bench and you’re able to extend it that’s a nice luxury to have as a coach.

Senior guard Javon Small leading all scorers with 23 points and 5 rebounds and 5 assists

That’s the type of stat line I think he can do consistently - I really believe that. He’s that type of players. Theres a lot of winning numbers on that stat sheet for him. That was part of our focus here last few days is we need him to be more assertive in stuffing that stat sheet. All those numbers are great because he is a big strong guard. He can go get rebounds, he can get in the paint, he plays a good pace, he has a good feel for the game and then he knows hot to score on top of that.