What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over No. 3 Gonzaga

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries sat courtside and provided his thoughts on the upset win.

Nov 27, 2024; Paradise Island, Bahamas, BHS; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Darian DeVries reacts during the first half against the Gonzaga Bulldogs at the Atlantis Resort. / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The West Virginia Mountaineers (4-1) pulled off the overtime upset against the No. 3 Gonzaga Bulldogs (5-1) Wednesday afternoon 86-78.

West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries sat with WVU play-by-play caller Tony Caridi courtside to give his initial thoughts on the thrilling overtime win.

Opening statement

"Unbelievable proud of the guys. We’ve been telling them all summer long and fall, ‘just keep believing in yourselves. Keep putting in the work,’ and they’ve been doing that. We’re going to continue to grow together and we’re going to have some bumps in the road too, but I just love they way they competed and fought tonight. And they had opportunities to give into it and they just refused to and that’s a huge step for us as we continue to grow as a team and program is finding ways to overcome some adversity throughout games, throughout seasons, those are all important things, but I thought we really got to the core of our culture tonight and that was competing and fighting and giving everything we got and I was really proud of them."

West Virginia guard Javon Small’s 31 points, and forwards Amani Hansberry (19) and Tucker DeVries (16) combining for 35 points.

"We really wanted to take advantage of getting Amani in some pick and pop situations – we thought that was one place we would have an advantage, either through his pops or some of his short rolls and keep the ball in Javon’s hands for the good portion of it and then Tucker some as well. And try to get those three involved in actions as much as we could."

Tucker Devries’ 4 blocked shots

"I thought Tucker did a great job of kind of knowing who he was guarding. He was the guy that was designated to come with most of the double teams – to be kind of the helper and stuff and I thought he did a great job in some of those rotations of coming and getting a body on guys and then also getting up and deflecting a few out of bounds."

West Virginia holding Gonzaga under their season averages in points per game and field goal percentage

"I think this team is going to be a really good defensive team, even though we don’t have a lot of rim protection. I think we do have very good connectivity on our defense, and they’re aggressive and they’re physical and they’re tough on the ball. And I thought we did some good things to take them out of tonight and a part of that is being able to get steals and get some runouts of our own and I thought we did that tonight. Obviously, that huge one there by Tucker late in the game with us down two and then knocking down those two free throws to get us to overtime. And then, (sophomore guard0 Sincere (Harris), really, almost kind of sealing it at the end there getting the big steal."

West Virginia meets an old familiar foe in Louisville in the semifinals of the Battle 4 Atlantis. Tip-off is set for noon and the action will broadcast on ESPN.