What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over No. 7 Kansas

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries gives his assessment on the upset win against the seven-ranked Jayhawks

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

The West Virginia Mountaineers (10-2, 1-0) knocked off the No. 7 Kansas Jayhawks (9-3, 0-1) Tuesday afternoon 62-61.

Head coach Darian DeVries sat with WVU play-by-play caller Tony Caridi courtside and gave his initial thoughts on the game.

Opening statement

Incredibly proud of the guys effort, especially with the circumstances – the injuries the travel. Like we talked about. There are no excuses in this program. We’re going to lineup, we’re going to go compete.

This atmosphere – my first time coaching here, being a part of this is everything it was made out to be. Like I told them, ‘They’re not playing for them. When we’re out on that floor, it’s our five versus their five. Nothing else matters.’ And I thought, especially that first 25 minutes or so the guys did an unbelievable job of staying composed, playing within themselves.

Obviously, we decided from a game plan perspective to slow the game way down just because didn’t feel like we could run with them in this building and wanted to keep the crowd of it as much as possible. So, guys played tremendous basketball for a long period of time and then, to be honest, they weathered the storm and it’s easy to fold.  A lot of stuff is going against you, you’re missing some bunnies, they’re starting to make it, the crowd is into it, they tie the game back up and then (senior guard Javon Small) ‘Von’s able to do a veteran play. Get a guy in the air, draw the foul, male the one free throw we needed and walk out with a win.

Offensive game plan heading into the game

We did a lot of different stuff with ‘Von that we’ve been working on for awhile with (senior forward) Tucker (DeVries), where we had to get him on the move a little bit more and then a couple of new things with some double ball screens and getting KJ Adams, who’s their primary helper on all the ball screen rolls when (senior center Hunter) Dickinson is out, of making him come out and maybe guarding space a little more. So now, their help guys were a little bit out of position, and they weren’t sure where to do that.

When they went to their big lineup, it kind of messed us up a little bit. They cross matched us and put their big on (sophomore guard) Sincere Harris and we weren’t quite as effective with that lineup. So, we got to figure out some things out there if other teams are going to try and do that.

Holding on for the win after Kansas erased an 18-point WVU lead

What is happening with this team is they’re starting to grow in confidence, and confidence is a very dangerous thing for people. All of a sudden now you can start to achieve some things that nobody else thought possible. Like I told them in the locker room, ‘There was anybody, very few at least, outside of this locker room, considering the injuries and things that probably thought we were coming in here and winning today.,’ But that group in that locker room did, and they believed in it. And that’s what I think I love about this group.