MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As final exam week comes to a close and a lengthy Christmas break awaits, WVU head coach Darian DeVries has tweaked the usual rhythm and routine of practice this week during a seven-day pause in the schedule. After defeating Bethune-Cookman on December 14, the Mountaineers will play their final non-conference contest Sunday at 2 p.m. when Mercyhurst visits the Coliseum.
“We didn’t want to do the same things we’ve done for the last six months. We’ve come up with a couple new ideas to keep it fresh this week when you don’t have an opponent for a whole week,” DeVries said. “I thought it was good. I thought it was one of our better weeks for a finals week. I thought our practices were pretty energetic and engaging. Sometimes that can be a challenge this week.”
West Virginia will begin Big 12 play on New Year’s Eve at Kansas. Following Sunday’s game against the Lakers, WVU players and coaches will scatter for a lengthy break.
“We purposely scheduled the afternoon game so that guys could get out after the game and give those that are in driving distance another half a day at home. Then they’ll come back on the 27th. So for college basketball, we’ve got a nice break. This is the longest maybe that I have been able to give them and to be home for Christmas Day worked out great with us not playing until the 31st.”
Mercyhurst (6-8) is in their first year competing at the Division I level.
“Offensively, they run really good stuff. They kind of get you moving with a lot of flares. They’re multidimensional guys that are pretty positionless.”
There has been no change in the health status of Tucker DeVries. He remains out of the lineup indefinitely and has missed each of the last two games. Darian DeVries says that Javon Small is embracing added leadership responsibilities on the floor.
“I think Javon is certainly one of those guys that has a very good feel for what is going on. I think Javon has been great with the other guys in the huddles too in encouraging them to stay confident and continue to shoot when they are open and take advantage of those opportunities.
“He is playing at a really high level. We took him because he is a really good player and had a chance to do things like he is doing. When you watch it, it is what we see every day. The fact that he is doing it on game night doesn’t surprise us a whole lot.”
“The next guy has to step up,” said WVU sophomore forward Amani Hansberry. “We look to the bench with guys like KJ (Tenner) and Joe (Yesufu) to really step up for us. We never doubted anyone even when they were on the bench and weren’t getting many minutes early. We knew everybody was capable of success. We just look to bring each other up and stay together instead of fanning out and before more selfish as a group.”
West Virginia (8-2) is riding on four-game winning streak, which includes a 73-60 win over Georgetown in the Big 12/Big East Battle. The Hoyas (9-2) have won back-to-back games over Syracuse and Creighton since falling to the Mountaineers.
“As a staff, we thought that Georgetown win has the potential to be a really good win because I think they are pretty talented. You certainly saw that on display this week from them,” DeVries said.
With a pair of wins over ranked opponents (Gonzaga and Arizona) at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving weekend, the Mountaineers have climbed to No. 28 in the official NCAA NET ratings.
“I think we proved a lot to ourselves that we are capable of making an NCAA Tournament run,” Hansberry said. “That instilled a lot of confidence in a lot of the guys here. Leaving that weekend, it was just big for us to understand that we can do what our goal is. We just have to keep going, keep our heads down and stop listening to the outside attention.”
“I think our guys also have some confidence in each other and what we are doing. They came here to compete. They came here to win. That will be our mission every night in Big 12 play. There will be some nights that’s going to be great and some nights where you are going to come up on the short end because it is a tough league,” DeVries said.