By admin 
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Darian DeVries is hopeful that West Virginia reaches a point where it becomes known for matching and often surpassing the physicality of its opposition.
How far along the Mountaineers are in that process under their first-year head coach will be revealed during Friday’s 7 p.m. game with Massachusetts at the WVU Coliseum, a game that can be seen on ESPN+.
“They will be tough and physical, and this year is no different,” DeVries said. “We understand what that challenge will be and it will be a great test for us to see if we can match that kind of physicality.”
Minutemen head coach Frank Martin, in his third season with that title, is known for preaching and instilling a physical playing style over the years, including head coaching stops at Kansas State and South Carolina, in addition to serving as an assistant coach under former WVU head coach Bob Huggins at both Cincinnati and Kansas State.
Although the Mountaineers had a completely different roster and coaching staff last season, they suffered an 87-79 loss to the Minutemen in a December game played in Springfield, Massachusetts. UMass had a 47-32 rebounding advantage and outscored WVU in the paint 36-24 that night.
“The assistants watched the entire match. I’ve only seen a few clips of it,” DeVries said. “From all accounts I was told, that was a physical game. They also have a slightly different roster than a year ago, but their identity is still the same.
The Mountaineers could hardly have asked for a better start to the DeVries era as they cruised to 21-0, 30-2 leads in Monday’s 87-59 win against Robert Morris. One notable downside to the otherwise positive performance was a minus-4 rebound margin, with the Colonials’ 41 rising to WVU’s 37.
Outside of Amani Hansberry’s game-high 12 rebounds, no WVU player had a total of more than four.
“We can be a good recovery team. The things I see now are not overwhelmed,” DeVries said. “It’s more about continuing to create better habits. We have to put bodies on people and beat them. Most of the rebounds we don’t get are a lack of executing those types of boxouts. That has been our mission from June until now: to get better and better at it. “I expect we’ll get there somehow and we’ll be able to get bodies on people and be a good rebounding team.”
As far as matching the physicality with the Minutemen, improving rebounding would go a long way toward achieving that, but there are other factors as well.
“To me, it’s really what your eyes tell you,” DeVries said. “Defensively, we don’t map deflections or say we have to get this number of tips and things like that. Are we gritty? Are we tough? Can we get through screens? You can see it and feel it when we’re plugged in to the way we want to play and that’s how we base our physicality. Hitting bodies on rebounds, that’s just a general mentality that we want to make sure we have going into every game.
Beyond the returning disparity, West Virginia hopes to build on what it showed against RMU. The Mountaineers had five double-digit scorers and 14 three-pointers, nine of which came in the first half, while the Colonials shot 32 percent in both halves.
“The first 10 minutes were about what you want it to look like as a coach,” DeVries said. “We were very aggressive and played hard and physical defense. Offensively we moved it, shared it and executed quite well and took care of the ball. That’s what you like to see. We have to work on keeping that going for a longer period of time and that is our challenge moving forward. A big test on Friday with a physical team that will chase us a bit.”
The Mountaineers’ starting five combined to score 59 points, led by 18 from Tucker DeVries, 15 from Javon Small and 13 from Toby Okani. Freshman reserves Jonathan Powell and KJ Tenner added 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the college basketball debuts for both.
“I was excited to go there. I wasn’t nervous at all,” Tenner said. “I don’t get too high or too low. I try not to overthink or underestimate any situation.”
The Mountaineers will no doubt pay a lot of defensive attention to 6-foot-4 senior guard Rahsool Diggins, who scored 26 points with eight 3-pointers to lead the Minutemen in a 103-74 win over New Hampshire on Monday.
Sencire Harris blocks a shot. Photo by Teran Malone
Diggins is the lone returning starter for UMass after last season’s win against WVU, and he scored 15 points in that game while making all seven free throw attempts.
“He’s a good scorer, so we’re going to have to do a good job with him and make sure we know where he is and how he likes to score,” DeVries said. “A good player, he can really put it in the bucket.”
Sencire Harris shows up to sign that assignment for the Mountaineers. Harris is considered the team’s best perimeter defender, and in Monday’s game against RMU he helped limit Colonials’ guard Kam Woods to seven points on 3-for-16 shooting.
“For the most part, he doesn’t give me much choice. He says: ‘I’ll take him as a coach.’ I’m a nice guy, so that sounds good,” DeVries said. “Some of that will depend on matchups where there might be a power forward or something, but from a perimeter standpoint he likes that challenge and I like the fact that he embraces it.”