MORGANTOWN — It was just a few minutes into a 5-on-5 scrimmage Tuesday when WVU men’s basketball coach Darian DeVries had seen enough.
Having already spent nearly an hour drilling players individually and then as a group, DeVries saw little of it carried over into live action.
“We’re just a little over three minutes into this thing and it already looks like a pickup game,” he said.
Don’t take that as a bad sign, as DeVries tries to rebuild the Mountaineers back into a winner in his first season at the school, because he has seen many positive steps taken from 11 scholarship players who have never played a single game together.
“There were things today you might have saw and gone ooof,” he said later. “You should have seen it on June 8. We have made strides. I like the way they work. I like the way they approach it. That’s all we ask is to be coachable and continue to give us great effort and attitude.”
It is a fast-moving practice filled with energy, resembling New York’s Penn Station at 5 p.m. on a workday. The only thing missing was the musty smell.
The design behind it all is to constantly create an atmosphere of hard work, passion and desire with the hope those qualities becoming the team’s identity.
“Our identity, what do we want that to be and what does that look like?” Devries said. “I’ve told them, even if we just have a supporter come in and watch us, they should be able to leave and know what our identity is. If they can’t, then we’re not there yet. We’re still working on what that looks like, but we want people leaving our gym and talking about how hard we play and how much energy and enthusiasm we play with. Those are the type of things that take time.”
The calendar still reads July, and while WVU is set to play a three-game exhibition tour in Italy beginning Aug. 3, DeVries knows there is still time to bring it together before the season begins in November.
“The progress will come,” he said. “As a coach, you want to have it happen today, but that’s not realistic. It takes time.”
Still there was plenty to observe about the early steps being taken by the Mountaineers. Here’s ours:
Tucker DeVries is cleared
After surgery on his right shoulder in March, Tucker DeVries is back on the floor and playing with no contact limitations.
He was medically cleared last week.
“The shoulder has been good. I haven’t had any real problems with it,” said DeVries, who won the last two player of the year honors in the Missouri Valley Conference while at Drake. “I think most of it now is getting back into game shape, but it’s also kind of a mental thing in trying to trust it again. I’m trying to get back to the point to where I’m not even thinking about what I’m doing with it.”
DeVries, a senior in his final year of eligibility, averaged 21.6 points last season and he’s connected on 250 3-pointers while playing for his father at Drake.
During Tuesday’s scrimmages, DeVries did not shy away from contact, using his 6-foot-7 frame to mix it up near the rim at times.
“Any time a player is coming back from an injury and they take a fall, you’re really happy when they get back up and don’t grab something,” Darian DeVries said. “If I feel that way, you know how the player feels to be able to take a fall and get back up. That’s part of the recovery process, too.”
Get to know Toby Okani
Of the 10 new scholarship players signed by Darian DeVries — Ofri Naveh is the only returner from last season — Toby Okani appears to be someone to keep an eye on.
For starters, he’s 6-8, but listed as a guard. He knocked down 33 3-pointers last season at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Okani also led the Missouri Valley in blocks last season, while averaging 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds.
His defensive versatility appears to have him poised to see a lot of playing time.
“I would love for Toby to emerge and be that guy where we say, ‘OK, you got him,’ and we could feel good about his ability to shut someone down,” DeVries said. “With his length and versatility and athleticism, he can guard multiple positions. He can guard guards and forwards and switch onto a center. I like what that could look like, because he’s certainly got the tools to do that.”
Injury update
The only WVU player not in action Tuesday was guard Joseph Yesufu, who is dealing with a hip injury.
Yesufu began his career at Drake with DeVries, before transferring to Kansas. After two years with the Jayhawks, he played last season at Washington State, before the hip injury ended that season after just six games.
“So far he’s right on schedule,” DeVries said. “I think he feels good at where he’s at. I think when we come back from the Italy trip, our plan is to work him in with some halfcourt stuff and some drill work and kind of take it from there. About the start of school, we’ll start to get him back on the floor.”
