MORGANTOWN — It’s been eight months since Darian DeVries was introduced as the WVU men’s basketball coach.
He’s yet to hear the sound of the Mountaineer mascot’s musket firing in the WVU Coliseum. Heck, the Mountaineers have yet to even practice inside the Coliseum.
“I’m excited to see it, to be truthful,” DeVries said Thursday, as the team was getting prepared for its exhibition game at 7 p.m. Friday against the University of Charleston. “That’s one of the things we really haven’t talked a lot about is, all right, we have a game (Friday), what’s that look like?”
Many have the same question about these Mountaineers, most of whom have never played a game in Morgantown before for a head coach making his debut at a Power Five Conference school.
Just what exactly will that all look like?
“I’ll answer it the best I can, but we don’t know,” was the way WVU assistant coach Tom Ostrom tried to explain it all. “These guys haven’t played much together before. We’d like to see a team that plays hard and competes at the highest level. Is it going to be perfect? It’s probably not going to be perfect. Hopefully the fans will see a team that plays really hard, has a lot of buy-in and who plays together and plays to win.”
There will be some first-game jitters to be sure, DeVries said, and don’t expect to see him opening up the playbook to razzle-dazzle the home crowd on opening night.
“I know our guys are extremely excited to get in the Coliseum and get a chance to play,” DeVries said. “It’s time for us to get out there and go play and see where we’re at in our execution at both ends of the floor.
“We won’t show a lot. We’ll play pretty free and open.”
But every story has got to start somewhere, and this is the beginning of the DeVries’ era at WVU, which is in desperate need of some positive vibes.
The Mountaineers finished tied for last place in the Big 12 last season, a Big 12 that is deeper a year later with the additions of Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado.
It’s been four years since WVU has had a 20-win campaign and the Mountaineers have been invited to just one NCAA tournament over the last six seasons, including the COVID-19 season in which the tournament was canceled.
Does the result of an exhibition game suddenly cure everything? Probably not, but a positive step would be nice.
“For the most part, our style of play is what we want to establish,” DeVries said. “Play fast in transition. Play tough defensively. I think it’s both coaches and players trying to grow together, at the end of the day. It’s a learning curve that can happen quickly, or sometimes it can take a little longer. What we are today is not what we’re going to be a month from now.”
That is a message that gets passed along to WVU players almost daily. Early workouts began last April, which turned into 10 practice days in August for the team’s exhibition tour of Italy.
More workouts followed once the fall semester began, which led to the opening of full preseason practices in September to get ready for the season.
Watching those early workouts likely resembled a car wreck of sorts. Things looked a little better in Italy, and now, two months later, there are more good signs that a plan is coming together.
“I love everything about it,” DeVries said. “You hit the ground running. There’s challenges in front of you, but that’s also what makes you go a little bit, is that challenge.
“Right now, it’s trying to figure out how do we go win games? That’s our mission right now. We’re getting close to when things start going in the win-loss column. We want to do everything we can every night to finish on the good side.”
