MORGANTOWN — The gut feeling, if you were to ask any member of the WVU men’s basketball team, was the Mountaineers were prepared to face their first challenge of the season.
It only took a portion of the first half of last week’s 86-62 loss against Pitt to figure out that wasn’t the case.
“It was a big surprise, to be honest,” WVU guard Jake Auer said. “I thought we had a great week of practice. We spent a lot of time going over the scouting report. I was ready to walk out of Pittsburgh with our heads held high and coming back to Morgantown with a win.”
It was maybe the words of former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson that best came into play that night for the Mountaineers: Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
“We didn’t respond the way we wanted to,” WVU point guard Javon Small said after the game. “I expect us to respond every time we get punched in the mouth. I expect us to be able to punch back.”
There was plenty to fix, WVU head coach Darian DeVries said, but most of all, the Mountaineers simply need to get tougher.
“When a team comes out and we’re not scoring it well, we’ve got to be able to stay in that game,” DeVries said. “When they’re scoring, we’ve got to make sure we’re getting opportunities on the offensive end to keep us in the game. It just snowballed on us and we didn’t respond to it.”
WVU’s weak response came from its starting five that struggled across the board. The starters played a combined 117 minutes and shot 26%.
WVU’s starting five made just 10 of the team’s 24 baskets and both Amani Hansberry and Tucker DeVries fouled out.
“I thought offensively, we just didn’t run very good offense,” Darian DeVries said. “We didn’t get a very good shot selection from pretty much everyone.
“We talked to our guys and said we’re a good team when we play hooked up and we’re connected on both ends of the floor, but our margin for error is pretty thin.”
Which sets up the Mountaineers (2-1) for their return to the Coliseum, where WVU hosts Iona (1-3) at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
The Gaels have yet to play a Power Four Conference opponent this season and have lost to Princeton, Hofstra and Delaware.
Iona will challenge WVU with its full-court pressing defense from the tip, offering up a look the Mountaineers have yet to see this season.
“We haven’t played a team that’s going to press us like they’re going to press us for 40 minutes,” DeVries said. “It’ll be another opportunity to see where we’re at from a press-breaking standpoint. In practice, it looks good. When we get on that game floor, how do we respond and how do we react to it?”
The initial reaction will depend on the same starting five that struggled against the Panthers.
Can Hansberry and Tucker DeVries come back after their worst games of the season? Can Small get the offense to run a little smoother?
The bigger question: Can this team start to make some outside shots?
That’s been an issue the last two games, in which WVU was held to less than 40% shooting by both UMass and Pitt.
“Our offense needs to continue to get better as we see different things,” Darian DeVries said. “We’ll get better at responding to those types of things. As an offense, there are things we’re trying to get, and we’ve got to do a better job at getting to those things. There’s some things we’re limited on, so we’ve got to make sure we play to our strengths as much as possible.”
