MORGANTOWN — They are meant to be the sacrificial lambs in the Bahamas, a simple warm-up for No. 3 Gonzaga, as the Bulldogs move on to bigger and better things.
That’s not exactly the message Darian DeVries has passed along to his WVU men’s hoops team.
“Our mindset is pretty much the same every night, we want to put the best versions of ourselves out there,” DeVries said, as he prepared the Mountaineers for their first-round game against Gonzaga at 2:30 p.m. today in the Battle 4 Atlantis. “That’s no matter who we are playing and that’s what we’ll try to do this entire season. Our focus every night is here’s our opponent and what gives us the best chance to win this game and prepare for that.”
That may not exactly be a Knute Rockne-type of message. Then again, Rockne’s Notre Dame teams may never have faced the uphill climb the Mountaineers (3-1) face against the Bulldogs (5-0).
All five of Gonzaga’s starting lineup average double figures in scoring, the source behind the Bulldogs averaging 93 points per game.
“They’re off to a terrific start and they’re elite at a lot of different things,” DeVries said. “They’re very balanced. It’ll be a tremendous challenge to try and slow them down. I think they’re certainly deserving of their early-season accolades and rankings.”
The challenges will come from all angles, whether it’s from point guard Ryan Nembhard — third in the nation in assists — or from the Bulldogs’ twin towers in Graham Ike and Braden Huff.
Or it could be Gonzaga’s trio of guards — Nembhard, Khalif Battle and Nolan Hickman — all of whom shoot the ball better than 43% from 3-point range.
“It’s obviously a huge luxury,” Gonzaga head coach Mark Few said. “We can alter our style a little bit. If someone is struggling or having an off night, we have options, whereas in the past year, or two, we would have had to suffer through it or just deal with it.”
Trying to defend it all could spread WVU’s defense pretty thin, or at the very least dizzy from trying to keep up.
“That’s what makes their team so challenging to try and defend,” DeVries said. “They have a great interior presence and they have great skill and efficiency out on the perimeter.”
WVU’s best shot, as simple as it may sound, is to make a lot of shots.
Tucker DeVries, WVU’s second-leading scorer, doesn’t shy away from that theory.
“As long as we’re making more than they are, I’m all for it,” he said.
If nothing else, WVU’s trip to the Bahamas will stand as a true test to where the Mountaineers stand in Darian DeVries’ rebuilding of the program.
It’s just not one featured game against the third-ranked team in the country. Instead, the Battle 4 Atlantis could also bring match-ups against No. 14 Indiana or a once-proud Louisville program that is also under a first-year coach who came in from a mid-major school like DeVries.
Oklahoma, Providence and Davidson — all on the other side of the bracket — enter the tournament with unbeaten marks.
Maybe there is an outside shot of an early Big 12 meeting with No. 24 Arizona, although such a match-up would not count in the league standings.
“The biggest thing for us is to continue to get better and continue to grow,” DeVries said. “I think we’re making some good strides through the year. This is a tremendous opportunity to get a feel for where we’re at. Most of all, we want to be able to compete. That’s the biggest thing for our team. We want to battle every possession and just leave it all out there.”
It all begins with Gonzaga and what the Mountaineers see as a great opportunity, even if the rest of the sports world sees it as something else.
“They are incredibly fast, and we’ve certainly haven’t played anyone with this type of speed,” DeVries said. “They’re very good in transition, they’re elite at it. They play to it every single game.”
