WVU faces task of normalizing itself following historic win at Kansas

MORGANTOWN — For his next trick, Darian DeVries will attempt to walk on water, maybe even cure cancer.

That’s a joke, of course, because all DeVries is really tasked with is leading the WVU men’s basketball team against Oklahoma State at noon Saturday inside the Coliseum.

That may be a challenge in itself considering the euphoric high the Mountaineers (10-2, 1-0 Big 12) must come down from following its historic 62-61 victory at No. 7 Kansas on Tuesday, WVU’s first-ever win at Allen Fieldhouse.

“I’ve never experienced anything like that,” said WVU forward Toby Okani, who had played in 113 college games prior to transferring to WVU this season. “That atmosphere was amazing. The crowd was crazy, I could barely hear myself think.”

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And now the reality is the Mountaineers still have 19 Big 12 games to go, beginning with the Cowboys (8-4, 0-1).

“We preached in the locker room after the game that it’s OK to be excited about this win, but we have to be ready to move on to the next one,” Okani continued. “We haven’t won anything yet. We understand that we haven’t arrived, and we still have so much room to improve. We just moved on to the next chapter, flipped the script.”

That includes DeVries, too, who suddenly began to experience life with tons of praise thrown at him.

No way was this first-time Big 12 coach with two injured starters and a plane malfunction that meant the team didn’t arrive in Kansas until 10 hours before tip-off was going to walk into Allen Fieldhouse and win.

Yet that’s exactly what transpired, and so, you can fill in your own identifier with DeVries, but the most common one may have something to do with being a type of miracle worker.

He’s coached all of 12 games with the Mountaineers, so how does DeVries possibly come close to living up to that standard?

“From a coaches’ perspective, that was just one game,” he said. “It was one 40-minute game. We appreciate how hard it was to get that win in Allen Fieldhouse, for sure. We’re not taking away from that moment by any means.

“We also know it was a great moment, but we have a new task at hand, and we had to turn that page pretty quickly.”

Once WVU turned that page, it’s likely the Mountaineers found scouting the Cowboys was almost like looking in a mirror.

Like WVU, Oklahoma State went through a coaching change in 2024, hiring former Western Kentucky coach Steve Lutz.

And like DeVries, Lutz faced the challenge of completely rebuilding a roster that had just one returning rotation player.

Both DeVries and Lutz were assistants together at Creighton.

One of the new faces Lutz brought in was former WVU forward Pat Suemnick, who is playing about 11 minutes per game and averaging 2.6 points per game for the Cowboys.

The flip side is Javon Small was at Oklahoma State last season. He entered the transfer portal after former coach Mike Boynton Jr. was let go.

He landed at WVU and has quickly developed into one of the Big 12’s top players this season, averaging 19.2 points, 4.9 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game.

“I’m sure it has some added personal significance,” DeVries said. “In Javon’s case, he’s ready to just go out and just compete and play. I’m sure it means a little more, because it was a school he previously attended. Outside of that, it’s just about trying to win the game.”

As far as being shorthanded once again, WVU guard Jayden Stone did take part in warm-ups at Kansas, but did not see action. The Detroit Mercy transfer has yet to play in the regular season so far.

Amani Hansberry (ankle) will likely be a game-time decision and Tucker DeVries will likely miss his fifth game with an upper-body injury.

“I think everybody is getting closer,” Darian DeVries said. “We’re doing everything we can to get everyone back on the floor as soon as possible. We’re getting closer.”