West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries held his weekly radio show on Thursday night.
DeVries spoke about his team's two-game road trip which included a win over Colorado and then a loss to Houston. He also spoke on WVU's upcoming home game against No. 2 Iowa State as well as the play of Amani Hansberry.
Colorado and Houston
It was more travel troubles for West Virginia as they embarked on their two-game road trip last week to Colorado and then to No. 10 Houston,.
The first of the two, the trip to Colorado, was an interesting one. DeVries and company dealt with delayed and different flights but then were able to get to the elevation in Colorado in time to practice.
"We for the first time this year practiced at the place we were going and it worked out fine," DeVries said.
The Mountaineers had to battle through second-half struggles, with DeVries partially attributing those to the higher altitude.
"I thought in the second half we were fatigued, whatever we want to put that on. It does take a day or two to kind of get used to it... I thought early we were great," DeVries said.
As far as the second part of the road trip, it had a lot less of a happy feel for WVU. The Mountaineers battled hard but lost to Houston on Wednesday night, citing Houston's ability to turn them over.
"In both those games like you mentioned, you can’t give those teams live ball turnovers. .. that ultimately was the difference in the game and why it didn’t come down to the last couple minutes to decide the outcome," DeVries said of the Houston loss.
DeVries added Houston's physicality on defense makes it hard to go against as well as to officiate against.
"I thought it was physical on both ends. I thought, for the most part, a fairly well-called game… Houston plays a certain style where they do it all the time and it’s hard to call all of it and they’re really good at it," DeVries said.
Welcoming The Cyclones
No. 2 Iowa State rolls into the WVU Coliseum on Saturday evening as the Mountaineers look for a signature home win.
DeVries hopes the crowd will bring their best effort and is happy they will have a sold-out crowd as well as students back on campus.
"I think it’s a huge factor," DeVries said of the crowd. "Especially in college basketball, it’s a game of runs, it’s a game of it can swing like this."
As for on the court, DeVries knows Iowa State poses a challenge on both sides of the floor.
"Incredibly sound defensively, they create a lot of turnovers and then they thrive on the open floor off those turnovers," DeVries said.
"On the offensive end, they have three dynamic guards. As fast as a three guards as you’ll see all year," DeVries said.
Iowa State has only one loss this season, and it's to No. 1 Auburn.
"Much more explosive this year and they can put up points in a hurry and that’s the thing maybe last year at times they would struggle… they got a dynamic offense to go with that elite level defense," DeVries said.
"I think they’re Final Four type good, and they’re coming into Morgantown so I’m excited about that."
Amani Hansberry
West Virginia got a good stretch of play from Amani Hansberry in the second half against Houston on Wednesday.
Hansberry finished with 16 points, knocking down three 3-pointers in the process.
"That’s what we need. Let’s be honest, Amani hasn’t been healthy since before Christmas. I felt [Tuesday] in practice was the first time I’ve felt Amani looked back to fully healthy again," DeVries said.
During the last month or so, DeVries has turned to Eduardo Andre much more often who has served quality minutes, but he wants to be able to play both Andre and Hansberry at the same time, something that is limited by depth as well as foul trouble.
"We’ve talked to both of them about it to be quite honest. A lot of those early fouls have just been silly reaches," DeVries said of the fouling.
Still, DeVries knows how important Hansberry is to WVU's success, due to his ability to shoot from the perimeter.
"I think anytime just like we would, anytime you have a pick and pop five, it makes you make decisions… you can switch them but then it puts your big guy on the other team's guard and it puts your guard on the other team's big," DeVries said.
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