It might not have been as happy of a holiday break as West Virginia first-year head coach Darian DeVries would have imagined, well aware of the task facing him on the other side — hitting the road to face No. 7 Kansas.
The Mountaineers begin Big 12 play in Allen Fieldhouse, and DeVries is ready for the many challenges this game presents both on the court and in the stands.
"There’s just a lot of ways they can hurt you because they do have such great balance, they do have very efficient three-point shooting, and they live in the paint with post-ups and different actions to drive it. They put you in a tough spot regardless, so being able to try to as the game is flowing, being able to adjust to it but having multiple things ready to try to slow them down. But it’s certainly a big challenge to try to do that," DeVries said.
Kansas offensively is led by Hunter Dickinson, who is averaging 15.5 points per game. They also have three other scorers on their team averaging at least 9.0 points per game.
DeVries is prepared to try and slow them down in one facet of their game, knowing it's better to try to do that than to take away everything a team does well.
"Typically, when we try to put a game plan together, you can’t take away everything. A lot of times, if you try to, you end up taking away nothing. You have to be willing to live with something, whatever that is. Then, as the game goes on, if you need to make an adjustment to that, then you do that. For us, it’s finding which thing we think can hurt us the most and then try to take that away the best way possible, and that’s what we try to focus on," DeVries said.
Kansas is 9-2 on the season, with wins over North Carolina, Michigan State, and Duke, among others. Their two losses both came on the road, falling to Creighton and Missouri.
West Virginia is walking into a familiar place for the program but a not-so-familiar place for many guys currently associated with the program. WVU is winless at Allen Fieldhouse, but it's a hard place to play because of their quality as a team more than anything.
"It’s a hard place to play. I don’t think West Virginia is the only one that has a hard time going into Allen Fieldhouse and winning. They’re very good there; they got a great home-court advantage. Like we said, well-coached, got good players. That has more to do with it than anything. You got to go in there, you got to play well, and that’s what it comes down to. Home courts are the reason you like to play at home is because you do have an advantage, and they certainly have one of the better home court advantages in the country," DeVries said.
Overall, DeVries wants his team to put their best foot forward, focusing on controlling what they can control.
"Our approach is the same no matter who we play. We want to put the best version of ourselves out there every single night, whether we’re playing Kansas or whoever it may be. Our goal is to go there, play the best 40 minutes we possibly can, and do whatever we need to do to try to come away with a win. That’s the only focus we can have," DeVries said.
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