West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries held his weekly radio show on Thursday, where he talked about West Virginia's recent loss to Arizona, the play of Javon Small, as well as his team's next trip out west.
Recapping Arizona Loss
The last two games have been very different for the Mountaineers as they dominated Oklahoma State on Saturday before struggling in a loss to Arizona on Tuesday.
"I thought we played incredibly well against Oklahoma State. That first half especially maybe our best basketball of the year," DeVries said, adding, "The other night it was a little bit of the opposite. I thought our defense wasn’t quite as good as it had been… and that led to our offense not being as sharp."
West Virginia now sits at 2-1 in Big 12 play, with wins over the Cowboys as well as Kansas. The biggest thing for DeVries was the lack of togetherness on defense for the Mountaineers, as the Wildcats shot 51 percent against WVU.
"It wasn’t we weren't playing hard we just weren’t connected as we had been," DeVries said of his team's effort on defense.
The Mountaineers are one of eight teams in the Big 12 that are either 3-0 or 2-1 in league play.
Javon Small
The story of West Virginia this season has revolved around Javon Small. Small has been the heartbeat of the Mountaineers this season and the team has gone as he's gone.
Last week, he earned multiple Player of the Week honors for his contributions in the wins over Kansas and Oklahoma State.
"He’s doing so much for us, and even the other night against Arizona he was doing everything he could to keep us in that game.. we got to do more to help him out and find some more opportunities to get some guys in some spots so we can get him a little bit of rest," DeVries said.
Small runs the Mountaineer offense both as a scorer and as a facilitator.
"I think when you look at especially on the offensive end and we have some limitations on that side of the floor but what he’s been able to do to put is in a position to be a fairly effective offense says a lot of his ability not only to score but to facilitate … from our standpoint we’re doing everything we can to protect him in practice, keep him fresh… he’s playing at an unbelievably high level, maybe as good as a level of what I’ve coached from a guard standpoint," DeVries said.
Going forward, DeVries' focus is finding ways to keep Small fresh as he's played 37.3 minutes per game in the last two weeks which is in the top 70 of all players in the country.
Two-Game Road Swing
The Mountaineers are beginning a two-game road trip to Colorado on Sunday and then Houston next week. DeVries said the Buffaloes present a lot of challenges and his team is going to play with a chip on their shoulder.
"They just play together. They’re very balanced as an offense and defensively they don’t beat themselves… they’ve had some good wins this year. They beat UConn earlier in the year, they had Iowa State down five with about nine minutes to go last week…coming off a tough road loss last night basically came down to the buzzer, a game they controlled the entire way," DeVries said.
Colorado is 0-3 in Big 12 play and is coming off a one-point loss to UCF on Wednesday.
"A road game we got to be well prepared for and go in there with a little chip on our shoulder especially coming off a loss at home," DeVries said.
Possible Injury News
Per usual, DeVries was tight-lipped when asked about injuries.
He was asked about KJ Tenner who missed the Arizona game, and he did not give up much.
"Still day to day," DeVries said.
"I’m really, really elaborate on my injury updates," he jokingly added.
DeVries divulged into why he's so silent on injuries. He said part of it is gamesmanship, but another part of it is not wanting to put any public pressure on the player.
"I think you have two-three days between each game that the one advantage you have is you know who’s playing and they don’t," DeVries said.
"I also don’t like putting any undue pressure on players they need to be back or maybe they weren’t as ready as I thought they were."
Tip-off between WVU and Colorado is set for 3:00 p.m. on Sunday.
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