West Virginia men's basketball is just over a month away from getting their first true game action when they take a trip to Italy starting at the end of July.

First-year head coach Darian DeVries is readying for what shapes up to be a challenging year, as the Mountaineers are welcoming many new faces, with a tough road ahead.

DeVries and company took a little while to get their roster complete, but now that it is, the total number of returners from last season is just one, Ofri Naveh. DeVries brought his son, Tucker, with him and added eight total transfers from the portal.

"Without going through the whole roster I think a lot of them have done some really nice things. I think picking out one right now is probably too much. Everybody has a good day or bad day here and there, but certainly excited about the group in general," DeVries said on Jon Rothstein's College Hoops Today podcast.

DeVries knows that this group is not going to have it easy from the start as WVU has a tough non-conference schedule. It includes a road trip to Pitt, a home game against Georgetown, as well as a trip to the Bahamas in the Battle 4 Atlantis, featuring Arizona, Davidson, Gonzaga, Indiana, Louisville, Oklahoma and Providence.

"We’re still working on some home games that we want to finish out that non-conference slate with," DeVries said of WVU's non-conference schedule. "Certainly a very challenging non-conference slate when you think about the Battle 4 Atlantis and the teams there. You know, going to Pittsburgh, having UMass at home, Georgetown, that’s a great non-league schedule before you get ready for a 20-game Big 12 schedule. Certainly a lot of opportunities there for us to kind of see where we’re out in non-conference play before we get into Big 12 action."

Big 12 action will certainly be different than what DeVries is used to at Drake.

DeVries said there are pros and cons about being at a high major and in a power league in that you don't have to win your conference tournament in order to make the NCAA Tournament, like he did at Drake. The downside though, is the talent across the board in the Big 12.

"The good part is you don't have to be perfect when you're playing a Big 12 schedule. The bad part is you have a lot of really good basketball teams you got to play every single night. The Big 12 is what I think is the best league, especially this upcoming year when you look at it from top to bottom. It's loaded with really good teams," DeVries said.

DeVries will be facing these challenges as he looks to put bring the Mountaineers back after a crazy and disappointing 2023-2024 season which included only nine wins. DeVries said his goals are to try and get his team as ready as possible for the season ahead and hope their hard work can propel them to wins when the season starts.

"I think like everybody, your goals in the summer and fall is to get your team as ready as possible to play for a conference championship, to play for a NCAA Tournament team," DeVries said. "I think our goal isn’t necessarily we want to do this or this as winning the league or making the Sweet Sixteen. I think it’s about us just being as good as we can and then hopefully those things come with that.

"Right now, that’s our expectation is let’s get as good as we possibly can and hopefully the wins can follow with that and then let’s see where we stand at the end of the day. I know this group is working extremely hard to try and chase down a Big 12 title, to try to play in the NCAA Tournament, and we’re going to make that our mission every single day."

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