DeVries tasked with rebuilding West Virginia basketball roster
West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries has the task of rebuilding the roster in front of him.
It wasn’t necessarily an unexpected challenge, as the expectation was that there would be turnover once a new coach was brought into the fold.
That isn’t really a foreign concept with any coaching change in this new era of college basketball so it would be naive to believe it wouldn’t happen here. It also isn’t out of DeVries’ comfort zone as he has shown the ability to rebuild rosters in the past.
To date, the Mountaineers only have four scholarship players from last season’s roster that remain since DeVries took over in senior guards Noah Farrakhan and Kobe Johnson along with sophomore forward Ofri Naveh and redshirt freshman guard Jeremiah Bembry.
Farrakhan averaged 7.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists while shooting 40-percent from the floor and 35-percent from three, while Johnson was at 6.0 points, 2.2 assists and 2.0 rebounds. Both Naveh and Bembry saw limited action in their first season with the program.
That means even if everything else remains static this will be almost an entirely new roster.
It’s unclear if any of those four will ultimately remain with West Virginia but for now the program still has seven scholarships to currently fill even when you factor in the additions to the roster from DeVries with his son Tucker and Memphis high school product KJ Tenner.
This past season, DeVries averaged 21.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game while 44-percent and 36-percent from three. Over his career, Drake appeared in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments as he was named the Missouri Valley Player of the Year in each season.
Tenner, 6-foot, 165-pounds, is on the smaller end physically for a high-major guard but is a proven scorer. Tenner is coming off a season where he averaged 21.2 points, 4.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game en route to winning Mr. Basketball in Division 4A in Tennessee. He was originally signed with Drake but committed to the Mountaineers when given the opportunity to follow DeVries.
West Virginia has already seen four players exit through the transfer portal this offseason with point guard Kerr Kriisa, guard Seth Wilson, forward Patrick Suemnick and forward Josiah Harris all making their intentions known. Out of that group, only Harris had more than one year of eligibility with two.
That means that DeVries will need to start piecing together a roster from largely outside what he inherited and that process is already well underway both through the transfer portal and high school options. That will of course include some familiarity with a pair of players from his Drake team set to visit this coming weekend in guards Atin Wright and Conor Enright.
Wright is coming off a season where he averaged 14.1 points per game, 2.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per contest in his lone year with the Bulldogs. He shot 46-percent from the field and 40-percent from three while also making 82-percent of his foul shots.
Enright was a strong piece on the defensive end while also chipping in with 6.9 points, 3.2 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game for the Bulldogs. He shot 45-percent from the floor and 44-percent from deep.
Both players have an understanding of what DeVries wants out of his players and could potentially help to build the culture in the program if the Mountaineers could land them.
DeVries also is set to host UIC guard Toby Okani who he squared off against in the MVC. The 6-foot-8 senior is coming off a season where he averaged 11.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game for the Flames while shooting 39-percent from the floor and 32-percent from three. The talented wing also averaged 2.0 blocks and 1.5 steals earning all-Conference Defensive team honors in the process.
Those aren’t the only options either but the work is well underway to rebuild the West Virginia basketball roster with almost a completely blank canvas.
Now, it’s up to DeVries to color it in.
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