West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries addressed the media ahead of the Colorado game . WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
--DeVries said that they've done road trips where they've stayed out on the road at both Drake and Creighton and it just makes more sense. They'll make the most of it and stay together as a team and do some different things.
--One of the days DeVries will take the players to a movie to get them out a little bit and they've done a game before to watch an NBA game. Go out to eat and do some things to occupy some time, but still give them plenty of time in the film room. All the focus is on basketball. They are looking into watching the Houston Rockets when they're there.
--Colorado was in control of the UCF game for a big portion of the game and built a double-digit lead late but it came down to the last possession.
--Colorado has a lot of size across the entire team. It presents some challenges with their versatility and length across the board.
--With the injuries, they've been doing multiple game plans with not being sure who's available but trying to get everybody ready and will adjust it with the lineups there. Unless there is an emergency, they don't want to pull any redshirts on the younger players that aren't playing unless it's something they came to him and wanted him to do they will continue to let them redshirt.
--DeVries said that Tad Boyle is a terrific coach and they had some good battles when he was at Wichita State when he was an assistant coach and DeVries was at Creighton.
--Javon Small has a lot of want to when it comes to rebounding and he can challenge balls in the air while he also has the speed to pursue the ball.
--DeVries said there are always guys that have the unique ability to find the ball. They just have the instincts to go track rebounds down.
--DeVries said he would do the same travel as Kansas if he could guarantee the same results. But he does hope it goes smoother.
--The guys have responded well after Arizona and they are a pretty focused group that understands they didn't have their a-game and has focused hard on what went wrong. They did some things right, but they are focusing on areas they didn't do well.
--DeVries said you have to make sure you have a narrow focus on turning the page after both wins and losses. They responded well after the win at Kansas and they felt they prepared well for Arizona but they didn't get it done. All they can do is learn from wins and losses and get ready for the next scout that they have and that's Colorado.
--DeVries felt that Arizona has really good guards with great size and they were able to get in the paint and score over them. They had to clean up some ball screen stuff. Arizona is really good at scoring in the paint and they didn't do a good enough job of keeping them out of there even though that was the game plan coming into the game.
--For the most part teams play to their strengths and will try to find a way to attack some weaknesses but they aren't going to wholesale something to be something they're not. Each game plan is different and they try to attack weaknesses.
--Two different teams with Colorado and Arizona but they both are good and they have to prepare for what they do well.
--West Virginia scores the best in transition so they try to find a balance of staying fresh and getting out in the open floor and doing the things they are best at as an offense. They have chosen their spots where they want to be aggressive and run or when they want to play more of a halfcourt game.
--Every team is a really good team in this league and as a coach their job is to get up for all 31 regular season games and they need to play a certain way every night and those habits need to be the same. In league play they are all good teams and that's why this league is so challenging.
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