--West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries said that there's a lot they can correct from the Pitt game. There were a lot of things that played out in that game that they weren't anticipating because they had a great week of practice. On offense, they didn't run good offense or get good shot selection due to movement and activity. Defensively, even though they were scoring early they were forcing them to take the shots they wanted them to take. That went away later and while they're a good team that's connected, the margin for error is small. It was their first road game and it just snowballed on them. The important part now is to make sure they learn from it moving forward.
--Iona will press the whole game and give a different setup of problems. They haven't played a team that will do that for 40 minutes and they need to see how they will respond. On offense ,they need to get more movement and better quality shots, while defensively they have been really good at times when they've been engaged, connected, tough and physical but they got passive as the Pitt game went on and reacting.
--Pitt guarded West Virginia differently from what they do in practice and they backed off some guys and locked onto other ones. But DeVries felt that they didn't have good shot selection across the board. They have to make sure they're getting the right guys shooting the ball at the right time.
--It would be great to have a third, fourth or fifth option. But teams are going to try to take Tucker DeVries and Javon Small out of the game but they have to create ways to get them open and utilize other options to create better opportunities for everybody.
--Jonathan Powell had a tough first-half shooting but came out in the second half and kept shooting which is what they want him to do. He made 4-10 from three, but DeVries likes his mindset and he didn't give in because he missed a couple of shots. He continued to shoot it.
--DeVries thinks that his team didn't respond well when they got hit with a run and it got away from them a little bit. Everybody was trying to help and try to get them back in the game by themselves but the offense is the best when the ball is moving and it gets better opportunities for everybody on the floor.
--Amani Hansberry is a big piece to what they do on offense but that's basketball when it comes to his foul trouble. You still have to be able to run good offense and play good defense regardless of who is on the floor because you're going to have games where teams have foul trouble.
--Eduardo Andre came in and did a good job providing rim protection on defense and pressure on the rim on the other end.
--West Virginia keeps things as simple as possible with press breaks just be where you're supposed to be with good spacing, be strong with the ball and meet passes. They want to be in an attack mode where if they press and West Virginia beats it they need to score easy baskets.
--Iona has been down in several games and has come back. You can't feel comfortable and this is a different type of game that West Virginia has played.
--DeVries said they had a secret scrimmage against an ACC team and did just fine. Friday night isn't what they wanted to happen but it played out that way so they have to understand why and make the corrections. You have one or two of those nights a year but you have to make sure those are outliers and it's not who you are.
--The offense has to continue to get better as they see different things. There are things they are trying to get and they have to make sure they get to those things. They have to play to their strengths as much as possible and part of having a good offense is playing good defense.
--Iona scrambles and flies around and places with a lot of activity. The biggest thing is being strong with the ball and not allowing live ball turnovers to turn into points.
--DeVries said that two times in a row they switched KJ Tenner onto their five-man which isn't advantageous. It wasn't something that was supposed to happen and they need to get it corrected. They weren't as connected as they needed to be in a game like that against Pitt.
--DeVries said that losing isn't fun so he isn't taking a lot of positives from his first experience in the Backyard Brawl. It was a good non-conference early test in a great environment.
--DeVries said he loves MTE's and it's a great chance to get ready for the tournaments that await later in the year.
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