West Virginia hits the road for two straight contests at Colorado and Houston.
The Mountaineers will fly out to Colorado to take on the Buffaloes Sunday and then stay out west before heading to Houston for the Wednesday night tipoff. The two-for-one travel approach isn’t anything new for head coach Darian DeVries who did it several times at both Drake and when he was an assistant at Creighton.
The benefits are obvious as it doesn’t force the team to travel across the country twice in a short period of time. But there obviously will be downtime between the games.
Some of that is going to be dedicated to film review and preparation, but the Mountaineers also will use the opportunity to spend some time together and bond as a team.
“And do some different things,” head coach Darian DeVries said.
One of the days West Virginia plans to see a movie in the afternoon and are looking into potentially catching a Houston Rockets game but still gives them plenty of time to prepare.
“Just to occupy a little bit of time. And it gives us still plenty of time in the film room and stuff in the hotel that we can do,” DeVries said. “And again, just kind of all your focus is on basketball.”
The focus is making sure that each of the players approaches the road trip in the right way and comes with the right mindset to make sure that they make the most of the opportunities ahead even in a different location.
“I think it still comes down to you and your focus and coming out and playing well,” DeVries said.
As part of the preparation, West Virginia has been forced to develop multiple game plans given who might or might not be available for each game. The coaching staff then is able to adjust it with the lineups that are available for each game. Still, even with the injuries to multiple players, DeVries doesn’t anticipate calling on any of the freshmen to step in that are currently redshirting unless they pushed for it.
“We would allow them to continue to redshirt,” he said.
West Virginia understands the challenges of playing the next two games and being on the road certainly will add an element of difficulty to the equation. But it’s just another day with life in the Big 12.
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