West Virginia is still adjusting to life without senior forward Tucker DeVries.
DeVries has been sidelined since before the game against North Carolina Central with an upper-body injury and at this point is expected to be out indefinitely.
And with that comes some inconsistencies as was the case when the Mountaineers beat Bethune-Cookman 84-61 but struggled for periods during the contest.
“I thought the flow got really ugly at times,” he said.
On the defensive end of the floor, the Mountaineers lacked discipline and were a little too aggressive at times which put the Wildcats on the free-throw line. Bethune-Cookman was able to spread out the defense and take advantage of where they weren’t as connected.
“We just got to do a better job of being aggressive. Getting to the ball, but also making sure we can keep the ball in front us,” head coach Darian DeVries said. “And I thought there were times where we’re trying to get into the ball, disrupt it a little bit but then we would get beat.”
On the offensive end, the Mountaineers wanted to push the ball for early chances in transition but when that wasn’t available the offense seemed to stick at times.
“It’s hard to run off a free throw,” DeVries said.
The Mountaineers were able to get to the foul line and connected on 20-22 attempts, but that won’t always be the case so it’s important for the coaching staff to spend the next couple of weeks prior to the start of Big 12 Conference play on the road at Kansas Dec. 31.
That means the focus will be on skill work and execution pieces. The Mountaineers want the players to be able to play fast without thinking and know where they’re supposed to be. That is obviously an adjustment with so many moving pieces and players in different spots with DeVries out of the lineup.
The plan is to take all of the data from this point of the season and see where the Mountaineers are at and what exactly do they want to look like heading into league play?
That is the focus for this team as the calendar is set to get a whole lot more difficult.
“I think it's just us getting better, you know, every day, like we talked about the practice time that we have between now and then is, you know, let's make the most of it. So you see what changes need to be made, see what things we can maybe get a little bit more locked in on and better at, and then get ourselves ready to go for, you know, a long stretch in league play,” DeVries said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
