West Virginia is set to play their first and only other true road game since falling at Pittsburgh in November when the Mountaineers open Big 12 Conference play at Kansas.
Not the easiest venue to dip your toes back into the waters of navigating the road, but the Jayhawks are next up on the schedule and that means focusing on the task at hand.
West Virginia has spent time not only focusing on themselves but getting ready for Kansas and what the Jayhawks do well offensively and defensively to build a plan of attack on both ends of the floor.
The Mountaineers last road trip didn’t go according to plan in their most lopsided loss of the young season in an 86-62 defeat to the Panthers, but this matchup presents an opportunity.
The focus for head coach Darian DeVries is to get his team to play to their identity but understanding that the road environment is different than playing inside the friendly confines of the Coliseum.
“Understanding off on the road maybe utilizing your timeouts a little quicker to try to neutralize some of the crowd and the momentum there. Calming your team down versus maybe a home game you play it out a little bit longer,” DeVries said. “Those type of things are important. Maybe you slow in down a little bit on the road.”
But there is not necessarily any magic formula, it comes down to teams playing to their strengths and while there might be some tweaking to each individual game plan you don’t get too far away from those things.
As part of that preparation, the key is finding a way to take away some things while showing a willingness to live with some others. That’s where in-game adjustments can come into play as well.
The Mountaineers have historically not played well in Allen Fieldhouse since joining the Big 12 with an overall record of 0-11 granted that was under different coaching staffs. But that isn’t unique when it comes to teams trying to go on the road and beat the Jayhawks, who boast one of the top home court advantages in college basketball.
“I don’t think West Virginia is the only one that has a hard time going into Allen Fieldhouse and winning. They’re very good there. They have a great home court advantage, well-coached and good players. So that has more to do with it than anything,” DeVries said. “So, you’ve got to go in there, you have to play well and that’s what it comes down to.”
It’s just the first of nine other difficult road contests for West Virginia within the Big 12 Conference and the key is for the Mountaineers to do the little things in order to give themselves a chance to win.
“Our approach is the same no matter who we play. We want to put the best version of ourselves out there every night whether we’re playing Kansas or whoever it may be. Our goal is to play the best 40 minutes we can and do whatever we need to do to try to come away with a win,” DeVries said.
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