West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries wanted his team to learn and grow from their lone lopsided defeat of the season on the road at Pittsburgh.
Well, the 86-78 overtime win over previously unbeaten No.3 Gonzaga in the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis would indicate that message is getting across.
That loss to the Panthers was used as an opportunity for DeVries to get his team together and use it as a springboard for his team moving forward with a difficult slate ahead.
“That’s part of maturing as a team. We just have to make sure you learn from it and next time it comes up we fix it,” DeVries said.
That started with the matchup against Gonzaga and the Mountaineers played tough, physical basketball throughout while controlling the pace and not allowing the Bulldogs to get out in transition.
“I thought today was another great step in the right direction. We had a lot of things to improve on in that Pitt game and I thought that was the best thing for us going forward. We improved on what we needed to improve on and leaned on each other,” senior forward Tucker DeVries said.
But perhaps more importantly, DeVries had a first-hand view of how his team handled the moment.
West Virginia was confident and calm in the huddle throughout the game and there was strong leadership from the senior class especially DeVries and Javon Small when the game got tight. Small finished with 31 points and 7 rebounds, while DeVries had 16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. That composure allowed the program to rally from down five with just 25 seconds left to force overtime with DeVries scoring each of those points.
The Mountaineers then outscored Gonzaga 15-8 in that extra period.
“Continued to remain confident and poised and felt very matter of fact in what we needed to do to be successful to come out on top,” DeVries said.
West Virginia moved to 4-1 on the season with a matchup against Louisville set for 12 p.m.
The Gonzaga win is the first ranked win for DeVries since taking the job in Morgantown and the highest neutral site win over a ranked team with the Mountaineers being unranked since beating No. 5 Pittsburgh in the 2009 Big East Tournament.
But again, it’s just another step in the process.
“By no means have we arrived or anything. We had a great win. A great 45-minutes. But we still have plenty of room to grow into and we look forward to continuing to do that. It’s a long season, there’s ups and downs with every season,” DeVries said. “We have to grow together. This is a part of it.”
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