--West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries feels that his team is ready for the season and excited to play. This is a longer week and the last opportunity to focus on themselves as well as game prep to prepare for a real scout which it will stay that way until March.
--Robert Morris has a ton of new faces and played Villanova close in a scrimmage. Every night you have to be ready to play and he thinks the players will be ready.
--DeVries has a pretty good idea of what the rotation will look like but that could definitely change. Whether it's an injury or foul trouble it's about putting yourself in the best position possible. They'll be in that eight to ten range to see how it goes.
--DeVries said that Jayden Stone will be out for a period of time with an upper body injury. That will be day to day moving forward. He got banged up in practice.
--DeVries said they won't put any sort of limit on what they'll do on the floor and they'll take what the defense is giving them. If they let them shoot threes they'll take 30 threes, but if they take those away they will drive the basketball. They want to be as flexible as possible.
--West Virginia has a lot of players that can make shots and they have several guys that can get them 20 in a single night.
--DeVries said they have a collection of players that have been good. The starters have done a good job and have a good group that has given them a lot of effort.
--West Virginia is still going to run offense the same way but it's about trusting your instincts in order to play faster and be more effective. They don't want players being robots.
--DeVries wants to win and they want to see how they can win the 40-minutes and isn't going to experiment a lot.
--DeVries said there isn't a lot of data to go off but there is a lot of different ways to approach it. This team spent a lot of time on install offense and defense, but if you have a veteran group you can focus on the individual stuff and cleaning up things.
--DeVries said they will use all five assistants for scouting reports and will split it up. Like every assistant coach they have a different approach to how they do it, but they do have a format that includes his expectations of what he wants in a scout. Some of it takes time to discover what he wants but they try not to make it too tricky.
--Anything you can do to help guys get through a lot grinding season it's good and they've gotten great energy from the assistants and managers in that regard.
--DeVries said he doesn't feel pressure but it's a good thing to have nerves and be excited for his first game here. From a coaching standpoint the only thing he cares about is playing the way he wants to play. He remembers his first game at Drake and he was excited and wanted them to do well.
--DeVries will mix up the pre-game a little bit and will do the warm-ups they want to get done to get a feel for the guy. He doesn't like sitting back in the room by himself, it's too long before the game.
--DeVries said they take a lot of plays into a game and the playbook is pretty extensive. They go into a game and pull out 10-15 plays and will focus on those but in the course of the game you might see something you can pull out of the playbook and use at that time.
--There will be sets that are designed to get a specific three-point shot for a person, but it doesn't have to go there.
--DeVries said it's a longer off-season anytime you take a new job but right now he's excited to go play and get his team out there.
--DeVries will have about 12 friends and family there for the opener.
--DeVries approaches every game the same and doesn't ever take winning or losing for granted. You have to pour into every game.
--If you look at the group from summer to now the identity of the team has started to shine through. They are playing really hard and very unselfishly and he is excited to see if they can do that for 40-minutes every single night. Consistency will be the key there.
--DeVries said they know what's in front of them with the schedule and are excited for the challenges.
--From a coaching perspective you can always continue to grow and learn. DeVries is comfortable with where his team is at and he hopes they are as consistent with how they approach things here as they were at Drake.
--No surprises yet, but he likes how the group has continued to compete and work in practice.
--Robert Morris has a ton of new faces and played Villanova close in a scrimmage. Every night you have to be ready to play and he thinks the players will be ready.
--DeVries has a pretty good idea of what the rotation will look like but that could definitely change. Whether it's an injury or foul trouble it's about putting yourself in the best position possible. They'll be in that eight to ten range to see how it goes.
--DeVries said that Jayden Stone will be out for a period of time with an upper body injury. That will be day to day moving forward. He got banged up in practice.
--DeVries said they won't put any sort of limit on what they'll do on the floor and they'll take what the defense is giving them. If they let them shoot threes they'll take 30 threes, but if they take those away they will drive the basketball. They want to be as flexible as possible.
--West Virginia has a lot of players that can make shots and they have several guys that can get them 20 in a single night.
--DeVries said they have a collection of players that have been good. The starters have done a good job and have a good group that has given them a lot of effort.
--West Virginia is still going to run offense the same way but it's about trusting your instincts in order to play faster and be more effective. They don't want players being robots.
--DeVries wants to win and they want to see how they can win the 40-minutes and isn't going to experiment a lot.
--DeVries said there isn't a lot of data to go off but there is a lot of different ways to approach it. This team spent a lot of time on install offense and defense, but if you have a veteran group you can focus on the individual stuff and cleaning up things.
--DeVries said they will use all five assistants for scouting reports and will split it up. Like every assistant coach they have a different approach to how they do it, but they do have a format that includes his expectations of what he wants in a scout. Some of it takes time to discover what he wants but they try not to make it too tricky.
--Anything you can do to help guys get through a lot grinding season it's good and they've gotten great energy from the assistants and managers in that regard.
--DeVries said he doesn't feel pressure but it's a good thing to have nerves and be excited for his first game here. From a coaching standpoint the only thing he cares about is playing the way he wants to play. He remembers his first game at Drake and he was excited and wanted them to do well.
--DeVries will mix up the pre-game a little bit and will do the warm-ups they want to get done to get a feel for the guy. He doesn't like sitting back in the room by himself, it's too long before the game.
--DeVries said they take a lot of plays into a game and the playbook is pretty extensive. They go into a game and pull out 10-15 plays and will focus on those but in the course of the game you might see something you can pull out of the playbook and use at that time.
--There will be sets that are designed to get a specific three-point shot for a person, but it doesn't have to go there.
--DeVries said it's a longer off-season anytime you take a new job but right now he's excited to go play and get his team out there.
--DeVries will have about 12 friends and family there for the opener.
--DeVries approaches every game the same and doesn't ever take winning or losing for granted. You have to pour into every game.
--If you look at the group from summer to now the identity of the team has started to shine through. They are playing really hard and very unselfishly and he is excited to see if they can do that for 40-minutes every single night. Consistency will be the key there.
--DeVries said they know what's in front of them with the schedule and are excited for the challenges.
--From a coaching perspective you can always continue to grow and learn. DeVries is comfortable with where his team is at and he hopes they are as consistent with how they approach things here as they were at Drake.
--No surprises yet, but he likes how the group has continued to compete and work in practice.
