Quick Hits: Houston's Defense, Struggles from Three, Slow Starts + More

The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-6, 4-4) host the No. 6 Houston Cougars (16-3, 8-0) Wednesday night inside the WVU Coliseum. Tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m. EST and the action will stream on ESPN+.

West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries met with the media on Tuesday and gave some insight on the Mountaineers and a scout on the Cougars.

West Virginia’s recent struggles from three-point range in the last two game, shooting 8-50 from behind the arc

Some of it is shot selection and then other parts we’re just missing. We’ve told our guys, JP, Amani, some of those looks are great looks that we’re just going to keep shooting and knock them down. So, from a confidence standpoint we got to continue to take those and hopefully make them at a higher rate. We just had a bad week of shooting for sure.

It ultimately still is about our defense. Both of those nights where we didn’t shoot it well our defense hasn’t been what it has been either. That was our main issue was our breakdowns defensively. And so, on a night where we weren’t shooting it well, we couldn’t keep up.

Last week’s defensive shortcomings

We got a little bit too isolated where we got a little spread out and guys were on islands too much and we had been really good at that previously. We went back and watched our last five games of every made basket and then there was some glaring things that were taking place in our last two games that weren’t happening in the previous games. So, we just got to get back to some fundamentals that slipped and get a little more connected as a whole defense instead of just one on ones. Our guys are playing hard we just weren’t as connected.

A Houston defense that ranks first in points allowed, defensive field goal percentage, and turnover margin

Houston, they’re terrific. They’re as good as it gets defensively. It’s a hard code to crack – no one has really been able to do it much. So, they’re just so disciplined on what they do and they’re aggresive, they create turnovers. We probably watched that tape probably 10 times and there wasn’t a lot of great scoring opportunities. So, you really got to take advantage of when you do get those open cracks, an open three, a step-in three, you got to convert because they don’t give you very many.

Revisiting the first game against the Cougars

The thing about our game with them last time was, there are some things you got to choose. Roberts is posting and you try to play him one on one like we did early and he goes eight for ten in the first half. I think we came and double him twice and they hit threes on both possessions. They put you in tough spots there but where you really get in trouble is live ball turnovers, offensive rebounds, kickouts, and that’s where they’re elite at it, so you have to minimize that. And then in our game with them last time, we made five or six mistakes of going under a ball screen and they made us pay on every single one of them, and they can do that to you. So, minimizing those types of mistakes but minimizing mistakes on the offensive end where you’re not giving them turnovers and they’re getting transition threes because they got three or four of those in that game as well. That’s a strength of theirs that you have to try and take away.

Slow starts

Arizona State game we responded pretty quickly. We got down 10-2, I believe in both games, Kansas State as well, we came back in the Arizona State game and took the lead. Kansas State on the road, we got down early and never recovered and that’s something we certainly talked about this week of the slow starts – they’re tough. And then when you’re playing a team like Houston that can make it double tough because when they’re playing with a lead and playing from the front, that’s challenging to try and claw back into the game because of they way they defend and rebound.