What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over UCF

West Virginia University head coach Darian DeVries gives an assessment on the Mountaineers wins against the Knights

Mar 8, 2025; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Darian DeVries calls out a play during the first half against the UCF Knights at WVU Coliseum. | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

The West Virginia Mountaineers (19-12, 10-10) held off the UCF Knights (16-15, 7-13) Saturday evening.

Overall Thoughts

I thought the first half, I thought we played terrific at both ends of the floor. We got in transition. We were moving the ball. We were playing unselfish and started off the second half with a good possession – get a three, and then, defensively, just didn’t get back, didn’t get our defensive put together and now we allowed them to play in transition. They were getting to the rim and now they’re getting everything they wanted for a good portion of the second half.

Like I told the guys, that’s hard though when you have a big lead like that and it dwindles down to almost nothing to still stay composed enough to find a way to make the plays that you need to. I thought a lot of different guys made some key plays – some winning plays. Off of missed free throws, we got two offensive rebounds – massive offensive rebounds. So, those are the types of things that good teams find a way even when you give away big lead like that, good teams still find a way to make sure to come up on top.

Senior guard Javon Small’s 25 points and nine assists

You could tell he was being aggressive. He was going to do everything he could to kind of get going, and then when he hit a couple, that’s always good for us. Overall, 25 and nine again. I just hope people really appreciate the season he had because I’ve been doing this a long time, there’s only two or three guys that I can probably name that had a season like this where he had to do so much as well on top of it. Incredible season for him, regular season, obviously we still want to play as long as possible but it was great to see him go out on top.

Freshman guard Jonathan Powell hitting two three late in the game

That was monster threes for us, and he ends up five-for-eight [from three] and that’s exactly what we needed. He’s had some moments where he’s been terrific and then he’s had a few stretches where he hasn’t shot it well. What I love about Jonathan is he continues to stay confident in himself and we stayed confident in him.