What Darian DeVries Said Following the Win Over Colorado

The No. 21 West Virginia Mountaineers (12-3, 3-1) defeated the Colorado Buffaloes (9-6, 0-4) Sunday afternoon 78-70.

Head coach Darian DeVries met with WVU play-by-play caller Tony Caridi and commentator Brad Howe following the game to give his initial assessment of the Mountaineers win.

Opening Statement

That was just a strange game. I thought the first half – we had a nice half. It wasn’t perfect but kind of controlled the half and were able to create some turnovers, we were able to get a little better ball movement – we had them moving. I thought they did a nice job in the second half. They got us stagnant a little bit with some of their switching and then we kind of settled a little bit. I thought as the game went on, we got a little fatigued as well. So, that bench got shorter and shorter with foul trouble and just trying to find bodies to get in there.

To Colorado’s credit, they’ve done this all year, they play 10, 11 guys and then just kept coming with fresh legs and you could see it wearing into us a little bit but overall, again, Like I’ve told the guys, ‘I don’t care how we get it done, just get it done,’ and I thought (senior guard) Joe (Yesufu) really had a huge second half for us. He’s done a great job of continuing to keep himself ready and wait for that opportunity and his preparation. We needed his speed and his ability to get to the rim in the second half when we need to get downhill and (senior guard) Javon (Small) was exhausted, and rightfully so.

Overall, again, great team effort. Road wins, they don’t come easy and this was certainly an example of that.

Colorado’s second half run to get within two

I thought, offensively, I thought Joe did a really good job there and then I thought we got a little more solid down the stretch defensively and we didn’t put them at the free throw line. A large part of that, we want to be physical and tough defensively, but we want to do it without fouling, and then we lost discipline there a few times – getting a little handy, late reaches, instead of vertical wall-ups, tried to get that block and then we reached a little bit. Those are the type of things we got to do a better job of, especially on the road. You have that game, you have the crowd quiet and then all of a sudden, now you let them creep back into it from the free throw line.

The Mountaineers’ poise down the stretch

As the half went on, I thought the guys did a pretty decent job. They surprised us a couple of times going straight man and then they trapped us and caught us off guard there once and twice. We wanted them to continue to attack against the press with two, three minutes to go because the last thing we wanted was them not to have to pay for pressing us. So, if we get a two on one lets throw it ahead and go be aggressive and try and get to the rim so we don’t have to pull it out and get stagnant and play five on five.