Quick Hits: Darian DeVries offers his philosophy on exhibition games

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Just like that, college basketball season in Morgantown makes its unofficial return Friday night when the WVU men’s basketball team takes on University of Charleston in a preseason exhibition.

Here are the biggest takeaways from WVU head coach Darian DeVries’ press conference Thursday afternoon ahead of the scrimmage.

Approach to exhibitions

Yes, WVU will make Friday’s exhibition as game-like as possible, but there are also other motives at play in a game that will not count toward either team’s record.

“We’re going to approach it to go win the game,” DeVries said. “I mean, you want to try to do that, obviously. The second side of it [is] you’d also like to get everybody on the floor and get them some experience. We’ll see how it goes.”

Friday’s matchup will be one of two preseason scrimmages for the Mountaineers. The details for the second game are being kept under wraps as it is a “secret scrimmage.” Similarly, DeVries noted Thursday that he is not interested in showing his schematic wrinkles on camera against the University of Charleston.

“It’s an exhibition game, so, for the most part, you’re just trying to rely on your principles and kind of see where all that stuff is at, and then go play, and keep it pretty simple,” he said. “You’re not trying to show everything you have in an exhibition game.”

Practice vs. games

WVU has not played in any game situations since its trip to Italy in August, so DeVries said that he is not quite sure how his roster will respond to playing in the WVU Coliseum with fans in attendance.

“There’s guys that look great in practice and they get in the game and they can freeze up,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s the opposite. They don’t look great in practice, but then the game lights come on, it’s like a different person.”

There also has been no indication of who will be in WVU’s starting-five.

“Who has the ability to kind of slow themselves down and still execute when we need them to execute?” DeVries said.

The mighty Big 12

With the full schedule now public and the first AP Poll being released this week, WVU recently got its first complete look at its schedule with context. The Mountaineers could play as many as 10 games against opponents ranked in the preseason AP Top 25.

“I’ve seen the schedule,” DeVries said. “It’s a good one. Yeah, but again, that’s why we’re here. You know, we’re excited about it. We’re excited about the challenges in front of us. It’s a very good schedule, both nonconference and league play. So, we’ll just continue to get ourselves right, put ourselves in the best position to go compete and try to win games.”

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