In a recent podcast episode with CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries discussed some of the advantages and disadvantages associated with coaching in the Big 12 Conference.
DeVries spoke on the differences in coaching at a mid-major school like Drake and that of West Virginia and discussed the differences in the selection process for the NCAA Tournament.
“The challenges when you’re at the mid-major level is you know if you’re gonna get an at-large opportunity, you have to be perfect throughout the year, especially with the landscape of the way scheduling works now,” DeVries said. “You can’t have one of those bad nights. The reality is, when you play 31 games, you’re gonna have some bad nights. You can get beat by anybody in any league on any given night. The good part is you don’t have to be perfect when you’re playing a Big 12 schedule.”
DeVries’ Mountaineers are one of many competitive teams expecting to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid, but will have to consistently face some of the nation’s top-ranked teams on a weekly basis. Arizona, Baylor, BYU, Cincinnati, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas Tech, TCU, and West Virginia have all been mentioned on various preseason rankings lists from different members of the college basketball world and should be tough teams fighting for a Top 25 ranking.
“The bad part is, you have a lot of really good basketball teams that you’ve got to play every single night because the Big 12 is, what I think, is the best league, especially this upcoming year when you look at it from top to bottom,” DeVries continued. “It’s loaded with really, really good teams. That part’s exciting, and also knowing that you can have an off night and you’re gonna have an off night. You can just bounce back up and try to go get another big challenge that upcoming game.”
While DeVries will have to overcome the jump up in conference play and a short offseason of rebuilding in Year One with the Mountaineers, West Virginia has assembled an impressive team in a short amount of time.
