DeVries, Mountaineers Getting Ready for 1st Backyard Brawl

The only player on West Virginia’s roster who has ever experienced a Backyard Brawl before won’t even play when the Mountaineers meet arch-rival Pitt on Friday.

Sophomore forward Ofri Naveh started and played 35 minutes in last year’s Brawl, but has decided to redshirt this season and will not see the floor in the Steel City later this week.

Every other Mountaineers player and coach will be experiencing the rivalry for the first time.

“Everybody understands what rivalry games are and what they mean,” WVU coach Darian DeVries said Wednesday. “There’s a little different buzz in the air when you’re getting ready to play.”

DeVries was in the WVU Coliseum on Tuesday to take in some of the women’s Backyard Brawl — WVU won 82-54 — and said he can feel the excitement in the air in the leadup to Friday’s tipoff.

“You can feel it,” DeVries said. “It’s hard to explain, but in sports, you just know when there’s a different energy level to a game, a different vibe in the arena and around time. You know there’s a different edge to how this game plays out.”

Friday will be the 191st game in the series that dates all the way back to 1906. WVU leads the all-time series 101-89.

“I don’t think it takes much for our guys to figure out that it’s an important game for both fan bases,” DeVries said. “It’s a significant game for us and we know it’s a significant game for the fanbases. You certainly know that both teams are going to come and play as hard as they can to try and win this game. 

The big rivalry at Drake, DeVries’s last stop, was with Northern Iowa. As members of the Missouri Valley Conference, the Bulldogs and Panthers played twice a year with a home game apiece. WVU and Pitt haven’t played home and home in the same season since they were both in the Big East in 2012. 

That means, if they lose, the Mountaineers won’t have the chance to get revenge on their home court until next season.

“It’s a road game, a great environment we’re walking into,” DeVries said. “You want to play in these types of games in these types of environments. (The players are) excited about that opportunity.”

Tipoff from the Peterson Events Center in Pittsburgh is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Friday. The game will be broadcast on the ACC Network.

For a related story, Mike Asti and Cody Nespor discuss the impact of the Backyard Brawl on both WVU basketball teams.