WVU Basketball Expecting a Full-Team Effort to Replace Tucker DeVries

MORGANTOWN — The impact of Tucker DeVries can’t be replaced by any one player on the WVU basketball roster. The Mountaineers are preparing for it to be a full team effort to make up for DeVries’s absence, however long that may be.

“The big emphasis was staying ready and when your opportunity comes to be prepared,” said freshman KJ Tenner. “(Coach) told us the expectation doesn’t change. It’s not going to take just one person. To replace Tucker, it’s going to take all of us.”

Tenner was one of a few players who stepped up in DeVries’s absence during the team’s 79-45 win over North Carolina Central on Tuesday.

“We found out today he wasn’t playing, but we adjusted well,” said Joseph Yesufu, who scored 14 points off the bench. “It’s always next man up and everybody was ready.”

Things were different immediately for West Virginia as the Mountaineers put out a starting lineup that hadn’t played together yet this season. Forwards Amani Hansberry and Eduardo Andre were on the floor together for the first time this year.

“In a game that was going to be hard and choppy anyway with all the changing defenses, I thought our team did a nice job of figuring things out,” WVU coach Darian DeVries said. “We had a lot of lineups out there where guys had never played certain positions before.”

There are a lot of things that WVU won’t be able to do with DeVries out of the lineup, but Coach DeVries said the team’s overall keys for winning won’t change.

“Those things are always going to stay consistent. We want to be tough, we want to be physical, we want to be aggressive,” Coach DeVries said. “Overall, none of that stuff changes. We may tweak where we put guys for certain plays or add new plays to take advantage of lineups.”

Even without DeVries, WVU still made 15 three-pointers and had 21 assists against just nine turnovers. The Mountaineers also won the rebounding battle 45-30.

Coach DeVries didn’t reveal anything about the extent or duration of DeVries’s injury other than saying the team will abide by whatever the team doctors recommend.

WVU basketball stays home for its penultimate non-conference game of the season on Saturday against Bethune-Cookman. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.

For a related story, what are WVU’s options without Tucker DeVries?