WVU Basketball Preparing for Tough Challenge Against Physical UMass Squad

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Frank Martin’s teams have the kind of reputation Darian DeVries wants for WVU basketball — being tough and physical.

The Mountaineers (1-0) will get a first-hand look at that toughness when they welcome Martin’s Umass Minutemen (1-0) into the WVU Coliseum Friday night at 7 p.m.

“They play the same way every year,” DeVries said Thursday afternoon. “They’re going to be tough, they’re going to be physical and that’s no different this year. We understand what that challenge is going to be on Friday and it’ll be a great test for us to see if we can match that.”

This year’s Mountaineers don’t have the typical kind of size associated with physical teams — only one player is taller than 6-9 and only two reach 240 pounds — but DeVries said mindset is just as important as size when it comes to physicality.

“I want our teams to be physical, so we’re going to do everything we can to be as physical as possible,” he said. “We want that to be our identity. The way people talk about Coach Martin’s team, I want them to talk about our team that way.”

Martin, who succeeded Bob Huggins at Kansas State in 2007, is in his third season at Umass and the Minutemen are coming off of a 20-win campaign. UMass defeated New Hampshire 103-74 in its season opener, led by Rahsool Diggins’s 26 points.

“He can score, he’s a good scorer,” DeVries said of the senior guard. “We’re going to have to do a good job on him making sure we’re aware of where he is and the types of ways he likes to score.”

All eight of Diggins’s baskets on Monday came from three-point range. As the Minutemen’s best scorer, DeVries said he expects WVU sophomore Sencire Harris to guard Diggins for most of the game.

“He doesn’t give me much of an option,” DeVries joked. “He says ‘I’m taking him coach,’ and I’m a pretty agreeable guy so I say ‘sounds good.’”

Harris, a defensive specialist, held Robert Morris’s Kam Woods to seven points on 3-16 shooting on Monday.

“He loves the challenge and I love the way he embraces that,” DeVries said.

Down low, Umass has Daniel Hankins-Sanfrod and Malek Abdelgowad, who both finished in double figures on Monday. Abdelgoward logged a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds.

“They’re aggressive,” DeVries said. “They’re going to pound the glass, try and throw it in there and out-tough you in the interior. Collectively as a group, that’s their mindset all the way across.”

WVU and UMass met last season, with the Minutemen coming out on top, 87-79, in the Hall of Fame Classic.

“That was a physical game from all accounts,” DeVries said. “They have a little bit different roster from last year as well, but their identity is still the same.”

The rematch will tip off from inside the WVU Coliseum Friday night at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN+.

For a related story, Darian DeVries and KJ Tenner preview WVU basketball versus UMass.