7. West Virginia (8-2)
Yet another team entering a new era, West Virginia unceremoniously parted ways with Bob Huggins before last season began but now have Darian DeVries in place to run this program. That uncertainty is in the past and DeVries has the Mountaineers playing good basketball again. The results haven’t all been great in the early going, but it’s hard to complain with what we’ve seen in the first ten games.
After starring at East Carolina and Oklahoma State in recent years, Javon Small has undertaken a major role for the Mountaineers, averaging nearly 20 points per game and putting this team in fantastic position. We’d be remised if we didn’t mention Tucker DeVries, who followed his father after winning a ton of games and accolades at Drake and now averages 15 points a game and has hit 47% of his 3-pointers. A young frontcourt boasts Illinois transfer Amani Hansberry, a sophomore who was a 4-star and has taken a great leap forward after limited action last season.
In their third game of the season, West Virginia lost by 24 points at rival Pittsburgh in a tough showing, but that didn’t define them by any means. Two weeks later, the Mountaineers were in the Battle 4 Atlantis and got immense overtime wins over both Gonzaga and Arizona while also falling in overtime to Louisville. Regardless of how things currently look, these wins over Arizona and Gonzaga are immense currency, while the Mountaineers presently ride a 4-game winning streak into late December.
This team wasn’t exactly an afterthought, but they were picked to finish 13th place and are unquestionably outplaying those expectations. This team shoots threes, blocks shots, and plays hard and when everything is going right they can hang with any team in the country. DeVries might just have an NCAA Tournament team in his debut season in Morgantown as long as this team stays healthy and continues to make their shots.