West Virginia forward Tucker DeVries will not be on the court again this season. Mountaineers head coach Darian DeVries made the news official in a press release Tuesday where he described surgery for an upper body injury that would be season ending as “necessary."
It was also announced that the senior will apply for a medical redshirt in hopes of “coming back healthy for his final year."
Tucker played in the first eight games of the season for WVU averaging 14.9 points and 4.9 rebounds per game. This was his first year in Morgantown after transferring in to follow his father who earned the head coaching job this past offseason.
Prior to this year the father-son duo were a force to be reckoned with at Drake. During his three seasons as a Bulldog Tucker averaged 18 points per game, was the back-to-back MVC Player of the Year, and led his team to two NCAA tournament appearances.
The loss of a player like DeVries for the rest of the season could be a massive blow for a WVU team who has been struggling as of late and is yet to solidify themselves as a team worthy of a tournament bid. The Mountaineers, who currently are slotted as a 9-seed in ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology, have lost four of their last six and are on a three game home losing streak. Since DeVries departure on December 6th they have a record of 8-5, but will now be hitting a stretch of a more favorable Big 12 schedule to end the season.
While the DeVries news is critical, it has many fans wondering what the status is of another key Mountaineer transfer in Jayden Stone who has yet to see the floor this season. Stone came in from Detroit Mercy, where he averaged 20.8 points per game, and was supposed to be a massive scoring threat for WVU this year. The 5th year senior was declared as “out indefinitely” with an upper body injury back in November but no update has been given since.
Adding a guy like Stone into the lineup at this time of the season would be huge for the Mountaineers especially with the announcement of the loss of one of their top players in Tucker DeVries.