MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — Moments ago, the West Virginia Mountaineers pulled off one of the most stunning upsets in program history, beating the Gonzaga Bulldogs in the quarterfinals of the Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis!
With the win, the Mountaineers moved to 4-1 on the young season and will advance to play the Louisville Cardinals in the semifinals of the tournament tomorrow. If West Virginia wins, they would advance to the championship game on Friday evening. Today, new head coach Darian DeVries proved something that West Virginia hasn’t seen for a few years; good coaching can win games. Beating Gonzaga, led by Mark Few, one of the most respected and accomplished head coaches in the nation, is a massive feat, and DeVries did it in his 5th game in his first season at West Virginia.
Darian DeVries got a huge signature win in his 5th game in his first season with the Mountaineers.
Neal Brown is still searching for his first big win in his 6th season. #WVU
— The Voice of Morgantown (@voicemorgantown) November 27, 2024
DeVries winning big early only further highlights Neal Brown’s struggles with the football program. At 37-34 overall, Brown has been the epitome of mediocrity, and he has still yet to win a big game in his sixth season with the team.
At the end of today’s game against Gonzaga, in crunch time when it mattered most, you could almost feel that West Virginia was settled and focused on actually winning the game. Not not losing like Brown has done over the last six seasons, but actually doing what it took to win the game. DeVries clearly has this team well-coached and poised to pull several upsets and beat the top teams this season.
The thing that stood out the most today was that this Mountaineer team will do all of the little things that will win games, like taking care of the ball, passing, playing tough defense, not making a bunch of careless turnovers, etc. West Virginia played extremely poorly at Pitt a few weeks ago, and it appeared that the Mountaineers were once again in for another long season, but instead, DeVries and his players learned from their mistakes, grew from them and showed up ready to beat one of the best teams in the nation today! It’s early in his tenure, but Darian DeVries is proving that you can in fact win big games and not make a bunch of silly excuses for losing…you just need good coaching!
