WVU Head Basketball Coach Darien DeVries cheers on his team, during its win against Mercyhurst University on Dec. 22. Courtesy photo

MORGANTOWN — Sideways glances were sent the way toward West Virginia University basketball. Last season had been only a saddened series of no-win circumstances for an interim coach who had little chance for even marginal success.

Darian DeVries had been imported from the state of Iowa and Drake University. Who knew much about Drake? DeVries had been successful in a midwestern scenario, where he had both Iowa (Big 10) and Iowa State (Big 12) in the same backyard as his lesser-known Bulldogs.

West Virginians were still spinning from a 23-loss season that couldn’t have been changed by even the coaching of the noble Fred Schaus.

So DeVries might have been given the benefit of the doubt and had the silent backing of everybody and everything West Virginia. But could he literally resurrect a once-proud program?

The roster was as new as the now topsy turvy world of college sports. Players came from all over the college basketball map — except, none came from the state of West Virginia.

West Virginia University and Mercyhurst University basketball players battle for the ball, during Sunday's game at WVU Coliseum. Courtesy photo

DeVries brought with him his son Tucker — a 6-foot-7 bundle of fundamental talent and outside shooting marksmanship, who had played for Drake.

The season lurched into low gear. There was a ptomaine-like loss to Pitt, of all teams.

Then, the new-look Mountaineers went into a lofty tournament, where a list of well-known and well-heeled teams awaited them.

West Virginia beat Gonzaga for the first time ever in an overtime game. The next day came Louisville, another usual cream of the crop team who had seen its flag lowered some last season. The Cardinals won in overtime. For the third-straight day — with no rest in between — the Mountaineers played a blueblood of the college game in Arizona. And for the third-straight day the game went into overtime, this time with West Virginia winning.

With the optimistic talk of that tournament still bubbling off the lips of Mountaineer fans, the schedule was one saturated with teams with manageable rosters, just waiting to accept the money guaranteed them to come to Morgantown and leave with an almost predetermined loss.

Javon Small dunks the ball on Sunday, during WVU’s winning game against Mercyhurst University. Courtesy photo

When that list of pre-conference wins was safely salted away, the Mountaineers carried a 9-2 record and some justified renewal of national attention into the Big 12 schedule.

Kansas, they of the lordly tradition of national prominence, is the first team on the conference schedule. And the game is going to be played in one of the meccas of college basketball — Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.

Is West Virginia a team straight from the ashes like, the fabled phoenix of folklore? Or is it only a product of a neatly boxed and bow-tied schedule designed to bring it much-needed success?

A loss in Kansas is expected across the expanse of college basketball.

But if Tucker DeVries returns from an injury, West Virginia would seem to have been pumped with new life, especially the way it makes its free throws like no WVU team has done, since the days of John Beilein or the late, great Fred Schaus.