Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com First-year WVU coach Darian DeVries is shown during a practice session.

MORGANTOWN — On Broadway in New York, it was Rodgers and Hammerstein delivering the message in “My Fair Lady” as Anna got to meet her students in Siam for the first time and sang:

Getting to know you,

Getting to know all about you.

Getting to like you,

Getting to hope you like me.

You’ll pardon West Virginia’s new basketball coach Darian DeVries if he isn’t humming that verse over and over as he strolls down High Street these days, for he has been charged with putting together a Big 12 basketball team virtually from scratch.

And to do that, the first chore on both sides is getting to know each other.

You want your players to know each other on and off the court. You want them to know what they can do and can’t do and you, as a coach, want to know the same thing about them.

It probably started with a summer three-game tour of Italy. Now DeVries did not have his roster set yet and certainly the basketball part of the equation was just beginning. But there were some things he could learn.

“The biggest thing was learning some guys love the water, some guys don’t,” DeVries said, smiling at the thought. “Some guys like to swim, some don’t. Some guys like spaghetti, some don’t. I’m joking about it, but that’s kind of what you figure out about your team a little bit.”

Not like spaghetti? College players? C’mon.

“I think it was some of the sauce. They didn’t like the pesto sauce,” DeVries said.

Getting to know you,

Putting it my way,

But nicely,

You are precisely

My cup of tea.

So went the song and so it goes as the process continues. Practices are often long and hard. It may be a game but it’s a business, too, and it can lead to boredom and tensions.

DeVries had an idea of how to approach that during the summer.

“We did cancel practice and went bowling one day,” DeVries revealed. “That changed our team a little bit, which is crazy. We’d been practicing and then all of sudden we went bowling and I saw all these personalities I hadn’t seen on the basketball court.

“I mean, they’re throwing strikes and doing all these windmills down the lane and chest bumping. I thought it was great for us. I didn’t anticipate that would come out of bowling,” he went on. “Now, the next day in practice, you saw that personality was in there and I told them let it shine on the floor.

“When we have a big play and you and a teammate want to celebrate, go celebrate. That’s what it’s supposed to look like.”

As it was the safest place to be that day was standing in the pocket when the ball was let roll.

“We don’t have a lot of great bowlers. I didn’t see any future pro bowlers, but I’m not a great bowler evaluator, either,” DeVries said.

And no, none of the coaching staff is thinking of giving up its day job for the PBA Tour, either.

Some of this team building process is done on the court, too. A coach wants to know how his team and players react to adversity, so DeVries had to create that, too.

“I’m the ref every day. I give them plenty of bad calls. They look at it and I’m like, ‘I didn’t see it.'”

He is only half joking.

“We try to put them in situations where we can create some adversity. On every team there’s always a piece or two missing. In our case, we have so many new people we’re trying to fit together. The hardest thing is that you have to learn to win together.

“You are not always hitting 18 3’s every night. You have nights where you are 2 for 15 and you have to find a way to win. You are getting some tough calls or are on the wall, how do you find a way to win those games? Right now, it’s just me giving them bad calls.

“We’re getting there. It’s a process as well. A lot of times that doesn’t just happen on Nov. 4. It’s a season-long process of finding out how you fight through adversity and from a mental toughness standpoint find a way to win those games.

“Every single night, you learn something new about your team and every single practice you learn about your team. You just have to make sure you continue to take the steps you need to take to be more successful.

Things now seem to be taking hold for this new version of Mountaineer basketball.

“We have a much clearer idea of our identity as a coaching staff now,” DeVries said. “We know what we want it to look like and some of the roles are starting to get more defined. They’re certainly not set in stone. There’s guys competing for spots.”

And so Rodgers and Hammerstein ended their song:

Getting to know you,

Getting feel free and easy, when I am with you,

Getting to know what to say.

Haven’t you noticed

Suddenly I’m bright and breezy

Because of all the beautiful and new

Things I’m learning about you

Day by day.