Injury and Recovery Updates on Tucker DeVries, Joseph Yesufu

WVU forward Tucker DeVries (shoulder) and guard Joseph Yesufu (hip) both have been recovering from injuries this summer as they transition into the Mountaineer program. Head coach Darian DeVries provided updates on both players on Tuesday.

DeVries mentioned that his son, Tucker, has been cleared for contact as of last week. DeVries hopes for Yesufu that he’s slowly getting back into the swing of things by the time school starts in mid-August.

“[Tucker] didn’t get cleared until last week. It was the first time he got to play with full contact. It’s been almost four months that he wasn’t allowed to a whole lot of anything that had contact in it,” DeVries said. “We’re still being somewhat careful with it, picking and choosing some spots.”

Tucker had surgery on his shoulder after Drake fell in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in March. At the time, Tucker was not too worried about his recovery process. Now for the back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year, it’s about getting back into basketball shape.

“Shoulder has been good. I’ve had no real problems with it. I think most of it now is just getting back into game shape and even practice shape,” Tucker said on Tuesday. “It’s kind of a mental thing of just trying to trust it again. Battled it for most of the season so I was protecting it a lot. Just trying to get back to the point where I can not even think about what I’m doing with it.”

For Yesufu, he also suffered his injury last season, while at Washington State. DeVries is optimistic on the progress Yesufu is making recovery-wise.

“So far he’s right on schedule. We’ll continue to hopefully make progress there. I think he feels good about where he’s at. I think when we come back from the Italy trip our plan is to start to work him into some half-court stuff and some drill work. Then take it from there,” DeVries said.

WVU opened up practice to the media on Tuesday. Here’s a look at the many new faces for the Mountaineers.