West Virginia’s Darian DeVries set to become the new Indiana basketball head coach

The Indiana basketball program has its new coach and that is by way of West Virginia’s Darian DeVries.

Indiana basketball announced the news Tuesday night.

After Clemson head coach Brad Brownell and Drake head coach Ben McCollum were the two names generating the most buzz, news began to circulate on Tuesday that DeVries and Indiana had mutual interest.

West Virginia failed to make the NCAA Tournament in DeVries first year as the head coach of the Mountaineers, but not without major pushback from numerous people nationally. They were the first team out of the field despite a 19-13 record and 10-10 record in Big 12 play. WVU had notable wins over Gonzaga and Arizona on neural sites, at Kansas and at home against Iowa State.

The selection committee seemed to ding the Mountaineers on the fact that one of their best players and Darian’s son, guard Tucker DeVries, missed most of the season with an injury.

“At the end of the day, that was impactful, and that was part of our decision-making process as we were evaluating West Virginia, which is obviously when Tucker DeVries was there, that’s when they beat Arizona, that’s when they beat Gonzaga, and as Bubba said, since that time they were 13-11,” Selection Committee Vice Chair Keith Gill said. “That’s not taking anything away from their season. They had a great year. It’s just that the committee felt like that wasn’t enough to kind of earn that last spot.”

Darian DeVries spent the previous six years at Drake, leading them to a 150-55 overall record with three NCAA Tournament appearances. He also spent 17 years as an assistant at Creighton before taking over at Drake, working under Dana Altman and then Greg McDermott. 

He’s 1-3 in his career in the NCAA Tournament, with his one win coming in the First Four in 2021.

DeVries, 49, runs a slower tempo offense that hasn’t always been extremely efficient. In his years at Drake, he only had one season with an adjusted tempo ranked inside the 100s and just one more inside the top-200. He did have two years inside the top-50 in adjusted offensive efficiency. 

This year at West Virginia, the Mountaineers ranked 329th in tempo and 131st in offensive efficiency. They did rank 15th in defensive efficiency. They also ranked 38th in the nation in percent of points from three despite shooting just 32.6 percent as a team. Before Tucker DeVries went down with an injury, they were shooting 35.3 percent from three as a team.

DeVries is originally from Aplington, Iowa and played college basketball at Northern Iowa. 

DeVries takes over an Indiana basketball program that finished this year 19-13 and 10-10 in Big Ten play, and the second team out of the NCAA Tournament behind West Virginia. Former IU head coach Mike Woodson spent four years with the Hoosiers, going 82-53 over his tenure and helping IU get to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first two years.

Indiana basketball has missed the NCAA Tournament in nine of the last 15 seasons.

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