IOWA CITY, Iowa — NCAA heartbreak for Indiana and West Virginia turned into good fortune for the Hoosiers and more heartburn for the Mountaineers.
Just two days after the teams were the top two left out of the NCAA Tournament, Indiana hired former West Virginia coach Darian DeVries after a two-day courtship, the school announced Tuesday. DeVries, 49, replaces Mike Woodson, who stepped down at season’s end.
DeVries’ hiring marks a wild 48 hours for the coach and his former West Virginia program, which was the first team bumped from the NCAA Tournament. Monday, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced his state’s attorney general will launch an investigation into the NCAA Tournament selection process after North Carolina earned the final bid.
Throughout Monday and Tuesday, DeVries was in heavy discussions with Indiana, West Virginia and Iowa, which is his home state school. In the end, Indiana’s assurances of a robust name, image and likeness fund to acquire players swayed him to leave West Virginia for Assembly Hall.
Indiana also will likely land DeVries’ son, Tucker, should he receive a medical redshirt after playing in just eight games for West Virginia this season after suffering an upper-body injury that required season-ending surgery. Tucker DeVries was the Missouri Valley Conference player of the year in 2023-24, when he averaged 21.6 points per game for Drake.
Tucker DeVries is money from the midrange 🤑
Catch the second half action: https://t.co/qNCGUkxHwC#MarchMadness @DrakeBulldogsMB pic.twitter.com/CfGkGVRrJ0
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 22, 2024
Both the Hoosiers and Mountaineers finished 19-13 this season, but it marked the third time in four years Indiana missed the NCAA Tournament. Woodson, a former NBA coach with the New York Knicks and Atlanta Hawks, played for Bobby Knight, but the inability to compete for a Big Ten championship wore on the Hoosier faithful. Woodson finished his Indiana career at 82-53.
In his inaugural season with West Virginia, DeVries guided the Mountaineers to a 10-win improvement. From 2018 through 2024, DeVries led Drake to six consecutive 20-win campaigns, three NCAA Tournament berths and three Missouri Valley Conference championships. In seven seasons as a head coach, DeVries is 169-68 overall. He also served as an assistant at Creighton under Greg McDermott and Dana Altman for 17 seasons.
DeVries’ style of play harks back to the tenacity he showed as a college basketball player at Northern Iowa, where he scored 1,084 points. He was voted to the Missouri Valley Conference’s all-underrated team as a senior and was described in The Waterloo (Iowa) Courier as “one of heart, desire and a no-lose attitude.” He regularly had ice all over his body after games, and nobody took losses harder than DeVries.
DeVries’ teams at Drake and West Virginia played with grit, toughness and defense, which should be welcomed in Bloomington. The Mountaineers were ranked 15th in defensive efficiency this year by KenPom. DeVries has a football background as a two-time first-team all-state defensive back and quarterback. His younger brother, Jared, was an All-American defensive tackle at Iowa and played 12 years with the Detroit Lions.
(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)
