Introducing Darian DeVries

Indiana Men's Basketball has its next head coach -- Darian DeVries, from West Virginia (and Drake).

Perhaps the most impressive fact you will read in this BSB is that since Drake Men’s Basketball’s first season of 20+ games in 1917, the program had won 20+ games on just four occasions (1969-1971, 2008); then, when Darian DeVries was hired as head coach in 2018, he immediately led the Bulldogs to six consecutive seasons of 20+ wins. He also led them to three NCAA Tournament appearances, something the program had done only four times – those aforementioned 20-win seasons – before him.

That is Indiana’s next men’s basketball head coach, the University announced on March 18.

Here at Bite-Sized Bison, we will focus on metrics and data, but there has been some great reporting/analysis on the topic in the last week, thanks to many local contributors. I’ll list some below that I found particularly informative:

• Darian DeVries Introduction Press Conference (Inside The Hall)

• Behind the scenes of Indiana basketball hiring Darian DeVries as new coach (Mike Niziolek and Zach Osterman)

• Darian DeVries Full Film Breakdown (Tony Adragna)

• New Head Coach Darian DeVries: Coach's Perspective (Hoosiers Connect)

• Indiana has a new coach (CrimsonCast)

• Darian DeVries’ WVU staff had several IU basketball ties (The Daily Hoosier)

• Darian DeVries is an unorthodox hire. He’s just who Indiana men’s basketball needs (Indiana Daily Student)

DeVries comes to Indiana from West Virginia, where he served as the Mountaineers’ head coach for one season – leading the largest turnaround in program history (more on this later). After pulling eight players, including his son Tucker DeVries, from the portal before the 2025 season, DeVries set out to patchwork a team that was already coming off a Big 12 last-place (9-23) season. Leading into this season, the Big 12 coaches projected West Virginia to finish 13th in the conference, but the Mountaineers finished 8th (19-13) and somewhat controversially missed the NCAA Tournament.

This is all to say that piecing together the 2025 West Virginia team – plus losing Tucker DeVries and Jayden Stone, who were two of the top returning scorers in the sport – is not going to lead to the most accurate look into what a Darian DeVries team may look like, particularly when comparing the WVU profile with Indiana’s. But have a look for yourself…