Nick Norton was an assistant coach this past season at West Virginia under new IU had coach Darian Devries.
Last night at the Indiana high school basketball state finals, Norton was seen wearing IU gear while sitting with DeVries, providing the clearest signal yet he’ll join the IU staff as an assistant.
So who is Nick Norton?
He’s been connected to DeVries for a long time.
Norton was named assistant coach/director of player development for the Mountaineers on April 3, 2024, not long after DeVries was announced as the head coach.
In a scenario similar to what seems to have unfolded at IU, Norton was DeVries’ first assistant hired at West Virginia.
“It was just us two for a couple weeks there,” Norton said earlier this year on an appearance on The Darian DeVries Show.
A native of Bloomington, Illinois, he spent the three prior seasons on DeVries’ staff at Drake, helping the Bulldogs to an 80-26 (.755) record with two NCAA Tournament appearances and two Missouri Valley Conference titles.
“Nick is a hard worker who brings great enthusiasm and tremendous energy to our basketball program,” DeVries said when Norton was announced at West Virginia a year ago. “He always has a great rapport with our players and has a strong basketball IQ. Nick fits our basketball staff and our program extremely well.”
Norton joined the Drake staff during the 2021-22 season as assistant director of operations and was elevated to director of operations prior to the 2022-23 season. In 2024-25 he was promoted to assistant coach/director of player development.
Norton began his collegiate career at UAB (2014-18), making 97 starts for the Blazers. He was named All-Conference USA Third Team as a sophomore, averaging 8.9 points per game and leading the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.
He transferred to Drake to play for DeVries in 2018 and averaged 14.0 points, 5.9 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game before an injury ended his collegiate career.
In 2019, Norton signed with the South Bay Lakers of the NBA G League, appearing in two games before stepping away due to injuries. His father, Randy, is the head women’s basketball coach at UAB.
A team can have five assistants and three are designated as off-campus recruiters. Norton now appears certain to take one of those spots.
Meanwhile, former IU walk-on and one-year DeVries assistant Kory Barnett was named the new head coach at Oral Roberts, meaning he won’t be returning to Bloomington. A source tells TDH former IU and DeVries assistant Tom Ostrom won’t be coming to Indiana either. Whether DeVries’ other two West Virginia assistants — Chester Frazier and Cavel Witter — join him at IU is still to be determined.
Also seen interacting with DeVries Saturday evening and at times sitting next to him was Cincinnati assistant coach Drew Adams, who did not appear to be wearing the apparel of any team. Adams is from Bloomington, played at Iowa for Steve Alford, coached under Alford at New Mexico, and was on Tom Crean’s staff briefly at IU. He has deep connections to the Indiana prep circuit through his father’s role with the Indiana Elite Adidas AAU program.
The completion of the staff could take more time. It took three months at West Virginia for DeVries a year ago as the coaching carousel played out.
DeVries did not know Frazier or Barnett prior to the West Virginia staff, and Ostrom briefly took a job at Vanderbilt before changing his mind. DeVries was set to hire his former assistant Marty Richter before Richter took a head coaching position at South Carolina Upstate.
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