The white smoke has emerged from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Indiana basketball has a new head coach.
So what are the Hoosiers getting in Darian DeVries?
A winner
First and foremost, they’re getting a guy who’s been a consistent winner throughout his head coaching career. DeVries spent six seasons at the helm at Drake, which had made just one NCAA Tournament since 1971 when he started. In fact, the Bulldogs finished only five seasons with at least 18 wins in that span. And DeVries managed to post six consecutive 20-win seasons, with three NCAA Tournament appearances — including one as an at-large team in 2021, which is notable for a team from the Missouri Valley Conference.
He snapped the streak of 20-win campaigns this year at West Virginia, but he still did an impressive job in Morgantown. WVU lost one of its best players — Darian’s son, Tucker, who won MVC Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024 — to injury for the rest of the season in December. But he still had the Mountaineers in position to make the NCAA Tournament at 19-13. They became the first team projected to make the field of 68 by every bracket in Bracket Matrix to get left out.
Slow but effective
DeVries’ teams display some clear stylistic trends on the court. If fans were hoping IU’s next coach would deploy fast-paced, high-scoring basketball, they might be a little disappointed. Only one of DeVries’ seven teams has finished in the top 100 of KenPom’s adjusted tempo; that came in his first season at Drake, when it finished 94th. Just one other DeVries team — his 2024 Bulldogs — finished in the top 200. This year’s West Virginia squad was his slowest-paced team yet, finishing 329th. Those tempo rankings are similar enough on Bart Torvik to tell the same story: DeVries relies on limiting the number of possessions in games on both ends of the court, which leaves both his team and opponents with thinner margin for error.
DeVries won 24 games in his first year at Drake — with an MVC regular-season title — and 20 games his second year. But it took him a few years to really get his teams playing the way he envisioned. It hasn’t been completely consistent, but the KenPom adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency rankings suggest DeVries emphasizes defense. His last three teams — Drake in 2023-24, and WVU this year — all finished in the top 100 in adjusted defensive efficiency. The Mountaineers particularly excelled on that end, ranking 15th in the country.
These teams don’t completely ignore offense, though. Drake’s at-large team in 2021, which won its First Four game at Mackey Arena, finished 33rd in the country in adjusted offensive efficiency. The Bulldogs also ranked 40th in 2024. DeVries’ teams finished outside the top 100 in four of his seven years, but just twice since those first two seasons.
Greater 3-point emphasis
One of Indiana’s biggest flaws throughout the Mike Woodson era was its struggles with outside shooting. The Hoosiers shot better than 34 percent from 3-point range as a team only once in Woodson’s four seasons in Bloomington. Drake topped that figure in each of DeVries’ six years at Drake. The Mountaineers shot just 32.6 percent on threes this year, but Tucker’s injury is at least part of the reason for that.
The even more glaring aspect of Indiana’s 3-point woes under Woodson was low volume. The Hoosiers finished 291st in the country this season with just 19.8 3-point attempts per game, and it was even worse in other years — 15.5 attempts per game in 2024 (353rd in the nation), 15.5 in 2023 (352nd), and 17.7 in 2022 (319th).
DeVries clearly places greater value on the 3-point line. His teams exceeded 20 attempts per game in six of his seven seasons as a head coach, and he appears to have increased his emphasis on outside shooting over the last few years.
- 2025 West Virginia: 26.5 attempts per game (50th in the country)
- 2024 Drake: 23.4 attempts per game (109th in the country)
- 2023 Drake: 21 attempts per game (197th)
- 2022 Drake: 20.1 attempts per game (249th)
- 2021 Drake: 19 attempts per game (273rd)
- 2020 Drake: 20.9 attempts per game (202nd)
- 2019 Drake: 22.3 attempts per game (173rd)
Some of the statistical fluctuations — both with those 3-point numbers and some of the offensive and defensive efficiency rankings — could depend on personnel. But for an IU program that so often lacked an identity under Woodson, DeVries seems to have a clear preferred style.
And that style has produced winning seasons.
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