When it came to learning how to optimize the father/son dynamic as coach/player in college basketball, Darian DeVries was able to witness a very effective template.
Doug McDermott had one of the best careers in college basketball history playing for his father Greg at Creighton from 2011 to 2014.
And there on the Creighton bench the entire time as an assistant coach was DeVries, who remembers one of the messages Doug had for his teammates.
“You guys can rip on my dad just like I’m going to do it too,” DeVries told Jeff Goodman on the Field of 68 podcast.
Also watching as a young boy was Tucker DeVries, son of Darian, who would begin playing for his father at Drake not much later in 2021.
Like Doug McDermott, Tucker has been a star of each of his father’s teams the last four years, creating a potential threat to team chemistry if the situation is not handled properly by everyone involved.
“On the floor and in the locker room, we want to make that as seamless as possible amongst him and his teammates,” Darian told Goodman.
What is Darian’s message to his son?
“You’re one of the guys. That’s your time (in the locker room), that’s your space. That has to be a place that you can go and be like everybody else,” Darian said. “Off the floor when we’re together we can go back to that father/son type of relationship.
“I thought Greg and Doug McDermott did a tremendous job with that. Part of it too is you have great teammates and they get it and understand it.”
One of Darian’s players and Tucker’s teammates in 2025-26 for Indiana will be someone who knows first hand what it’s like being one of the other players on a DeVries squad.
Conor Enright played for Darian and was Tucker’s teammate for two years at Drake before everyone went their separate ways a year ago.
Those were two highly successful seasons at Drake that saw the Bulldogs go 55-15 and reach two straight NCAA Tournaments.
So the results kind of do the talking when it comes to how the DeVries family handled the father/son dynamic.
But for his part, Enright never noticed any issues, as evidenced in part by Enright’s desire to play for/with the DeVries’ once again. And he certainly hasn’t noticed Darian taking it easier on his son.
“If anything I’ve noticed him (Darian) yelling at him (Tucker) more, coaching him harder,” Enright told TDH. “Not that he doesn’t coach other guys hard, but he’s getting on him more. So I’ve never thought that there’s been a problem with it. He does a good job with it.”
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