With the news Darian DeVries is hiring Kenny Johnson to be an assistant coach on his staff, IU basketball now has three assistants available to recruit the transfer portal and high school ranks as they look to rebuild the roster.
Johnson will join Nick Norton, who followed DeVries from West Virginia and Drake and has been confirmed by Indiana, and former Cincinnati assistant Drew Adams, who has not been confirmed but has been reported to be leaving the Bearcats and has been seen out on the road recruiting with DeVries.
A later Friday report after this story was published indicated IU is hiring Bradley assistant Mike Bargen as well, but his role with the program is not clear.
Collectively those four and DeVries will work to fill at least eight spots on the roster. The next couple months will be a critical stretch in the transfer portal, and high school basketball spring and summer action is beginning now too. Indiana players generally report to campus in early June, and the NBA Draft early withdrawal deadline is June 15. That latter date is typically the time when the the final round of late roster additions take place.
College basketball staffs can have five assistants, so it is possible DeVries’ main group is still under development, along with lower level roles.
At this point it seems unlikely anyone from Mike Woodson’s prior staff will be kept by DeVries. Former Woodson assistant Yasir Rosemond is headed to LSU, and Kenya Hunter is going to Texas, both as assistant coaches. The status of the rest of the Woodson staff remains uncertain.
Additionally, TDH expects strength and conditioning coach Ryan Horn to follow DeVries from West Virginia to take over that role from Clif Marshall.
And we also expect Garrett Sturtz, who played for DeVries at Drake and was his Director of Basketball Operations at West Virginia, at IU in some capacity.
Here is a summary of what we know for DeVries’ staff:
- Nick Norton – assistant coach
- Drew Adams – assistant coach
- Kenny Johnson – assistant coach
- Mike Bargen – to be determined*
- Ryan Horn – strength and conditioning coach
- Garrett Sturtz – to be determined
*Based on initial reports.
Here are some other assistant coach candidates who have been reported or rumored to be part of DeVries’ search for a new staff. At least one appears to be off the board, and possibly all of them at this point:
- Preston Murphy — Alabama assistant. Was a former fellow assistant with DeVries at Creighton under Greg McDermott. Jeff Goodman of Field of 68 is reporting on Friday Murphy plans to stay at Alabama.
- Achoki Moikobu — Texas Tech assistant. Was a former DeVries assistant at Drake.
- Chris Capko — SMU assistant.
- Rod Clark — Tennessee assistant.
We’ll continue to report on the development of the new IU basketball staff as it unfolds.
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