Developing an in-state pipeline is important to new IU basketball coach Darian DeVries, and he appears to have landed a well connected assistant coach with deep ties in the Hoosier State.
According to a report by the Cincinnati 247Sports site, Indiana is hiring Cincinnati assistant coach Drew Adams to join DeVries’ staff. That outlet is reporting Adams will have both a bench and recruiting role at IU.
Indiana has not yet confirmed the hire. Adams was seen talking and at times sitting next to DeVries Saturday at the Indiana high school basketball state finals.
A source tells The Daily Hoosier DeVries tried to hire Adams a year ago when he took over at West Virginia.
Adams appears set to join former DeVries assistant and player Nick Norton as the new staff members thus far with an assistant coach title.
Adams joined Cincinnati in October 2022 as the Associate Athletics Director for Men’s Basketball. He was previously an assistant coach at Bradley the previous seven years (2015-22). He helped the Braves to a complete rebuild that resulted in consecutive Missouri Valley Conference Championships for the first time in school history.
Adams joined Bradley after four seasons at the University of New Mexico, where he helped the Lobos to a 99-36 (.733) overall record, including a 45-21 (.682) tally in the Mountain West Conference. He initially joined the New Mexico staff in 2011-12 as Director of Operations for IU legend Steve Alford, was promoted to assistant coach for the 2012-13 season and remained on Craig Neal’s staff his final two seasons.
Adams, who played for Alford during the 2006-07 season at Iowa, began his coaching career as a student assistant at Tennessee.
After graduating from Tennessee in 2009, Adams spent two years on Tom Crean’s staff at Indiana, first as Coordinator of Basketball Systems in 2009-10 before being promoted to Director of Operations for the 2010-11 season.
He also has coached on the AAU level for the Indiana Elite program. His father Mark is one of the individuals who run Indiana Elite.
Adams began his collegiate playing career at Florida Community College of Jacksonville where he was team captain as a sophomore in 2005-06 before transferring to Iowa.
A 2004 graduate of Bloomington High School South, Adams spent three years playing for head coach J.R. Holmes. During his senior season at South, the Panthers won Conference Indiana and he was selected as team captain, was the team’s leading scorer and was an all-conference selection.
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