There was no pomp and circumstance when new IU basketball coach Darain DeVries was introduced to the media last week in Bloomington.
No glitz, no glamor.
Let’s face it — DeVries wasn’t that kind of hire, and he’s being introduced to a fan base with no appetite for offseason hype.
Over the last 30 years, no team wins the offseason more than Indiana, and then disappoints once the ball tips.
And if you ask just about any IU fan right now what they think about DeVries, you’ll generally find a sentiment that goes something like this: “Seems like a decent hire, but he has to prove it.”
While DeVries may not have been the top choice among the fans, Indiana has hired a coach who seems to perfectly align with their mood at the moment.
DeVries arrives at IU with big aspirations, but he isn’t talking about that right now. The fans have their fingers crossed he’s the guy who can finally return the program to its former standing as a national power. But they don’t want to hear about that either.
Both sides seem to be in alignment.
“I know that where it all begins is with the work,” DeVries said last week. “It has to start and end there, because without that, you cannot have success.
“Resources certainly are a huge part of giving you those opportunities, but resources do not win games. We want to be a very process-oriented program with a core fabric built around that work.”
After being introduced last week, DeVries has hunkered down for long hours in an office inside Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
Things moved so fast, from both Indiana and his West Virginia program being left out of the NCAA Tournament on a Sunday, to IU confirming the hire on Tuesday, that a makeshift office was necessary just to give DeVries somewhere to set up shop.
There was no time to waste, because now going into his eighth year as a head coach and third tour at a new location, DeVries knows the decisions made over the month following his hire will carry with his team all the way through this time next year.
“I think the majority of your winning takes place on the very front end, your coaching staff, the players you bring into your program, what are their qualities, what’s important to them, are they self-starters, are they self-motivated, are they team players,” he said. “Those type of things are all important to us.”
The transfer portal opened for business just days after DeVries was hired. And if you know anything about the realities of the portal, conversations with potential transfers have been happening for months. So DeVries was starting off the lead lap.
Indiana’s roster is going to get a complete overhaul in the Mike Woodson to DeVries transition. Four players from the 2024-25 Hoosiers are out of eligibility, maybe five. And six more have announced they are transferring. It remains possible that not a single scholarship player will carry over to next season.
While Woodson was successful at luring high end talent to Bloomington, it seems like a fair criticism to say one of the shortcomings of his time at IU was what seemed like a lack of team chemistry. DeVries knows something about roster construction. He just completed a similar roster rebuild a year ago in Morgantown after completely overhauling a previously lackluster Drake program.
Success in the Big Ten over the last few decades has rarely been about amassing 5-star talent. The top programs over that span — Michigan State, Wisconsin, Purdue — have been about culture and team, and DeVries appears to be intent on laying a similar foundation.
“I think the biggest thing and where you can get yourself in trouble is you’re not building a collection of players,” he said. “You have to build a team, and a team has to be able to fit together, play together, win together, be able to function together.
“I think it’s critical that you make sure that every player’s motivation is the right motivation for why they want to be a part of your program. If their motivations are right and you get enough of those individuals with those same type of aspirations, now you have a chance to put a team together; you have a chance to win together.”
DeVries acknowledges Indiana has great fans and a storied past. While others have been turned off by comparable “fishbowl” jobs, he said he embraces the high profile nature of IU and everything that comes with it.
He considers Indiana one of college basketball’s premiere jobs, and gave up what he thought would be a long-term stay at a respectable high-major program in West Virginia to come to Bloomington.
But when it comes to living up to those lofty expectations and delivering the success IU fans are starving for, DeVries isn’t interested in making any bold proclamations.
“I’m not going to sit here and say we’re going to win this amount of games or that amount of games,” DeVries said. “We’re going to really focus on every day the process of what does it take to win games. If at the end of the day we’re really good at that, those things will happen.
“But our single priority is very narrowly focused on being elite at all those little things.
“The wins and losses, they’re going to work themselves out because if you can do all those things the way you need to do them and the way I believe we can do them, then the wins are going to come.
“Everything is in place here for us to have the opportunity to win and to win at a high level. Now our job is to make that happen.”
Less talk, focus on the details, no excuses.
After decades of frustration, that’s a welcomed approach for most Indiana fans.
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
