3 things Darian DeVries brings to Indiana basketball: 'He's pretty demanding'
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball’s new coach Darian DeVries will be introduced at Assembly Hall on Wednesday afternoon.
Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson will get an opportunity to talk about how the hire came together and the press conference will allow DeVries a chance to outline his vision for the Hoosiers, but fans looking to get some early insight into both those topics can look back over the last 12 months.
Here’s three quotes that help explain why IU hired DeVries and what he will bring to the table as coach:
The substance of Baker’s description is similar to the one Scott Dolson shared in a statement the team released on Tuesday night. Dolson said he knew DeVries was the right fit for the job after hearing his plan "for building a championship culture."
It’s reminiscent of what Dolson said when he touted the "winning blueprint" that Curt Cignetti laid out for him in their first sit down meeting. Dolson runs the athletic department the same way, and his approach is tied directly to his experience working as a student manager under former Indiana coach Bob Knight.
Knight taught Dolson about having a clear-eyes approach to program-building.
“It's still the way I work today,” Dolson said in an interview with The Herald-Times in August 2023. “He really had a system, he knew this is how we are going to recruit, this the type of players we want, this how we are going to develop them and this how we are going to play.”
DeVries' vision has won over multiple athletic directors in the same year.
What will IU’s style of play be like?
DeVries has stressed the importance of being adaptable in recent years — he had to replace double-digit scholarship players in each of his last two seasons as coach — but there’s been some core principles he leans into.
He values defensive rebounding and limiting turnovers, things he traces back to the year’s he spent as assistant under Dana Altman and Greg McDermott at Creighton. He also emphasizes getting out into transition and trying to get as many points against a “broken defense” as possible.
The approach has worked — DeVries has won 71.3% of his games as a head coach and made the NCAA Tournament three times in seven seasons.
Tucker knows Darian’s approach better than anybody. He was in high school when his dad became a first-time head coach at Drake and had a front row seat to him building out his first coaching staff and roster.
“I think my mom would get annoyed that all the dinner table conversation was about basketball,” Tucker said with a laugh.
He went on to play for his father — he was a three-year starter at Drake then joined him in Morgantown — and is widely expected to finish out his collegiate career at Indiana.
Tucker, who has aspirations of his own of getting into the coaching ranks, also spoke about the added pressure that comes with playing for his dad.
“There’s expectations, there's a lot of accountability to bringing it every day and his expectations, my expectations, the outside's expectations are all higher,” he said. “You are going to get judged a little bit differently than everyone else."
Michael Niziolek is the Indiana beat reporter for The Bloomington Herald-Times. You can follow him on X @michaelniziolek and read all his coverage by clicking here.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Indiana basketball: Three things new Hoosiers coach Darian DeVries brings to the program
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