Nearly four years ago, Mike Woodson stood at the wooden podium in front of an Indiana backdrop, speaking to the media during his introductory press conference.
The then-new Indiana men’s basketball head coach seemed the perfect candidate to return the Hoosiers to the top of college basketball — a former player under Bob Knight with head coaching experience, albeit in the NBA.
But the Hoosiers never returned to the top, settling for two moderately successful seasons and two more mediocre ones. Compiling an 82-53 record, Woodson finished his tenure with the second-best winning percentage at Indiana since Knight, only behind Kelvin Sampson’s short stint from 2006-08.
Now, the Hoosiers turn to Darian DeVries, someone few people had on their hot board for the vacancy. Despite that, this might be exactly what Indiana needs to return to prominence.
Except this time, instead of wishful hopes and dreams that accompanied Woodson’s hiring, facts provide the basis of reasoning for why DeVries will bring success.
“Again, 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 Wednesday in his introductory press conference. “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.”
DeVries spent one season at West Virginia University, finishing the season with a 19-13 record — identical to Indiana. The Mountaineers were the first team to miss the NCAA Tournament, one spot in front of the Hoosiers, and yet, they finished with 6-10 in Quad 1 games and didn’t have a single Quad 3 or 4 defeat.
By and large, the college basketball landscape didn’t expect much from DeVries at his new school. Ahead of the 2024-25 season, DeVries inherited a West Virginia squad that had finished 9-23 and dead last in the Big 12 Conference a year earlier. The Big 12 preseason poll featured the Mountaineers at No. 13 in the 16-team conference.
Some of West Virginia’s best wins included victories against the University of Arizona and Gonzaga University in the Battle 4 Atlantis, as well as an away triumph over the University of Kansas and a home win over Iowa State University. However, its resume was not enough to grant it a berth in March Madness.
Missing the Big Dance and finishing with sub-20 wins sounds just like Indiana’s most recent seasons. So, what makes DeVries the guy to right the proverbial ship in Bloomington?
He wins, recruits and has experience. There’s not much else to it.
In his six seasons from 2018-24 at Drake University, DeVries secured a 150-55 record and three NCAA Tournament appearances. He finished below second place in the Missouri Valley Conference only once, the same year March Madness was cancelled for the COVID-19 pandemic.
At Drake, DeVries never finished with a recruiting class higher than 94th in the nation. But in 2024 with West Virginia, he held the No. 6 transfer class, and before joining the Hoosiers, DeVries had the No. 23 high school recruiting class in the nation according to 247Sports.
“In our ideal world we would build it from the high school up,” DeVries said about his recruiting strategy. “This first year, that's not possible. We're going to have to fill some holes in the roster through the portal, and then your hope is in each year, you might lose a guy or two.”
Then, what DeVries hopes for is an established group of players with few replacements each year, creating “consistency” within the roster.
But just recruiting is not a telltale sign of success. Look to Woodson — his 2024 transfer class was No. 2, but with all the talent, Indiana never looked cohesive and comfortable on the court.
DeVries can change that.
His winning followed him at every stop in his relatively young head coaching career. Turning a 9-win program into 19 wins in one season is no small feat. And while on the surface, West Virginia and Indiana finished with the same number of wins, the Mountaineers saw marked improvement from the prior year while the Hoosiers followed up a 19-win season with another 19-win season.
For DeVries, recruitment doesn’t just revolve around a “collection of players.” He wants to build a team.
“So, 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,” DeVries said. “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.”
Finally, DeVries has experience. Even though he just barely missed the cusp of an NCAA Tournament berth, he's no stranger to the grind of coaching college basketball.
Ultimately, DeVries is not an orthodox choice. He’s not the Dusty May of this coaching cycle — the current Michigan head coach and Indiana alum who was two years removed from a Final Four appearance and was one of the hottest mid-major coaches in the nation. He's not a massive name like Bruce Pearl, Scott Drew or Brad Stevens, all people who had links to the vacancy.
DeVries is seemingly just a standard coach — one who understands what is needed to be a successful, contending team and will now have to resources to rebuild one of the premier college basketball programs in the country.
Just like with Woodson, it appears a shining beacon of hope has been cast upon Bloomington. For the next seven months, very little will deter that.
Only this time, that hope will be the changing force to reestablish Indiana at the top of college basketball. And DeVries will be remembered as the man responsible for that.
Follow reporters Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) and Quinn Richards (@Quinn_richa) and columnist Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s basketball offseason.
