HoosierHuddle

To the original question of "can he play the 3"? The short answer is "he could" but I'd be pretty concerned about the defensive end if he was guarding quick players on the perimeter. WVU's defensive numbers were a bit better this season than they would have been if Tucker DeVries had been in the lineup all season. He's definitely best suited as a 4 but COULD play the 3, particularly if we had a good rim protector and a couple of other plus defenders in the lineup. It's going to be fascinating to see the puzzle get pieced together!

Very pleased with Darian DeVries as the hire. The next month or so should be exciting to see his staff get built and assemble a roster. Establishing the culture he wants to build starts immediately and will be absolutely to his success (or failure).

It was not the best conference in the country but there were still four teams in the top 15 in KenPom and 7 in the top 30. That's not terrible, particularly when navigating it with zero returning players from the season before (minus one player that redshirted) and without your best/second best player.

I just don't agree with you. I'm not saying DeVries is the best coach in the country but he's really quite good. He was an assistant at Creighton for a long time (both Altman and McDermott). West Virginia was dreadful before DeVries arrived and then went 10-10 in the very tough Big 12 this season and that was without Tucker DeVries playing a conference game. Without his son, WVU still beat Kansas at Phog Allen and Iowa State (when they were #2). With Tucker DeVries, they beat Gonzaga and Arizona in Atlantis and took Louisville to overtime. That's pretty darn good for a first-year in a power conference and a first year of a major rebuild. In addition, he landed three four-star recruits at West Virginia...not bad at all.

If the dream is dead and we move to the acceptance part of grief...I think Ben McCollum would be a really interesting hire. There would certainly be some questions but I'd be really excited for it and I think he could turn Indiana into a consistent pain in the neck for other teams to play. Beyond him: Chris Collins? Brad Brownell if he does not sign the extension with Clemson? No one cares but I'm going to write up some detailed thoughts on McCollum and hope to manifest it into existence.

I'm not telling anyone how to feel about Brad Brownell. Minds are already made up on this forum and that is totally fine. I don't expect anyone to remember but I've mentioned before that I live near Clemson and follow the program pretty closely. I don't know Brad Brownell personally but I do know people at my church that work for Clemson and have a personal relationship with him. To a person, people really like Brownell. He has grown a lot as an offensive coach and has adjusted the way his teams play in the past two years. He has a whole lot of connections in the state of Indiana and I believe he'd hire a staff that would help recruit in the state very successfully. If he's the choice, I wouldn't blame anyone for being underwhelmed but I hope he'd get a chance. Anyway, this podcast conversation was before this season began and he explains why he cares about basketball and how much he loves coaching...he's a true college basketball and coaching grinder and lifer: Rising Coaches Podcast Ep 81 - Brad Brownell

That actually sounds like a hilarious thing to watch. If the tournament occurs, it won't be nearly that much fun ha.

I appreciate everyone's information and the sharing that goes on here. I don't know who the hire will be. Neither does anyone else reading this board...except for you Scott Dolson, you probably know. That written, I watch a lot of college basketball but didn't allow myself to begin researching and diving into coaches and potential candidates until Mike Woodson was actually confirmed as being gone. Once that occurred, I have spent way too much time researching a whole lot of candidates, some of them were part of the search, others were almost certainly not. I've listened to interviews with a lot of the candidates, podcasts, read articles, watched games, looked at records/efficiency numbers/potential recruiting connections, thought about potential staffers, potential drawbacks for each candidate, etc. The more research I have done, the more guys I find that I am 100% convinced would be major upgrades and much more enjoyable to root for and follow than Mike Woodson has been. I do not know how many coaches have "championship ceilings" at IU but there are a whole lot of coaches that would significantly raise the bar year and year out at IU, if hired. I know that is not particularly insightful and I'd be happy to share my thoughts on particular guys if anyone cared to read them or was interested but I felt like sharing that. College basketball is fun and it has not been particularly fun for me to cheer for a Mike Woodson led team knowing what I know. Also, ESPN just showed the Notre Dame leprechaun for a solid 30 seconds and I had a visceral reaction. Notre Dame makes me irrationally angry.

Is Brad wearing the white ND quarter-zip and sitting two or three rows behind the ND bench? I hope he doesn't take too many ideas from what Shrewsberry is running at Notre Dame because they still look terrible and completely outclassed ha.

My post is not meant to denigrate Darian DeVries...he's a good coach. I do want to dive into a few things on his resume. 2018-2019 - Drake was 135th in KenPom - 137th offense/139th defense and 94th tempo 2019-2020 - 163rd overall - 189 O/155 D and 204 tempo 2020-2021 - 55th overall - 33rd O/101 D and 271 tempo 2021-2022 - 84th overall - 73rd O/113 D and 228 tempo 2022-2023 - 69th overall - 108 O/40 D and 220 tempo 2023-2024 - 53 overall - 40 O/73 D and 148 tempo Drake this season is 57 overall - 77th offense and 47th defense and 364 tempo West Virginia this season is 51 - 127 offense and 13 defense and 325 tempo In summary, DeVries has the benefit of a fantastic talent as his son and has not had a top 30 offense in seven seasons. He's had no teams that finished in the top 50 in KenPom. There might be stories of other coaches (guys like Shaka Smart, Grant McCasland, Buzz Williams) holding him in extremely high-regard but I have not seen them for DeVries as I have for a coach like McCollum. Now, he was an assistant at Creighton and does have one year of high-major experience and I do believe he is a good coach...I would personally give the edge to McCollum but it's all subjective. I just wanted to point out those numbers for a bit of context (albeit certainly not determinative).

I don't know if today will be quiet, full of "leaks" that don't illuminate or really tell us anything at all or just the continuation of the contentious debates on the general merits of various mid-major coaches but I appreciate any Danny DeVito GIFs...the man is a national treasure.

Who is DF? Also, are you saying Dan Dakich is publicly saying that Dr. Rink has pushed for Brad Brownell to be hired and has been doing so since Kelvin Sampson was the coach?

Among the things that stood out...a response to interviewing for jobs previously and not taking them and considering a piece of advice: "Only take a job that will let you be yourself." To paraphrase, do not take a job that will not let you run the program the way you want to run it. Would Ben McCollum think that IU, in its current situation, is a place he could be himself and run the program the way he wants to run it? Obviously, only he knows how to answer that question (if he was offered).

Losing the majority of his players? -MO Valley player of the year Bennett Stirtz - JR -2nd and 3rd leading scorers will both be gone -4th leading scorer Tavion Banks - JR -5th leading scorer Cam Manyawu - SO -6th leading scorer Isaia Howard - FR -7th leading scorer Kael Combs - SO So, of the top 7 scorers...two will be out of eligibility. Your questions are good ones but it's not accurate to say the majority of his players will be done.

I don't know how he would recruit high-end players. I don't know how he would deal with agents/handlers/player circles/etc. I don't know how much his preferred tempo would increase with better athletes and personnel...I just know that I really like watching basketball and I watch a lot of it and I DO know that I really enjoy watching Drake play and watching Ben McCollum coach.