JustWinBaby

I know we joke a lot about him, but on a serious note -- I really want to understand why/how that guy was the first man on the bench all four years of Woodson's tenure. Just totally unserious by this program to let the head coach give such an important position on the bench to a guy that actively did nothing. It is crazy to me that this was ever even a thing. The more I think about the Woodson tenure, the more amazed I am that he won as many games as he did. This should've gone the Juwan Howard/Kenny Payne route but somehow he stayed just barely above water in terms of wins and losses.

I appreciate you sharing. It seems to me like no one person has the full story, but bits and pieces. Reading what various insiders here and elsewhere have said can help build out the timeline and put together an (admittedly vague) understanding of what happened behind the scenes. It's still unclear if Stevens was ever truly a "yes," to me it seems like there was a different "big fish" potentially on the hook that didn't pan out. I've seen Jay Wright mentioned, but I don't know. Regardless, what does seem pretty clear is that Indiana was in talks with DeVries for several weeks, and he had a high degree of interest in the job. I'd much rather have a guy that really wants to be here than a guy that has to be begged to take the job. Let's get to work. Edit: According to Kathy, Stevens was never a yes. Which wouldn't surprise me at all. But someone was out there pushing the rumor that Stevens was coming, and I think that's what many of our insiders were hearing.

Warde Manuel, the AD at Michigan

Wow why didn't I think of that? ;)

Perhaps if we just hired a Greg McDermott protégé?

Personally I find reading about all this quite fascinating. I'm happy with who we got and am optimistic about the future. But it is fun to hear some of the behind-the-scenes stuff. Learning about how these things happen is interesting.

Dang Creighton plays such a fun style of ball. Wonder what that kind of offense would look like at IU?

Good Lord, Creighton

DRock feels like something his players and coaches call him -- people who know him personally -- not something fans call him. But that's just me.

Archie's been gone for four years and we're still doing postmortems on his tenure lol, he really did a number on this fanbase. Archie Miller was a poorly vetted coach, frankly. That's all there is to it. He was a bad fit for the program because of who he is, not necessarily because he is a bad coach -- and I still believe he's a decent coach, he's just in a shitty situation at Rhode Island, and frankly the IU job may have broken his spirit a bit. If he'd never left Dayton I think he'd still have that program rolling. The reason I trust Dolson is because of the process through which he hired Cignetti. He didn't look at wins and losses, he looked at the character traits that led to the wins and losses. He identified the type of leader IUFB needed and got him. I believe he had a very similar, if not even more refined, process for the basketball coaching search. And in the introductory press conference, both he and Whitten discussed the traits they had been looking for, and that DeVries "met or exceeded" all of the criteria. And then DeVries spoke and confirmed that for us. Sure, it's just words and we'll have to see the on-court product. But this felt starkly different from the Woodson and Miller introductory press conferences. There was a much clearer description of the vetting and hiring process that IU underwent, and a much clearer vision for how Coach DeVries wants to build the program.

CDV is my vote. Rolls off the tongue way better if you sound out CDD vs CDV. Also looks better visually, and IMO gets the point across more effectively since the V in his name is unique (not a lot of V names out there) and identifiable, and as mentioned before, the V in his last name is actually the first letter of a noun (the "De" just means of/from, "Vries" is a proper noun placename). In Dutch the "de" would not be capitalized -- his name would be stylized "Darian de Vries" for instance. CDD will always annoy me and I'll never use it. I'd rather just type out his last name personally. But that's just me.

The... the V is capitalized though...

Two different audiences, TV vs online. TV viewers for the most part are casuals and they tune in to watch games but don't really value analysis. So they'll believe whatever they hear from the "expert" panel. TV analysts are told to just speak in an authoritative tone, even if they don't actually believe what they're saying themselves. Online college basketball fans are actual fans of the sport and generally far more knowledgeable. They also can call BS much more easily, and have a direct line of communication with the talking heads. Thus any online analyst has to be smarter about they way they speak, and try harder to connect with fans rather than approach them with condescension and arrogance.

I feel like CDV makes the most sense. CDD looks and sounds weird. D3 and DDD are DOA. DRock is too personal; that's what you call someone you know well and interact with regularly. We are not those people. Coach DeVries. CDV. That's my vote. Edit to add: in Dutch, the name DeVries would be stylized de Vries. Really the capitalized letter should be the V, which is the first letter of a proper noun (Vries, the Dutch word for Friesland). The name means "of Friesland" in Dutch. Friesland is a region of northern Netherlands, for context. So CDV even can work for Coach Darian DeVries. Maybe I'm making too much of this. Just giving my thoughts. lol this really doesn't matter

His coaching job in Albany against Miami in the first round of the tourney in 2023 was very impressive. One or two missed shots away from winning that game. Miami would go on to beat IU to a pulp en route to the Final Four that year. Drake gave them their toughest game of the tourney until UConn.

Good. Woodson never should've offered him. He sucks. Funny thing is that now he's getting lots of interest from other programs. Woody played 900 IQ chess on that one lol

Raw W/L is kind of pointless. Knight coached at Army which was extremely difficult to recruit to. Painter had a bunch of top Indiana recruits land in his lap while Indiana was dealing with the Sampson fallout. Also I question some of these stats. I questioned Greg Gard's win % and just checked and it was 62% through his first 7 seasons. So don't take this list as gospel.

Dude, DeVries himself said in the press conference that IU was respectful of him during the process as he was still coaching. He openly stated that IU courted him while he was coaching at WVU. This was in the works for weeks. WVU insiders confirmed that he had given IU a "hard yes" sometime last week, and that IU had been in touch with him going back at least a month, maybe longer. This wasn't a panic move. This was many weeks, maybe months, in the works. This was who Scott targeted, for a variety of reasons. Just go listen to the introductory press conference.

My guess is Tucker's NIL compensation is already worked into the deal. NIL was a huge point of emphasis for DeVries and the reason he was never willing to even consider the Iowa job.

If anyone would like to watch a really great example of how a DeVries-coached team plays, here's the extended highlights from 2023 (12) Drake vs (5) Miami. The game basically came down to one possession, and Drake missed a 3 to tie it near the end. This is the same Miami team that bludgeoned Indiana to death in the second round and made a Final Four run (where they lost to eventual champion UConn). And DeVries' Drake team had them on the ropes. Aside from the UConn loss, this was Miami's closest game of the tourney. One thing I found interesting in watching this: being a highlight video, it basically shows no missed shots, but even on Drake's defensive possessions when they gave up points, the discipline of the defense is there. Often times Miami just hit really tough shots. Drake looked to be the better team when it came to fundamentals and offensive gameplan.

I don't expect Goode to win his appeal frankly. Hoping for the best though.

Would love to see him at IU. I sincerely doubt WVU hires him as HC but you never know. But he's a really solid coach and an excellent recruiter. He was instrumental in putting together WVU's top 25 freshman class and top 3 portal class.

I personally do not care who is retained. Sounds harsh. But I want DeVries to do his due diligence putting together a new roster. Rice came here for the money, as did Carlyle and Ballo. I'm not saying they aren't good players, but chasing a bag is not the best sign that a guy's priorities are in order.