Darian DeVries - New IUBB Head Coach

[AZ Hoosier]

12 hours ago, BehindTheBench said:

5th choice, says it all. Such incompetence by Scott to let it fall apart like this. Is this guy a top 10 coach in the country? Top 20? Top 50? We need to start to realize what we are. Outdated. Old. Forgotten. Irrelevant. Just an embarrassing day for Indiana Basketball.

Why is Indiana "Outdated. Old. Forgotten. Irrelevant" when we hire an up-and-coming younger coach like DeVries, but Kentucky and Louisville get a pass for hiring Pope and Kelsey, respectively, just last year? 

Stevens, Donovan, Wright, Few, Drew, Pearl, Otzelberger et al were not coming... get over that.

After the last 8 years, I get the "woe is me" schtick... but DeVries is a good hire who will work hard and make us proud... at the very least, he deserves a chance... damn...

[JustWinBaby]

59 minutes ago, Hoosier Guy said:

Are we seriously still ragging on certain posters?  Information is wrong sometimes.  It’s not life or death if someone isn’t always correct on a message board.  I’m thankful that posters like to share what they’re hearing at the time.

Folks were willing to get excited over rumors about Stevens and others, but I don't think most of us actually thought we'd be getting Stevens. Yes, I got a little rush every time RTZ dropped a gif or Yeagley popped in. It was silly fun. But I didn't assume they were correct, I just figured they were hearing positive things. That's just how rumors work, and rumors end up being A) not true, B) true, or C) true and then something changes. These things can be fluid, and what was true one day can be completely turned on its head the next.

It's not fair to call any of those posters trolls. Nor is it fair to put any of your disappointment in the hire on them. You are responsible for your own emotions. And you are responsible for deciphering what is worthy of credibility when there are rumors running rampant during a coaching search. There's always going to be misinformation, misdirection, and unsubstantiated rumors. Unless someone is intentionally pushing falsehoods, as in the case of our friend IsaacTor, I see no reason to blame them.

That is, unless you have to pay a monthly fee to hear what they have to say. Then a much greater degree of accuracy in their reporting should be expected.

[jonz44]

Kansas has consistently nailed championship basketball hires for 40 years. I think IU fans might be the ones in for a rude awakening if they think Kansas will make a small time hire. 

Kansas has not had to make a hire in the last 10 years or so. They might find the landscape is vastly different than it was 20 years ago.

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[AZ Hoosier]

1 hour ago, rayl456 said:

We’ve got an abundance of sour grapes right now…don’t we.  lol

Yep... we be making us some real sour whine.

[cleeter]

23 minutes ago, OKHOOSIER said:

We hired a guy who flipped Drake, flipped WVU, who had a top three transfer class in his first year, who has a top 25 high school class for next year, and continued having a decent year after losing his best player and from a P5 school. 
 

and people are pissed. Anyone who thinks it’s not a solid hire is living in fantasy land 

BUT BRAD!!!!

I think the best thing that can ever happen to this university is to forget that name from here on out. As long as "Brad" is involved, no one would ever be happy with the hire if it isn't him. 

[jonz44]

LOL. I'm not claiming everybody thought Woody was bad. 
I'm saying lots of people saw the issue with Woody and his lack of college experience.
I get that you're upset with the hire, but come on now. 
There were lots of people who were worried about Crean too. I remember going to Marquette's forum when he was hired and seeing how many people who happy that CTC was leaving for IU. That wasn't good at all. 
 

I wasn't near as concerned about his lack of college experience as I was about the mediocrity of his NBA experience. He was at IU what he was in the NBA. Mediocre.

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[ziggyiu]

I'm not excited or optimistic, but I also don't think this was a terrible hire. 

Partly I'm skeptical because IU has made horrible decisions for a quarter of a century, so nothing too much against DDV, but I have little reason to trust IU.

Also, my expectations were kind of slanted. I had started to believe in the possibility of a "big name" so this hire pales in comparison. 

Again, I suppose that's really nothing too much against DDV. That's more about my inability to stay level-headed and accept the trend in college basketball. 

I hope he's amazing and is everything we've missed the last 25 years. 

[JustWinBaby]

Aw man just got caught up on what's been going on the last hour or two and super bummed I missed @BehindTheBench's crashout happen in real time. That was a hysterically funny read though lol

[JustWinBaby]

Just now, ziggyiu said:

I'm not excited or optimistic, but I also don't think this was a terrible hire. 

Partly I'm skeptical because IU has made horrible decisions for a quarter of a century, so nothing too much against DDV, but I have little reason to trust IU.

Also, my expectations were kind of slanted. I had started to believe in the possibility of a "big name" so this hire pales in comparison. 

Again, I suppose that's really nothing too much against DDV. That's more about my inability to stay level-headed and accept the trend in college basketball. 

I hope he's amazing and is everything we've missed the last 25 years. 

I don't blame anyone for hoping we'd get a bigger name, but it's more important to get the right guy than win the press conference.

College basketball has changed. "Blue blood" programs cannot easily lure big name coaches away from places they're already finding success. Media rights deals and NIL (and soon revenue sharing) have significantly leveled the playing field. Everyone has cash and can use it. Almost any power conference program can become a powerhouse with the right coach, and a good coach can find success at many different programs.

Indiana swung for the fences like UK and Louisville did last year, and weren't successful. But they went and got the best guy available, and it worked out perfectly that IU and WVU missed the tourney so we could snag him immediately and get to work on the roster. This honestly couldn't have worked out much better.

Also, I've seen it multiple places now that Dolson and DeVries met back in November in the Bahamas. Dolson began researching him and vetting him at that time, and their conversations heated up over the past month. This isn't a hire that occurred spur-of-the-moment. It's been in the works for a while, and this was who Dolson zeroed in on for a number of reasons. Folks want to look at W/L records, and of course those matter - but I believe Dolson is smart enough to look beyond that. He identified the characteristics in a head coach that he believes would fit best at Indiana, and went and got that guy. Everything I hear about DeVries' work ethic, personality, and approach just makes me even more excited about the hire.

[iu eyedoc]

So I guess Drock isn't uniting the fan base?

[Hoosierfanyuh]

11 minutes ago, iu eyedoc said:

So I guess Drock isn't uniting the fan base?

He’d win ALOT of people over if he somehow got Mullins to come be a Hoosier, seems unlikely but that would be one thing that would help lol

[hoosiersoxfan]

1 hour ago, jonz44 said:

Kansas has not had to make a hire in the last 10 years or so. They might find the landscape is vastly different than it was 20 years ago.

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Try 22 years for Kansas since they’ve hired a coach. Counting DeVries, Kansas has had same amount of coaches in the last 60 years than IU has had in the last 10. 

[rcbowla]

Small point of contention but shouldn't it be D-Rock and not Drock. Drock sounds like a He-Man character.

[GloryDays]

5 hours ago, OliviaPope40 said:

So what do I win for pulling this one out.

Banned

[GloryDays]

5 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

There's too much wacky **** going on with Twitter in general but also within the IU sphere, for me to put much stock in that. 

I think Dolson was likely back channeling with DeVries and McCollum for weeks if not months and then like most dealmaking processes, things moved very quickly when it was time to close. DeVries missing the tournament helped expedite that process. That's what I'm telling myself anyway... Silat Player said something funny about spy novels... lol  

The Iowa people are shell shocked by DeVries spurning them and are now worried that McCollum may end up in Morgantown because of a relationship with the athletic director. I love it.

[MikeRoberts]

7 hours ago, BehindTheBench said:

Literally sit second row behind the bench / scorers table every home game. If you ever wanna use my tickets, let me know big guy 

Lean forward and say hello to Mr. Renneissen for me

[jonz44]

Try 22 years for Kansas since they’ve hired a coach. Counting DeVries, Kansas has had same amount of coaches in the last 60 years than IU has had in the last 10. 

I knew it had been over 20 years since they hired a coach. My 10 years reference was regarding how much the college landscape has changed in the last 10 years. Not sure if it's for the better but without a doubt it is significantly different than it was 10 years ago.

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[akumanina]

1 hour ago, iu eyedoc said:

So I guess Drock isn't uniting the fan base?

Well...I guess the plan is to win $hit load of games, and that will get everyone on board eventually. We expected Woody would at least unite the fanbase if not winning a lot of games, but he didn't even know Dane Fife was an IU guy. 

[JustWinBaby]

Some really interesting comments made by the 247sports WVU staff in their reaction podcast:

They confirmed that DeVries had been in talks with Indiana in some form or another for over a month.

They believe (but can't confirm) there was contact between Dolson and DeVries in the Bahamas (one of them even insinuated that DeVries may have known IU was going to open up and he'd be candidate, and that's why he elected to shut down Tucker DeVries for the season to preserve eligibility after just 8 games -- zero proof to this, but interesting he'd even suggest it).

DeVries had given Indiana a hard yes last week, and was waiting for tournament results to finalize and sign.

Once IU and WVU got snubbed, things were set in motion rapidly Sunday evening, and by Monday Dolson and DeVries met to finalize the contract. This wasn't the expected timeline, but it worked out perfectly for Indiana -- and better for WVU in the long run, since they can get going on their coaching search before the tournament begins.

Iowa was never really in the picture; they wanted DeVries, but not only were they way too late to the party, they lacked the firepower to contend with IU. It was also noted that Iowa lacks the NIL support that WVU has, so it would've been a pretty tough sell for Iowa to pry him away regardless; Iowa being "home" for DeVries was likely their main selling point. Once it became clear DeVries wasn't even entertaining an offer from Iowa, they knew he was gone. They felt they could compete with Iowa to keep him, but not Indiana.

They also anticipate nearly the entire roster to follow the head coach and/or assistants (wherever they end up).

That about sums up the portions relevant to Indiana. They rambled on a bit about what coaches they'll target, the new landscape of college basketball, the future of non-B1G/SEC power conference programs, etc.

I'll add this: the tone of the podcast was pure dejection. They had felt like they had their guy for the long haul in Morgantown, and had been extremely excited for the future with DeVries. They sounded incredibly bummed to lose him. I almost felt bad for them lol. I suppose that's how we'd feel if Cignetti packed up and headed out of town to take the Texas job or something after one year.

[IndyFife]

1 hour ago, akumanina said:

Well...I guess the plan is to win $hit load of games, and that will get everyone on board eventually. We expected Woody would at least unite the fanbase if not winning a lot of games, but he didn't even know Dane Fife was an IU guy. 

Wait, WHAT???  I had not heard that one…