Darian DeVries - New IUBB Head Coach

[MrBBall]

3 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

I think the staff has to come together between now and the weekend. Then the portal opens Monday so should have a couple of players lined up by then. Exciting times

I think he brings his whole staff with him. Will be interesting to see what he does with S&C coach

[Artie86]

1 minute ago, Chris007 said:

I think the staff has to come together between now and the weekend. Then the portal opens Monday so should have a couple of players lined up by then. Exciting times

....Oh, man, you're right! That staff has to be the #1 thing he does first, then the rest will fall into place. 

If you get specific assistants to come aboard, you get certain recruits or players to follow too.

[Chris007]

Just now, MrBBall said:

I think he brings his whole staff with him. Will be interesting to see what he does with S&C coach

I hope he does but I did see where Kory interviewed for the Oral Roberts job and some people are wanting Frazier to get an interview at WV.  But both are really good assistants. I'm sure Kory wants to come home

[Helgo]

1 minute ago, MrBBall said:

I was skeptical and a bit angry at the choice a few days ago. The inability to get one of the big two was very frustrating. 
 

I’ll say I did like his press conference and Tony’s breakdown of how he runs a program. In addition I heard nice dialogue of DeVries’ plan against Gonzaga in Atlantis, purposefully slowing down the pace when he usually likes to get out and run. He knew The Zags like transition so he played a slower game. Worked out for him and they won. 
 

A tactician as well as a recruiter will help win games. I’m still skeptical and will wait until Feb to see how the team does but I’m more hopeful today than I was two days ago. 
 

Landing the big fish isn’t as easy as it used to be. Look at most recent hirings - even at the most historically elite programs and that becomes obvious. The $ playing field has leveled substantially with NIL/Coach pay/etc. in addition, many coaches and their families value stability. Getting 5-6 years (or more) at $4M per year to turn something around vs 3 and $6M per year has its appeals. Lower stress, more time to build your way, etc. 

[MrBBall]

Just now, Chris007 said:

I hope he does but I did see where Kory interviewed for the Oral Roberts job and some people are wanting Frazier to get an interview at WV.  But both are really good assistants. I'm sure Kory wants to come home

Chester would bring the recruit from WV and Ostrom will come with DD. Interesting on Kory

[pumpfake]

10 hours ago, Chris007 said:

I think we found out through back channels before the season started that Drew and Otz were not interested. That’s why the list was so short.

I watched an Iowa podcast last night.  They quoted Matt Norlander suggesting DD was our 5th choice - smacked of "copium".  They were certain he was theirs and are now downright gutted.  They're all in on McCollum and left no doubt if they don't hire him it will be a "disaster".

Got me thinking - if Buckner didn't force a 4th Woodson season how different it might be across the cbb world (May at IU, Devries at IA).

[pumpfake]

10 hours ago, hper50 said:

Does anyone know what the D-Rock nickname derives from? (Or better, devries from… *chokes self*) 

Beasie Boys fan? (Mike Diamond) lol

[Artie86]

1 minute ago, pumpfake said:

Beasie Boys fan? (Mike Diamond) lol

.....do you mean Beastie Boys? lol

[pumpfake]

9 hours ago, Chris007 said:

It just feels different this time doesn’t it. 

As I warm to the choice, it certainly does. First experienced, adaptable coach this century.

I'm probably not the first to think of it - but it struck me that our hiring Devries is similar to when we hired Knight (thought to be going to another B10 team before we grabbed him).

[pumpfake]

6 minutes ago, Artie86 said:

.....do you mean Beastie Boys? lol

Lol. Yep (freakin' touchscreen keyboard!)

For the record, I am.  They actually have a song that mentions Hawthorn Wingo, for Pete's sake.

[Silat Player]

48 minutes ago, Motley's said:

Not if you look at Ballo’s career stats. His FT % was better than last year, but just back to his career average. Assists were up slightly, but shooting % and rebounds were down. Scoring average the same. 
 

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/oumar-ballo-1.html

I'll never understand the Ballo shooting his freethrows with his opposite hand thing. I love Calbert, and will never know anything about basketball compared to him, but having him shoot free throws with his weaker hand? 

That just seems so counter-intertuitive. It obviously didn't work. Why not just work on improving his form with his natural shooting hand and work on any mental issues he has with shooting free throws? 

A fitting metaphor for the last 4 years. Everything IU did under Woody just seemed harder than it needed to be..

[JSHoosier]

I won't be upset if he replaces Marshall. Seems our shooting woes started when he showed up.

[pumpfake]

1 minute ago, JSHoosier said:

I won't be upset if he replaces Marshall. Seems our shooting woes started when he showed up.

It is suspicious.  While I'm sure his techniques have merit, they may not be ideally suited for basketball.  I will say that I don't remember any occasion when we were clearly the better conditioned team (to my knowledge).

[CSP]

18 minutes ago, MrBBall said:

Chester would bring the recruit from WV and Ostrom will come with DD. Interesting on Kory

I thought Chester was linked to Odih? 

[Kentuckysucks]

21 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

I hope he does but I did see where Kory interviewed for the Oral Roberts job and some people are wanting Frazier to get an interview at WV.  But both are really good assistants. I'm sure Kory wants to come home

Any chance Howard gets brought back in?

[GP711]

DDV is active in the portal. I believe when is all said and done we will be a preseason top 25 team:)

Obviously then you gotta perform i think he will. 

[Hoosier987]

27 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

Ha throwing up after a drunken binge feels better than that.

Ooof...and that's bad! 

[Chris007]

2 minutes ago, Kentuckysucks said:

Any chance Howard gets brought back in?

I would say anything is possible. I haven't heard his name but haven't heard many names either. He will definitely be back in CBB somewhere next season

[Hoosier987]

2 minutes ago, GP711 said:

DDV is active in the portal. I believe when is all said and done we will be a preseason top 25 team:)

Obviously then you gotta perform i think he will. 

I would expect that as well. We were preseason top 20 this year and that was with Woodson. DeVries is going to target certain players and get them to mesh as a collective unit. My bet, is next year is shaping to be exciting. I mean, with TD and TS, we already have doubled our shooting. 

[IndyFife]

Great article from the star.  And serendipitous!  Almost 100 years to the date of us hiring our first real ball coach in a very long time, Naismith made the comment that basketball may have been invented in Massachusetts, but "it was made for Indiana"!  There was a comment made here recently that virtually all of the Top 25 coaches have significant baggage and we may need to follow suit.  But at the end of the day, we ARE Indiana.  We are different and I don't think we need to do that, especially with this new coach.  I'm ready to ride this wave and get back to what it means to BE Indiana.

Basketball in Indiana exploded 100 years ago, with James Naismith watching