How is Darian DeVries Doing So Far?

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, Asha’man said:

For sure. I was just running with it. I was listening to a Mississippi State fan talk about how if IU could do it then anyone can. lol. No way Mississippi State can do what IU just did. 

Just takes one or two big boosters willing to step in. You would’ve said the same thing about Texas Tech, but now they’re putting top 5-10 type teams together in both basketball and football.  Any SEC or B1G team with a generous booster and the right coaches can conceivably compete in both sports. 
 

You’re correct though in that IU is putting up top 20, or better, resources in both sports. There’s probably only a dozen or less schools doing that currently. It’s  impressive from the admin/booster side of things. 

[Pagoda]

Yea, that seems to be true -- one really rich person could seriously fund FB/MBBs programs.

Though if a school doesn't currently have big boosters, it seems like it's pretty tough to find/convert them. If a school's handful of super rich alumni aren't interested in donating to NIL, it appears tough to get them involved.  And very few billionaires even if they're boosters will act as aggressively as Cody Campbell or Phil Knight. 

An example is how long it took us to get Cuban on board, though my understanding is our athletic dept shot themselves in the foot several times with him.  Hard to believe, huh?

A place like Miss St... they could, but man it would be hard.  They're 20% of our alumni base and generate small levels of athletic dept revenue.  They would need their one big donor to go wild.  It would be tough for a place like Purdue too, who just doesn't have a big boosters, which has been evident as they've struggled to get Matt much money despite his pretty darn good results.  If a MBB coach was winning B1G titles and making FF's at IU, they would have $5M more than what Matt gets, easily.

Fortunately, IU has a lot of fundraising potential.  Our large alumni base is cited often, and they help a lot, but the real key in my opinion is the Cook family.  We're fortunate to have a very active billionaire booster like them, and they've been going wild with their efforts since Cig got here.  Then we have another active billionaire booster in Simon, and now Cubes.  Three billionaires.  Plus another tier of very rich and active boosters like Pfau.  And Scott with his Varsity club background was the perfect guy to get them all as engaged as possible in this new NIL world.

I'd agree a lot of schools could level up athletics support pretty quickly, I just think IU was a place that was pretty uniquely positioned to do it.  And honestly there are schools we'll never match, but we're close enough now.

Now, if a school actually wants to do what IU did, you need a Cig.  To my knowledge, there is only one (1) Cig.  No Cig, no natty.  Vanderbilt-like results is probably a more realistic goal.

I guess to tie this back to this thread, if CDD can finish strong this season hopefully he can get our boosters believing and get more money for his roster.

[CSP]

If you've ever been to Starkville you'd realize it wouldn't be as easy as it is to convince them to go to Bloomington lol 

Although, they do have a Cookout. 

 

It's not just one alumni at IU. Cuban, Cooks, and others. 

 

 

Back to the topic... assuming we will finish reasonably the rest of the season, I've been pleased with CDD, style of play, etc. Especially factoring in losing Conerway for a bit, no Drake/Harris all year, and Dorn was out for a while. 

Key things moving forward--- development. The recruiting will level itself and really... with the 4 HS kids we have committed or signed, it's pretty solid now. I want Sisley, the 2 Euros, Harris to be solid contributors next year. That's how programs thrive. Find 1-2 studs in the portal, another portal starter, develop the rest... and we should be solid again next season. 

[Hoosierinbham]

11 minutes ago, CSP said:

If you've ever been to Starkville you'd realize it wouldn't be as easy as it is to convince them to go to Bloomington lol 

Although, they do have a Cookout. 

 

It's not just one alumni at IU. Cuban, Cooks, and others. 

 

 

Back to the topic... assuming we will finish reasonably the rest of the season, I've been please with CDD, style of play, etc. Especially factoring in losing Conerway for a bit, no Drake/Harris all year, and Dorn was out for a while. 

Key things moving forward--- development. The recruiting will level itself and really... with the 4 HS kids we have committed or signed, it's pretty solid now. I want Sisley, the 2 Euros, Harris to be solid contributors next year. That's how programs thrive. Find 1-2 studs in the portal, another portal starter, develop the rest... and we should be solid again next season. 

Hopefully we can add Drake to that list as well. If he doesn’t play this year I would assume he’s still eligible next season. Not sure what he would’ve brought this year, but depth at guard has been an issue, especially when Conerway has been out. 

[Stuhoo]

29 minutes ago, Hoosierinbham said:

Hopefully we can add Drake to that list as well. If he doesn’t play this year I would assume he’s still eligible next season. Not sure what he would’ve brought this year, but depth at guard has been an issue, especially when Conerway has been out. 

I have quite literally no idea of whether Jason Drake will be a winning basketball player, but there's something I've noticed about him that is far more evident than with Harris, Ristic, or Acimovic; Drake is a constant positive presence in huddles and during and after games. And it's true whether things are going really well or not well.

[CSP]

I feel like Drake should have two years of eligibility. 

[str8baller]

2 hours ago, Pagoda said:

I guess to tie this back to this thread, if CDD can finish strong this season hopefully he can get our boosters believing and get more money for his roster.

Yea, I don’t want to take this thread unnecessarily towards the negative but the context of what your laying out with regard to coaching is that there will be certain expectations that come along with high levels of funding. 
 

Making the tourney this year is going to be enough for most everybody, big boosters too I’d assume. I’m not sure how you judge that other than looking around at what everyone else is doing. Personally, people like to bring up Hurley and Golden because they had rough first years, but I think the other end of those comparisons are tough too—nobody is going to expect a title anytime soon. That’s why I think you keep an eye on the McCaslands, Mays, and Kelseys of the world. And maybe to a lesser extent the Popes and Davis’s.  
 

Eventually you have to think that the people ponying up the money will want to see success at the same level of funding. I don’t know if that starts in year 2, 3, or 4. I suspect it is somewhat variable and depends on what some of the above named coaches do. 

[Hoosierinbham]

2 hours ago, Stuhoo said:

I have quite literally no idea of whether Jason Drake will be a winning basketball player, but there's something I've noticed about him that is far more evident than with Harris, Ristic, or Acimovic; Drake is a constant positive presence in huddles and during and after games. And it's true whether things are going really well or not well.

That’s a great observation on Drake in the huddles. I hadn’t noticed or even been looking for that, but what a terrific sign of an engaged competitor.

[Stuhoo]

The current answer to the thread title question “How is Darian Devries Doing So Far?”

Pretty

Damn

Well

[HoosierHoopster]

10 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

The current answer to the thread title question “How is Darian Devries Doing So Far?”

Pretty

Damn

Well

He's aight 

[BGleas]

Put this in the game thread, but will put it here too, the first 4-5 possessions of the 2nd half were a masterclass by DeVries. 

[str8baller]

45 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

The current answer to the thread title question “How is Darian Devries Doing So Far?”

Pretty

Damn

Well

We beat a team we were double digit favorites over. We have two more easy ones to win that likely barely get us in the tournament.  Do a little better than that or make a run in the tourney and we can talk about “pretty damn well” for his first season. 

[spe317]

1 hour ago, Stuhoo said:

The current answer to the thread title question “How is Darian Devries Doing So Far?”

Pretty

Damn

Well

It may time to admit that there’s a strong possibility Coach Devries knows more about basketball than me. 

[eddy4iu]

27 minutes ago, str8baller said:

We beat a team we were double digit favorites over. We have two more easy ones to win that likely barely get us in the tournament.  Do a little better than that or make a run in the tourney and we can talk about “pretty damn well” for his first season. 

2 more wins barely get us in the tournament? Get real.

CDD is delivering in his first year regardless - team is fun to watch again.

[Stuhoo]

7 hours ago, str8baller said:

We beat a team we were double digit favorites over. We have two more easy ones to win that likely barely get us in the tournament.  Do a little better than that or make a run in the tourney and we can talk about “pretty damn well” for his first season. 

Yup — only two more conference wins barely gets us in the tournament.

And we have at least seven conference games remaining.

And we’re 8-6 in conference.

That’s why currently the status of how CDD is doing is… quite good.

[Uspshoosier]

 

[IU5355]

If Devries can make the tournament with an entirely brand new roster in his first year, then that is something to celebrate and build on.

The team is playing better and has bounced back nicely from a stretch where things got ugly. 

[CSP]

27 minutes ago, IU5355 said:

If Devries can make the tournament with an entirely brand new roster in his first year, then that is something to celebrate and build on.

The team is playing better and has bounced back nicely from a stretch where things got ugly. 

Plus no Dorn for a good while, Conerway out for a while, and no Harris/Drake all year. 

[HoosierHoopster]

8 hours ago, str8baller said:

We beat a team we were double digit favorites over. We have two more easy ones to win that likely barely get us in the tournament.  Do a little better than that or make a run in the tourney and we can talk about “pretty damn well” for his first season. 

He's doing pretty damn well right now. There's always games left to be played until the end -- important that we close well, yes not in yet, but holding off on recognizing that he's doing a heck of a job right now, winning 5 of last 6 including road games? It doesn't hurt to recognize things at this point in time look pretty good. Imo that we have a good coach is pretty clear now.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

3 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

 

Before Woody would have done that he'd have to set his wine glass down and put his cigar in an ashtray.