How is Darian DeVries Doing So Far?

[HoosierDevils]

2 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Played that year with no fans in the building for home games so no home court advantage all year and they played the 4 hardest schedule overall that year as well.   He still sucked as coach at IU but some perspective on that season needs to be added 

He sucks as a coach in general. 23-43 in the A10 at Rhode Island with an above league average NIL. Used to have fans now the arena is empty, despite no Covid bubble. 
 

But this is a serious digression haha I don’t think anyone here wants Woody or Archie type hires ever again and we’re literally discussing among the two of the all time disappointing runs in IUBB history; just each have slightly different takes on *how* bad each is/was in their own right 

[Rico]

5 minutes ago, HoosierDevils said:

He sucks as a coach in general. 23-43 in the A10 at Rhode Island with an above league average NIL. Used to have fans now the arena is empty, despite no Covid bubble. 
 

 

Not that I particularly give a damn but I think it was a mistake for Archie to take the Rhode Island job.  My guess is he will be a volunteer assistant coach here in the very near future unless Dayton takes a 2nd Flyer on him...

[johnsoniu]

1 hour ago, Uspshoosier said:

Looking back at how their schedule ended up what a ridiculously hard schedule to play especially without your home court advantage while on the road that should help but man that schedule was brutal in his final year.   Only played 2 Q4 games all year  

 

I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume that “onlyfans records” ad at the bottom of your screen grab is not affiliated with the OnlyFans I’ve “heard” about?

[Uspshoosier]

7 minutes ago, johnsoniu said:

I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume that “onlyfans records” ad at the bottom of your screen grab is not affiliated with the OnlyFans I’ve “heard” about?

That Warren Nolan site is worse than this place now.   He went the ads route and it’s hard to look at his stuff anymore.    Too bad because his team sheets are the best 

[str8baller]

2 hours ago, Rico said:

My guess is he will be a volunteer assistant coach here in the very near future

Heck no. I can’t see any upside for IU and Devries’ reputation isn’t solidified enough to start running reclamation projects in his spare time. Unless Archie comes with an All-B1G center transfer attached there’s no way.

[newcastle12]

On 2/16/2026 at 7:49 PM, str8baller said:

Heck no. I can’t see any upside for IU and Devries’ reputation isn’t solidified enough to start running reclamation projects in his spare time. Unless Archie comes with an All-B1G center transfer attached there’s no way.

I believe the person meant somewhere in the near future since he will be out of coaching, not necessarily here at IU.  Like for his brother, or someone he has ties to.  Yeah I'd see no real way we'd allow that here for a variety of reasons.  

[Mopladysman]

Just noting that we were doing crappy and then this thread was started titled fire devries. Then we did good and the title was changed to “how is he doing so far”.  Now we are back to doing crappy.  Time to change it back so we can make the tourney.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Judgement should be NIl budget related.  
 

My unofficial estimate based on Norlander and others that try to follow this stuff is we were between 10-25 in NIL spending. I did a breakdown earlier this year. I think we were 15-20 probably. 
Plus his son should have come with a discount.

We are the 40th best team.  
 

Maybe the 30th if we go on a little run. 
 

So, DeVries isn’t doing too great.  

[BGleas]

9 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Judgement should be NIl budget related.  
 

My unofficial estimate based on Norlander and others that try to follow this stuff is we were between 10-25 in NIL spending. I did a breakdown earlier this year. I think we were 15-20 probably. 
Plus his son should have come with a discount.

We are the 40th best team.  
 

Maybe the 30th if we go on a little run. 
 

So, DeVries isn’t doing too great.  

I don't disagree with your line of thinking here. If we really are spending top 10-15/25, then having the somewhere between 40-45th best team is unacceptable long-term. 

I agree NIL has to be factored into the discussion. 

With all of that said, when looking at this season I think you also have to handicap that the roster had to be built 100% from scratch with a completey new staff. 

That part has to factor in as well. That's why the bar should absolutely be raised for next year. While they're not great, we'll have some guys returning and the staff is fully in place. 

I've been pretty happy with his actual coaching, but I do have big concerns on how DeVries pulls this off next season. He is going to need to land a massive haul in the portal, and it will need to be a big upgrade over last offseasons portal haul. 

I'm not sure he can do it? It's a tall task given what IU has been the last decade. 

[Hoosier987]

Talent evaluation has got to better. There’s no sugar coating it, but If we go into next year with Ristic, Harris, Acimov and Drake in the rotation then we’re in for a long season. Surely DeVries knows this…and for the love of God, get a legit body or two down low. The fact that we have poor Tucker DeVries consistently guarding the opponents best big is damning. 

[WayneFleekHoosier]

4 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I don't disagree with your line of thinking here. If we really are spending top 10-15/25, then having the somewhere between 40-45th best team is unacceptable long-term. 

I agree NIL has to be factored into the discussion. 

With all of that said, when looking at this season I think you also have to handicap that the roster had to be built 100% from scratch with a completey new staff. 

That part has to factor in as well. That's why the bar should absolutely be raised for next year. While they're not great, we'll have some guys returning and the staff is fully in place. 

I've been pretty happy with his actual coaching, but I do have big concerns on how DeVries pulls this off next season. He is going to need to land a massive haul in the portal, and it will need to be a big upgrade over last offseasons portal haul. 

I'm not sure he can do it? It's a tall task given what IU has been the last decade. 

Agreed.  But he built a roster to win now by taking so many Seniors.  He was a Baller on a Budget. And he made some pretty rough choices.  5 scholarship guys that are worthless.  I mean, what are we doing?  Will they be a build for future? (Are they good enough for that?)
 

Im not sure any of these guys return or we even want them to return.  Sisley.  
 

I think we could do better at about every spot.

 

Im not sure how much it helps, for next year with the path he chose to take this year. 
 

But Portal SZN is always my favorite SZN because it’s filled with hope.  But we are behind so many programs in desirability.  Money isn’t heavily on our side.  And I’m not convinced DeVries is a good recruiter.  
 

So, uphill challenge incoming. 
 

[Hoosier987]

I still laugh at the fact that Mike Davis’ last year (forced him to resign) we were a top 5 team in conference and a 6 seed. We would be celebrating a season like that now. Shows how far down the rabbit hole we are

[Pagoda]

43 minutes ago, BGleas said:

I don't disagree with your line of thinking here. If we really are spending top 10-15/25, then having the somewhere between 40-45th best team is unacceptable long-term. 

I agree NIL has to be factored into the discussion. 

With all of that said, when looking at this season I think you also have to handicap that the roster had to be built 100% from scratch with a completey new staff. 

That part has to factor in as well. That's why the bar should absolutely be raised for next year. While they're not great, we'll have some guys returning and the staff is fully in place. 

I've been pretty happy with his actual coaching, but I do have big concerns on how DeVries pulls this off next season. He is going to need to land a massive haul in the portal, and it will need to be a big upgrade over last offseasons portal haul. 

I'm not sure he can do it? It's a tall task given what IU has been the last decade. 

Well said.  

On a worry scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most worried, I'm at about a 7.

I think he's a decent X's and O's coach, but...

- His press conferences do worry me.  He seems uncomfortable and unsure, and some excuses I've heard I don't like.  He's a quiet and reserved type of guy, which is normally okay, but not sure that works as a head coach.  Is this the sort of coach about to go on a tear in the portal and inspire our NIL donors?  Not sure.  He landed Lamar and some decent HS kids, which makes me feel a little better.  The 3rd party stories I hear about him are good.  But... I dunno...

- On top of the roster construction issues, which I can mostly understand given the the situation he inherited, I haven't seen much exciting player dev.  I thought it might be Dorn, but apparently not.  Trent has kinda tailed off.  Just not a lot I can look at and say wow he is getting a lot from these guys or this guy was a great scouting job.

- I'm not sure about Drew Adams, or Kenny honestly

- I don't feel like our program has much of an identity yet

He's got a big four games coming up.  We all know what needs to happen the rest of this season and in the portal.  It may work out and we're a solid top-20/25 team next year, but I can't deny something feels off. 

Hopefully it's just misplaced angst, that's possible.

 

[str8baller]

31 minutes ago, BGleas said:

With all of that said, when looking at this season I think you also have to handicap that the roster had to be built 100% from scratch with a completey new staff. 

Odom at UVA was hired on exactly the same day as Devries. I agree there’s a handicap for season 1. Even grading on a curve I think the roster construction this year was a B/B- or something. 

[str8baller]

35 minutes ago, Hoosier987 said:

I still laugh at the fact that Mike Davis’ last year (forced him to resign) we were a top 5 team in conference and a 6 seed. We would be celebrating a season like that now. Shows how far down the rabbit hole we are

I laugh about those late 90s teams. Easily tourney teams (in a 64 team field) but no threat to win it, and in a realpolitik way the reason Knight was fired.   
 

Bit of a different program these days. I can see it in the younger fans.  I’m curious what Devries extension talks  would like if his first three years are 3 tourneys but no S16s and no B1G titles. 

[BGleas]

58 minutes ago, str8baller said:

Odom at UVA was hired on exactly the same day as Devries. I agree there’s a handicap for season 1. Even grading on a curve I think the roster construction this year was a B/B- or something. 

It's gonna need to be an A this off-season. 

[Asha’man]

5 hours ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Judgement should be NIl budget related.  
 

My unofficial estimate based on Norlander and others that try to follow this stuff is we were between 10-25 in NIL spending. I did a breakdown earlier this year. I think we were 15-20 probably. 
Plus his son should have come with a discount.

We are the 40th best team.  
 

Maybe the 30th if we go on a little run. 
 

So, DeVries isn’t doing too great.  

I saw nowhere that we are close to 25 mil in basketball. Football yes. 10ish million is what I’ve seen bandied about for basketball. Saw someone on another board claiming we will be around 12.5 million for next year. 
 

I think DeVries is doing fine. He needs to make the tournament though. Building a team from scratch at a program that’s been dog piss for decades is not a recipe to have an elite program year 1. We now have some returners that are young and a recruiting class that appears to be solid for the long term. With the bulk of our NIL funds available to go get 4-5 players for next year.  It’s there to take a step forward next year. It’s all about roster construction bc I believe he knows how to coach. 
 

Latest rumor I saw “coming from trilly” is we are in for Duke guard Darren Harris. I’m interested to see if we land high major athletes with skills for next year. 
 

edit: I don’t think Tucker was a discount. I think he took market value and is set up financially. It’s his one year payday. Pure conjecture on my part but it think it’s part of our roster construction issue for this year. Wilkerson was was another 2.5 mil?

[Jeff Flabjohns]

34 minutes ago, Asha’man said:

I saw nowhere that we are close to 25 mil in basketball. Football yes. 10ish million is what I’ve seen bandied about for basketball. Saw someone on another board claiming we will be around 12.5 million for next year. 
 

I think DeVries is doing fine. He needs to make the tournament though. Building a team from scratch at a program that’s been dog piss for decades is not a recipe to have an elite program year 1. We now have some returners that are young and a recruiting class that appears to be solid for the long term. With the bulk of our NIL funds available to go get 4-5 players for next year.  It’s there to take a step forward next year. It’s all about roster construction bc I believe he knows how to coach. 
 

Latest rumor I saw “coming from trilly” is we are in for Duke guard Darren Harris. I’m interested to see if we land high major athletes with skills for next year. 
 

edit: I don’t think Tucker was a discount. I think he took market value and is set up financially. It’s his one year payday. Our conjecture on my part but it think it’s part of our roster construction issue for this year. Wilkerson was was another 2.5 mil?

I think WFH was saying we are spending somewhere between the 10-25th highest on NIL, most likely 15-20th. Not 25 mil

Agree on Tucker.

[Stuhoo]

I’m assuming that three players came at somewhat of a discount; Tucker, Enright, and Sisley. That’s a challenge because when it’s not an entirely new roster like we built , it’s easier to get discounts. More importantly, with more returnees on the roster the staff has full knowledge about which players are worth “market price” to keep.

So this will get easier to do well, but for now? If as Usps says we are currently about 80% likely to be in the tournament, then things are going well.

However, as we move along, expectations will and should increase.

[Jeff Flabjohns]

I’d wager Tuck didn’t come at a discount. Him following DDv was a part of the hiring pitch. Not a huge part, but not insignificant. At the time that seemed great. Devries family has been paid handsomely this year. 

I’m guessing he received fair market value for what was supposed to be an all-conference player. Shame the ROI hasn’t been great.