Variety Of Factors Helped Bring DeVries To Morgantown
April 03, 2024 01:01 PM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Rabid fan support and great tradition were some of the determining factors in Darian DeVries choosing to take the West Virginia men's basketball job.
Despite losing a school-record 23 games, dropping 10 of the last 11 games and finishing at the bottom of the Big 12 standings, the Mountaineers still managed to average 10,546 fans for its 18 home dates during the 2023-24 season.
More than 11,000 showed up for the final weekend home game against Texas Tech and a season-high 12,558 came out to see the Mountaineers play Baylor despite WVU's season-long struggles.
When times were much better in 2022, West Virginia averaged 12,004 fans and in 2018, during the tail end of the "Press Virginia" years, WVU averaged 12,304 per game.
DeVries took note of that when he was weighing other job offers.
"When you think about fan support, the tradition and everything that comes with that, everything just made sense," he told Tony Caridi last week during an exclusive United Bank Playbook sit-down interview. "As you begin to inquire and look around, everybody talked about the people here and how supportive they are and everything that comes with it all seemed to align and made perfect sense to me."
Keep in mind, DeVries DIDN'T have to leave Drake. He won at least 20 games all six years he coached there and got the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament three times.
In fact, DeVries has been in just two places since in the last 23 years – a remarkable feat in this day and age!
"I think the biggest thing for me was I was at a place I really enjoyed and around a lot of friends and family back in Des Moines (Iowa), so it was going to take something pretty special for me to want to make a move, and I thought West Virginia had everything I was looking for – a terrific administration and one of the best ADs in the country (Wren Baker)."
DeVries said the perception of West Virginia basketball from afar is tremendous.
"You knew West Virginia from the Big East and the success they had in that league, and then making the transition to the Big 12 as well," he noted. "From a fan standpoint, from afar, great tradition, and I actually had an opportunity when I was an assistant at Creighton University, we played West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.
"It didn't turn out in our favor at that time and turned out in West Virginia's favor, but I have a really good knowledge of coach (John) Beilein and coach (Bob) Huggins and the tremendous success they've had here," he said.
DeVries said a lot of his basketball philosophy comes from what he's learned while working for coaches Dana Altman and Greg McDermott during his days as an assistant coach at Creighton.
During his time there, the Bluejays made 19 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA Tournament trips and won nearly 70% of their games.
"I had two incredible coaches that I learned from in Dana Altman and Greg McDermott, so who I am as a coach and my philosophies I took from them," he said. "Then you kind of mold that into your personality.
"From the defensive side, especially in the Big 12, you better be able to guard, and that's something I think has been critical for us at Drake and obviously we'll carry that over here as well. You have to be able to rebound and you have to be able to take care of the ball. Those are things that are critical if you want to win."
Offensively, DeVries subscribes to the theory that it's easier to score five-on-four, four-on-three and three-on-two instead of trying to consistently score five-on-five in the halfcourt.
Transition basketball is a big part of what he wants to do, which falls in nicely with the Mountaineers' long history of transition basketball dating back to the Lee Patton, Fred Schaus and George King years ,and then later revived under Gale Catlett in the 1980s.
"When you get those stops and you get those rebounds, now we want to run," DeVries said. "Our goal in every possession is to try and score in those first 12 seconds because with the types of defenses you are going to see every night, you don't want to play against a set defense every possession.
"The more times you can play against a broken defense, the better," he added.
The first piece to assembling his 2024-25 roster was established on Monday when it was announced that his son, Tucker, has signed and will play his senior season for the Mountaineers.
The younger DeVries, a 6-foot-7 guard/forward, is considered one of the top players in this year's NCAA transfer portal.
Tucker's dad will be spending lots of time exploring the portal in the coming days as he assembles his coaching staff and solidifies his roster.
Stay tuned.
Despite losing a school-record 23 games, dropping 10 of the last 11 games and finishing at the bottom of the Big 12 standings, the Mountaineers still managed to average 10,546 fans for its 18 home dates during the 2023-24 season.
More than 11,000 showed up for the final weekend home game against Texas Tech and a season-high 12,558 came out to see the Mountaineers play Baylor despite WVU's season-long struggles.
When times were much better in 2022, West Virginia averaged 12,004 fans and in 2018, during the tail end of the "Press Virginia" years, WVU averaged 12,304 per game.
DeVries took note of that when he was weighing other job offers.
"When you think about fan support, the tradition and everything that comes with that, everything just made sense," he told Tony Caridi last week during an exclusive United Bank Playbook sit-down interview. "As you begin to inquire and look around, everybody talked about the people here and how supportive they are and everything that comes with it all seemed to align and made perfect sense to me."
Keep in mind, DeVries DIDN'T have to leave Drake. He won at least 20 games all six years he coached there and got the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament three times.
In fact, DeVries has been in just two places since in the last 23 years – a remarkable feat in this day and age!
"I think the biggest thing for me was I was at a place I really enjoyed and around a lot of friends and family back in Des Moines (Iowa), so it was going to take something pretty special for me to want to make a move, and I thought West Virginia had everything I was looking for – a terrific administration and one of the best ADs in the country (Wren Baker)."
DeVries said the perception of West Virginia basketball from afar is tremendous.
"You knew West Virginia from the Big East and the success they had in that league, and then making the transition to the Big 12 as well," he noted. "From a fan standpoint, from afar, great tradition, and I actually had an opportunity when I was an assistant at Creighton University, we played West Virginia in the NCAA Tournament.
"It didn't turn out in our favor at that time and turned out in West Virginia's favor, but I have a really good knowledge of coach (John) Beilein and coach (Bob) Huggins and the tremendous success they've had here," he said.
DeVries said a lot of his basketball philosophy comes from what he's learned while working for coaches Dana Altman and Greg McDermott during his days as an assistant coach at Creighton.
During his time there, the Bluejays made 19 postseason appearances, including 12 NCAA Tournament trips and won nearly 70% of their games.
"I had two incredible coaches that I learned from in Dana Altman and Greg McDermott, so who I am as a coach and my philosophies I took from them," he said. "Then you kind of mold that into your personality.
"From the defensive side, especially in the Big 12, you better be able to guard, and that's something I think has been critical for us at Drake and obviously we'll carry that over here as well. You have to be able to rebound and you have to be able to take care of the ball. Those are things that are critical if you want to win."
Offensively, DeVries subscribes to the theory that it's easier to score five-on-four, four-on-three and three-on-two instead of trying to consistently score five-on-five in the halfcourt.
Transition basketball is a big part of what he wants to do, which falls in nicely with the Mountaineers' long history of transition basketball dating back to the Lee Patton, Fred Schaus and George King years ,and then later revived under Gale Catlett in the 1980s.
"When you get those stops and you get those rebounds, now we want to run," DeVries said. "Our goal in every possession is to try and score in those first 12 seconds because with the types of defenses you are going to see every night, you don't want to play against a set defense every possession.
"The more times you can play against a broken defense, the better," he added.
The first piece to assembling his 2024-25 roster was established on Monday when it was announced that his son, Tucker, has signed and will play his senior season for the Mountaineers.
The younger DeVries, a 6-foot-7 guard/forward, is considered one of the top players in this year's NCAA transfer portal.
Tucker's dad will be spending lots of time exploring the portal in the coming days as he assembles his coaching staff and solidifies his roster.
Stay tuned.
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