After resurrecting Drake and West Virginia, DeVries takes on the daunting task of restoring the glory at IU

Who is Darian DeVries? He's Curt Cignetti without the bluster. Just Google him.

I Googled Darian DeVries.

He wins.

He wins a lot and he wins in a hurry, upending rosters in a minute’s time and producing teams that win in places where success does not come easily, specifically Drake and West Virginia.

You know who he is? He’s Curt Cignetti…without the bluster.

Everywhere he’s been, he’s won at an impressive rate.

From 2001 to 2018, he was a Creighton assistant coach, first under Dana Altman and then Greg McDermott, two pretty strong mentors. From there, he took on the challenge of leading Drake, a historically underwhelming program, where he turned things around immediately and had sustained success, Prior to DeVries’ arrival, Drake had won 20 or more games just five times in program history. He won 20 or more in all six seasons he coached in Des Moines. More, Drake had been to the NCAA Tournament just one time in 47 years. The program earned a tournament berth three times in six years under DeVries. Then, at West Virginia, he had to completely rebuild a Mountaineers team that won nine games one year earlier, leading them to a 19-13 season despite the loss of two of his best players, notably his son, 6-7 all-league guard Tucker DeVries. His career record is 169-68, a .713 winning percentage.

Athletic director Scott Dolson didn’t have anybody holding his hand this time. No Quinn Buckner or Steve Ferguson. No meddling. This was Dolson’s call, and if you trust him the way I do after his Cignetti masterstroke, you ought to feel bullish about this selection.

“There were two occasions that I had the opportunity to watch Darian's teams play,” Dolson said. “Once when he was at Drake, we played in the NCAA Tournament in Albany. Drake played Miami. (We) came out early and watched the second half of that game, and I remember…talking about how Drake played. It was impressive, and that's when I first realized who Darian was.

“Secondly, this year in the Bahamas, again, had no idea we were looking for a coach, more as a basketball fan watching college basketball, I watched the Gonzaga-West Virginia game and was really -- again, (IU’s deputy director of athletics) Stephen Harper can tell you, we sat there after that game just going, wow, so impressive how West Virginia played. So kind of knew of him. Certainly when we realized that we were going to be in a search, his name then was in the back of my mind, would he be a candidate.”

Once Dolson and his team started to dig in, they found more that they wanted to see. They saw a lot of Cignetti in DeVries, albeit a younger version (he’s 49).

“One of the things that was super interesting was looking at what were Darian's winning percentages in games decided by five points or less, and he had a 65 percent winning percentage in his career,” Dolson said. “That's a big thing. As we looked around the country, that's something that's really significant with winning programs. All that stuff mattered. The No. 2 reason why he was singled out is he really understands and coaches modern offense and tough blue collar defense. It fits here. One of the things that we learned, recruits really want to play in the type of system he runs, and that was evident, as well.”

It’s not the sexiest hire, unless you’re Mrs. DeVries. It’s not a massive name like a Bruce Pearl or Chris Beard or Dusty May. He’s not the hot post-season name; West Virginia failed to reach the NCAA Tournament, although I’ll argue they deserved a berth far more than North Carolina. Put it like this: In all the conversation I heard regarding IU’s coaching hire, DeVries’ name was not top of mind. Lot of success at Drake, good success at West Virginia despite losing his two top players during the season, but this wasn’t an obvious choice like, say, Archie Miller, who was supposed to be a sure thing after a great run at the University of Dayton.

But, then, who was Cignetti? He coached at smaller schools. He won, but he won at a lower level. He wasn’t sexy either – sorry, Mrs. Cignetti – but he turned out to be a superstar of a head football coach.

DeVries isn’t arriving in Bloomington empty-handed. There’s every reason to believe his son, Tucker, a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year at Drake, will petition for and receive a medical redshirt (he played just eight games last season), getting an additional year of eligibility to play for the Hoosiers. Oh, and you should know, he shot 47% from 3 last year.

With Malik Reneau announcing today he’s heading to the portal, the Hoosiers need all the help they can get. This first season under DeVries will be marked by the heavy activity in the portal, but like Cignetti, he wants to build for the longer term (to the degree that’s possible in modern college sports) by recruiting and retaining high school student-athletes.

However he puts it together, his history suggests things will turn around and turn around fast. The money is there. Now it’s about doing more than collecting talent; it’s about doing what they’ve done so effectively in West Lafayette – building a team, building a program for the long haul.

“Resources certainly are a huge part of giving you those opportunities, but resources do not win games,” DeVries said. “We want to be a very process-oriented program with a core fabric built around that work… We want to build something that is sustainable for a long period of time, and we will do that by staying true to what this program is about. We will know when we have made it when every time a fan, a booster, an alumni, or a former player comes to watch us play and turns on the TV, and after that game is over, they are filled with pride because they have so much respect for how our team plays, how unselfish they are, the joy they play with, and the enthusiasm they play with and their love for this university.

“Once we get there, and once we get there where everyone can watch us on a nightly basis and they can say with great pride on a consistent level that that is my team, that is when the banners will rise again. It's time for us to get to work.”

Darian DeVries wins.

Google him.