West Virginia hires Drake’s Darian DeVries as next men’s basketball coach
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West Virginia hired its next men’s basketball coach Sunday, and it’s a man who’s accustomed to winning.
Darian DeVries, who led Drake to six consecutive 20-victory seasons, will be the third coach in the past nine months to lead the program. He agreed to terms of a five-year contract and will replace interim coach Josh Eilert, who was hired in June 2023 after Bob Huggins was ousted in the wake of a DUI arrest in Pittsburgh.
“Coach DeVries is a phenomenal basketball coach and an even better person and possesses all the qualities we desired in the next leader of our men’s basketball program,” WVU athletic director Wren Baker said. “His teams play hard and smart and are efficient on both ends of the floor. He has proven to be a strong recruiter and developer of players, but even more importantly, a leader with integrity who develops character in the young men he coaches.”
DeVries, 48, may have already started his recruiting efforts for the Mountaineers. His son, Tucker, played at Drake, and the junior guard won the Larry Bird Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year trophy in consecutive seasons and is an Associated Press Honorable Mention All-America.
Darian DeVries spent the past six seasons at Drake, leading the Bulldogs to three MVC championships (two tournament and one in the regular season) and three NCAA Tournament appearances. Drake reached this year’s tournament, losing to Washington State, 66-61, on Thursday. DeVries’ Drake teams were 55-15 in the past two seasons, 78-33 in the MVC. He has a career .732 winning percentage (150-55).
“I’m honored to lead this historic program, which has an outstanding tradition and passionate fan base,” DeVries said. “Gamedays in the WVU Coliseum are legendary, and the incredible support for Mountaineer Basketball is known nationwide. I look forward to building on the success of the program.”
DeVries led Drake to a 28-7 record, including the MVC Tournament title and the Bulldogs’ third NCAA Tournament appearance in the past four years. The 28 victories are Drake’s most since recording 28 in 2008.
DeVries was MVC Coach of the Year in 2021 and 2019, his first season at the school. He is a finalist for the 2023-2024 Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award, given annually to the top mid-major head coach.
In his first season as head coach at Drake, DeVries led the Bulldogs to a 24-10 record after inheriting a team with the second-fewest returning letterwinners in the nation. He led the Bulldogs to their first regular-season MVC title since 2008 and the program’s 12th all-time postseason appearance, despite losing a potential MVC Player of the Year candidate to a season-ending knee injury in the first game of conference play. In his first season as a head coach, he was named MVC Coach of the Year and received the Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award.
In his second season at Drake (2019-2020), he became the first coach to lead a No. 8 seed to a win against the No. 1 seed in the MVC Tournament, defeating Northern Iowa, 77-56. The Bulldogs won 20 games, marking the first time since 1971 it had won 20 or more games in consecutive seasons.
DeVries, 48, was an assistant coach at Creighton for 17 years under Greg McDermott and Dana Altman. He is a 1998 graduate of Northern Iowa, where he scored 1,084 points. He is the older brother of Jared DeVries, an All-American football player at Iowa who played 12 seasons for the Detroit Lions.