Darian DeVries has 'tremendous respect' for Bob Huggins at West Virginia

Last season was a tumultuous year for West Virginia men’s basketball after the team parted ways with legendary head coach Bob Huggins. However, this season, the Mountaineers looked to right the ship under new head coach Darian DeVries.

DeVries was recently a guest on the College Hoops Today Podcast with host Jon Rothstein. During the interview, the Mountaineers’ new head coach shared his thoughts on a number of topics, including adjusting to the highly competitive Big 12 conference. He also revealed what his relationship is like with West Virginia’s legendary former head coach.

“So far, we’ve only exchanged a couple of text messages right after I took the job. But [I] certainly have tremendous respect for Coach Huggins and his tremendous coaching career and what he’s done here at West Virginia,” DeVries said.

“You watch his teams play over the year and you just admire how hard they play. And he’s a big reason that this fan base is what it is. They love their basketball here, and they are very passionate about it. That’s gonna be a fun situation to continue to try to keep. And [I’m] looking forward to being a part of it with our tremendous fanbase.”

DeVries was hired by West Virginia back in March, replacing interim head coach Josh Eilert. He is fresh off of an impressive 28-7 record at Drake. It was his fourth straight season leading the Bulldogs to 25 plus wins and a second-place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference. DeVries also led Drake do the NCAA tournament in three out of his four years running the program.

More on DeVries

During his time at Drake, DeVries amassed a 150-55 overall record and took the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament three times – including each of the last two years. He won back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year awards at the same time his son, Tucker, won MVC Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024.

Drake was Darian DeVries’ first head coaching opportunity after 17 years as an assistant coach at Creighton, starting under Dana Altman and continuing under Greg McDermott. He took over in 2018 for Niko Medved, who departed for Colorado State after just one season in Des Moines and found immediate success. In DeVries’ first season, Drake shared the MVC regular-season title with Loyola Chicago – the program’s first conference title since 2008.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article