West Virginia hires Drake's Darian DeVries as next head coach

West Virginia has hired Darian DeVries as its next head coach, the school announced Sunday. He spent the last six seasons as the head coach at Drake after a long career as an assistant at Creighton.

DeVries is set to sign a five-year deal at West Virginia to take over the program, which was led by interim head coach Josh Eilert last season. That decision came after the departure of Bob Huggins late in the offseason, and WVU chose to move Eilert to the interim position before ultimately embarking on a full coaching search this offseason.

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.

Two years later, the Bulldogs made the NCAA Tournament as an at-large bid, and after playing in the CBI in 2022, won back-to-back MVC Tournaments to go dancing again.

Drake won 20 games in each of DeVries’ six seasons at the helm, including a 28-7 record in 2023-24. The Bulldogs fell to Washington State in the Round of 64 despite leading late.

What Darian DeVries is inheriting at WVU

Under Eilert this season, West Virginia struggled mightily, going 9-23 overall and 4-14 in Big 12 play. The Mountaineers looked like one of the big winners in the transfer portal before Huggins’ departure. However, the late coaching change made quite an impact on the expectations in Morgantown.

After the season ended, WVU athletics director Wren Baker announced the program would go on a “national search” for a head coach rather than remove the interim tag from Eilert.

“As I shared last summer following our initial coaching transition, we decided to wait until the conclusion of the 2023-24 season before embarking on a full national search,” Baker said. “Upon our return to Morgantown from the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Championship, I met with Coach Eilert, the coaching staff and the team to let them know we are moving forward with our search plans. All of Mountaineer Nation owes a debt of gratitude to Coach Eilert for his leadership during a challenging season, as he and his staff faced all obstacles with class and professionalism.

 “We are now focused on our collective future, and I am excited about what comes next. We compete in the best men’s basketball conference in America, we have incredible fans and supporters, we have a history of success and we have a commitment to winning. I am confident we will engage a strong pool of candidates and identify the right leader for our program. As I shared with our student-athletes, we will move deliberately but as swiftly as we can in the days ahead.”