Indiana ACTUALLY Hired Darian DeVries to be the Hoosiers' Head Coach

Indiana basketball will never do anything normal. You should expect nothing less from the guys wearing candy-cane pants.

The once-proud program now must preface every tale of a National Title with, “Once upon a time.” It’s been 38 years since Keith Smart sunk a game-winner at the Superdome. The Final Four drought is even more embarrassing, reaching the final weekend of the NCAA Tournament only twice since that shot, in 1992 and 2002.

The Hoosiers have had five coaches since Bob Knight’s termination in 2000 and each one has gotten progressively more embarrassing. Mike Woodson was supposed to bring pride back to his alma mater. He was slightly better than Archie Miller in on-court results, but he had high-profile feuds off the court. He invested a ton of NIL money into a horribly constructed roster that missed the NCAA Tournament for a second straight season, ensuring Woodson would never reach the second weekend of the Big Dance in his brief four-year stint.

Once Woodson was ousted, there were a few popular names in the general public. Brad Stevens was a silly pipe dream, but Chris Beard, T.J. Otzelberger, and Scott Drew at least felt like doable pipe-dreams for Hoosier fans. That’s when the coaching search dissolved into madness.

Jeff Goodman reported that Drake’s Ben McCollum and Clemson’s Brad Brownell were the top two candidates. The former was incredibly successful at a lower level, but only has one season of Division I coaching experience in the Missouri Valley Conference. The latter might be the most boring hire possible, even though he went to an Elite Eight a year ago, a place the Hoosiers haven’t sniffed in 23 years.

Instead, Indiana turned to another former Drake coach. Darian DeVries was the stunning name that surfaced on Tuesday. The Hoosiers actually followed through and made the hire official.

DeVries ended his 2024-25 season watching his West Virginia Mountaineers end up one spot outside of the NCAA Tournament, right next to Indiana. There’s a 99% chance they would have made the NCAA Tournament if the coach’s star son, Tucker DeVries, didn’t suffer a season-ending injury in December. He’s eligible for a redshirt and could follow his Dad to become an All-Big Ten performer at Indiana.

Prior to his one season in Morgantown, the elder DeVries led Drake to three NCAA Tournaments in six seasons. Some Indiana fans thought they were getting the President of the Boston Celtics. They ended up picking between a pair of Drake coaches.

We’ll see Darian DeVries lead the candy-cane kids out onto the Rupp Arena court next season. The game on Dec. 20 will be the first regular season matchup between the old rivals since 2012.

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