Drake transfer guard Tucker DeVries commits to West Virginia

Former Drake guard Tucker DeVries has committed to West Virginia, per On3’s Joe Tipton. He entered the transfer portal shortly after his father, Darian, took over as the Mountaineers’ head coach.

DeVries committed to play for his father at Drake after a decorated high school basketball career in Iowa, where he won the state’s Mr. Basketball award in 2021. Tucker DeVries won back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year awards in 2023 and 2024 at the same time Darian won the league’s Coach of the Year honor.

As a freshman in 2021-22, DeVries won MVC Freshman of the Year as he averaged 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds. He got better each year, and averaged 21.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 44% from the field in 2023-24 to repeat as the Larry Bird Trophy winner.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

After news broke of West Virginia’s decision to hire Darian DeVries as its next head coach, The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman reported Tucker was likely to join him. That is now the case, and he will spend his last year of eligibility playing for his father in Morgantown.

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.

Under Eilert this past season, West Virginia struggled mightily. The Mountaineers 9-23 overall and 4-14 in Big 12 play. They looked like one of the big winners in the transfer portal before Huggins’ departure, but 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. That led the program to Darian DeVries, who is now officially bringing Tucker with him.