by: Justin Walker
Per Jon Rothstein with CBS Sports and Pete Thamel of ESPN, among other media outlets, the Iowa Hawkeyes are moving on from head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery.
According to some of those same media outlets, West Virginia coach Darian DeVries is at or near the top of the list to replace McCaffery in Iowa City. With DeVries being an Iowa native, it has Mountaineer fans nervous that he may jump at the opportunity to return home, which would mean WVU Athletic Director Wren Baker conducting his second coaching search in as many years since Bob Huggins was forced to resign following his DUI arrest in the Summer of 2023.
While DeVries attended Northern Iowa and never played or coached for the Hawkeyes, he grew up in Iowa. He is a native of Aplington, Iowa, which is less than two hours from Iowa City. Most of DeVries’ family still resides in Iowa and until he took the job at West Virginia, he had spent his entire career coaching in the Midwest.
He started his career as an assistant at Creighton in 2001. He held that role for 17 years before going back to the state of Iowa to become the head coach at Drake in 2018. He led the Bulldogs to 20 wins or more in each of his six seasons before taking the job at West Virginia. He compiled a record of 150-55 at Drake in his six seasons as head coach. He also won an MVC conference title in his first season and went to three NCAA Tournaments.
At West Virginia, he had to rebuild the entire roster. He took over a program that had won only nine games the previous season and returned only one scholarship player. His son Tucker, who had followed him to Morgantown, played only eight games for WVU before missing the rest of the season with an injury. Despite missing the reigning MVC Player of the Year for most of the season, DeVries’ Mountaineer squad won 19 games and appears to be headed to the NCAA Tournament.
Assuming DeVries is interested in the Iowa job, it won’t be cheap for the Hawkeyes to lure him away. DeVries signed a five year deal with the Mountaineers worth an average of $3 million per year. His buyout would be 37.5% of his remaining contract amount, or, approximately $4.5 million. That would be in addition to his salary.
How badly does Darian DeVries or his family want to go back home? Can Iowa pay him enough to lure him away from West Virginia? Can Iowa commit to the level of financial support DeVries will want to be competitive? All of these are questions that will play a factor into DeVries’ decision if he’s offered the job.
At the end of the day, this could be DeVries’ agent using the Iowa job as leverage to get him a more lucrative contract. Or, there could be legitimate interest in the job from the DeVries side. Either way, WVU fans will be sweating over the next several days or possibly weeks. As for Wren Baker, I think it’s safe to say he will do whatever he can to keep DeVries in Morgantown for the foreseeable future.
