By: Shanna Rose
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.–This week has been a whirlwind of emotions for West Virginia basketball fans and staff members, capped off by the loss of head coach Darian DeVries.
Now, Wren Baker is off to the races to find a new head coach for the men’s basketball team. Coaching searches are all too familiar to the WVU Athletic Director.
“First of all, I want to say thank you to our team this year,” Baker began. “I thought they did a really good job, the players, our coaches and that includes coach DeVries. They won 19 games, won 10 Big 12 games, and I felt like we laid a really solid foundation in year one and I’m very proud of them.
“I was prepared to continue to invest in the program, and I am prepared to do that. We are going to be competitive in (revenue) share, competitive in (Name, Image and Likeness) and competitive in budget. Coach DeVries and I had several conversations, and we were prepared to invest in him and his staff. We had been talking about that for several weeks, and I felt good about the plan, but ultimately, he made the decision to leave for another institution.
“I am at peace that we were aggressive in trying to retain him, and I recognize that it’s not my decision to make. He gets to make that, so we wish him well, and my job now is to focus on our student-athletes, on our program and on our fans.”
Only Jonathan Powell has announced his plans to enter the transfer portal and Baker urges the current members of the team to give the new head coach a shot. Baker strives to find a coach that is committed to the players, the school and the state of West Virginia.
“We have a great basketball tradition,” he said. “We’ve been to 31 NCAA Tournaments, 11 Sweet 16s and two Final Fours. We’ve got tremendous fans who make our home court one of the best advantages in the country, and that’s not me saying that (advanced analytics confirms it).
“And the No. 1 thing is we have some of the best people in the world, and they deserve a coach and a program that they can be proud of,” he added.
In DeVries’ first year with the Mountaineers, the team won 19 games and was just on the brink of making the NCAA Tournament.
With the past success of the basketball program, incredible fan base, top tier basketball facilities and a successful NIL program, Baker is certain WVU will be a prime job for coaches. The program will return to what it has been.
It has been reported DeVries’ buyout is more than $4.6 million, but it will exceed $6 million because it will also include the Mountaineers’ portion of his buyout from Drake last year.
“I feel commitments should work both ways, and people have asked me, ‘Do you wish the buyout was higher?’ It’s a pretty high buyout,” Baker said. “I’m not aware of anyone paying a bigger one.
“In addition to the buyout, we had a date in there that if he left before April 30, he also owed us our up-front costs, which included some moving costs, maybe a sign-on bonus and what we had to pay Drake to hire him,” he said. “So, if there is a bigger number out there, I haven’t seen it. I’ve asked a couple of national media guys, and they can’t recall a bigger one for a men’s basketball coach. Ultimately, we’ll have that coming into us and that will give us a chance to have something to work with as we embark upon this search.”
The disappointment from DeVries’ one-and-done season at WVU is felt by everyone from players to fans to school staff. Baker isn’t necessarily going for someone with ties to the state or university. He wants to find the best match for everyone.
“Human nature is to think, ‘Oh, we have to get someone who is connected to here’ and I just think your job is to go out and get the best coach that you can,” he said. “You want to have coaches who other people covet and want to come after. The alternative to that is nobody wants your coach, and that’s not very good.
“There are coaches who maybe have ties to here and you are still at risk of losing them,” he said. “I don’t know that you change your profile very much. I do think this is a place about fit, and we spend a lot of time in the search process hammering that away, I almost feel like sometimes too much.”
Baker reiterated that it is an honor to coach for the Mountaineers and the state.
“This is a great community, it’s a great state and it’s filled with some of the best people that I have ever had a chance to know,” he said. “The next coach here is going to be extremely fortunate and lucky to be our coach, and hopefully they come in here and put down roots.”
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
