by: Justin Walker
Thursday, former WVU men’s basketball coach, Darian DeVries, sat down with Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. As part of the interview, DeVries discussed his journey to becoming the coach of the Indiana Hoosiers, which included spending last season leading the WVU program. Below are some of the comments DeVries made about his time in Morgantown.
Reflecting on his growth as a coach after a season in the Big 12, DeVries emphasized the need for constant evolution:
“Hopefully you change every 12 months as a head coach. It’s just something that you always want to continue to evolve. I thought our year last year at West Virginia was certainly one that we felt like we had a really good season, unfortunately got left out of the NCAA tournament, but we had a great group of guys that gave us all they had the entire year, and was really proud of the season that they had put together. Every league is different, no matter what level you’re at, you just got to adapt to the league you’re in, and you learn that a little bit on the fly, especially in your first year, of what things work in your league, what things don’t, what things do you got to tweak a little bit, so those are the things that, as a coach, you continue to try to evolve, not only year to year, but maybe even game to game.”
The Heartbreak of Selection Sunday
One of the most poignant moments of DeVries’ tenure at West Virginia was the team’s controversial exclusion from the 2025 NCAA Tournament. He described the emotional weight of coaching a team on the bubble and the shock of missing the cut:
“To be quite honest with you, I’ve been doing this long enough, we understand, like, when you’re on the bubble and things and what that means, that everybody’s disappointed when you don’t get in when you’re one of those last four teams. This year was different though because there wasn’t really anybody within our circle, certainly, that felt like we weren’t going to get in. We had kind of a private selection show party at my house with the team and administration and families and things, so that was the last thing on our mind was us not making it. It was more like, are we going to be able to avoid Dayton was probably our bigger concern. So then, as it gets later into that bracket, and it’s like, uh oh, because there was, when we got to that last bracket, I knew there was a couple other teams that I felt like were probably for sure in, and there weren’t enough spots left, and then to be left out, I thought was just really disappointing. I still don’t, to be honest with you, quite understand how or why with the resume we had. You have to live with it, but I just felt so bad for our group because we had an awesome group of guys, especially those seniors that didn’t get another opportunity. I thought we had some guys that really put a lot into that year, and they just wanted to play in the NCAA tournament, and I thought they deserved to do that.”
The Emotional Decision to Leave for Indiana
Just 48 hours after the Selection Sunday disappointment, DeVries faced a life-changing decision: the opportunity to coach at Indiana, a dream job. He described the emotional complexity of leaving West Virginia:
“That was hard. I mean, because you get through that Sunday night, and there’s a lot of emotions going through your head, and most of it’s concerning your team. I just felt so bad for those seniors because it just caught us off guard that we weren’t going to be playing on that stage, and I wanted that so bad for them. So, then, those next 24 to 48 hours when your season’s kind of officially over, and now you got some decisions to make and thought process to go through, so those are always difficult, and ultimately decided to come here to Indiana, and it’s just one of those jobs that’s, for when you get into this coaching profession, for me at least, it’s one of those dream jobs and dream places that you get a chance to lead this program, and we’re certainly looking forward as we continue to get started here with these June workouts and in the future that lies ahead.”
DeVries noted that the Indiana opportunity became a reality late in the process:
“I’m not really sure. I mean, a lot of that, the last week of the season, as it goes through, your agents are doing most of that communication and things, so you just never really know until it’s right there, and that, like you said, that last 48 hours is when it started to become more of a reality of, like, hey, here’s this opportunity for you and what does that look like, and it’s one of those things, like, the timing of it, after being there just one year at West Virginia, and we had just a lot of great support from the administration, the people, so it was certainly a place that you weren’t looking to leave by any means. It was a place that we were very happy, we had an enjoyable first year, and we’re looking forward to the future together, but ultimately just felt like the Indiana job was just a job you couldn’t pass up, and that’s where the decision came from.”
Conversations with West Virginia’s Administration
Leaving West Virginia required difficult conversations, particularly with Athletic Director Wren Baker, who had given DeVries his first Power 5 opportunity:
“Wren’s a terrific AD, and certainly thankful for the opportunity he gave me, and their entire administration, Ben Murray, I worked with a lot too, but that, it’s not an easy conversation, it’s certainly something we had talked about the two days there of what it looked like and the decision-making process, so I thought Wren was great about it. He certainly was disappointed, but I thought he gave me every opportunity to look at it and consider it, and ultimately though, we decided that I was going to take the Indiana job, but he was great about it, very professional about it, as you would expect.”
I doubt this interview will do anything to make WVU fans forgive DeVries for the way he left West Virginia. However, it was good to see him finally speak publicly and positively about his time in Morgantown. It was especially good to hear him speak highly of the players who fought hard through a challenging Big 12 season.
Photo Credit: WVU Athletics
