Indiana names West Virginia’s Darian DeVries as new coach

Indiana has hired West Virginia’s Darian DeVries as the new coach of the men’s basketball program, the school announced Tuesday.

DeVries will receive a six-year deal with the school, sources told ESPN.

DeVries joins the Hoosiers after spending just one season with the Mountaineers. He was hired last March to replace interim coach Josh Eilert, who had taken over for Bob Huggins following his resignation in June 2023. In his lone season at the helm, DeVries led West Virginia to a 19-13 overall record, finishing 10-10 in the Big 12, before the Mountaineers were snubbed on Selection Sunday.

“This is unquestionably one of the top jobs in America,” DeVries said in a statement. “As someone who grew up in the Midwest loving the game of basketball, I’ve always admired the IU Basketball program for its championship-level success, tradition, and fan support. There’s a passion to succeed at the very highest levels both within the Big Ten and in the NCAA Tournament, and that’s a desire that as a coach I share.”

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DeVries signed a five-year deal when he was hired at West Virginia, and the total buyout is expected to cost $6.15 million — $4.67 million from his basketball contract in addition to other expenses, per the deal, such as paying the buyout from Drake that West Virginia paid and other expenses incurred in his hiring.

Prior to taking over in Morgantown, DeVries was the head coach at Drake for six seasons, guiding the Bulldogs to three NCAA tournament appearances in his final four seasons. He went 150-55 at Drake, winning at least 20 games every season. The Bulldogs won the Missouri Valley regular-season championship in 2019 and the conference tournament title in 2023 and 2024.

Drake won a First Four game in the 2021 NCAA tournament and lost in the first round to Miami in 2023 and Washington State last year.

“We went into this coaching search with some very specific things we were looking for in our next head coach, and Darian emerged as someone who, on paper, met and often exceeded our criteria,” athletic director Scott Dolson said in a statement. “Once we had a chance to talk to him, we knew we had the right person. Darian has a plan for building a championship culture that can compete at the highest level on a year-in, year-out basis. He has extensive D-1 coaching experience that includes 15 trips to the NCAA Tournament as a head coach or as an assistant.”

DeVries spent 20 seasons on staff at Creighton before becoming a head coach, including 17 years as an assistant coach under Dana Altman and Greg McDermott.

At Indiana, he replaces Mike Woodson, who announced in early February that he would step down at the end of his fourth season in Bloomington. Woodson, a former Indiana star, led the Hoosiers to the NCAA tournament in each of his first two seasons but has dealt with speculation surrounding his future for most of the past two seasons. Indiana missed the NCAA tournament in 2024 and 2025, being named one of the first four teams left out of this year’s field.

DeVries will take over a program in desperate need of consistent success. The Hoosiers, one of the all-time winningest programs in college basketball and a program with five national championships, have advanced past the first weekend of the NCAA tournament just three times since reaching the national championship game in 2002. They have missed six of the past eight NCAA tournaments, under three different coaches.

DeVries’ son, Tucker, has been at the heart of much of DeVries’ head coaching success, earning the Missouri Valley Player of the Year award in 2023 and 2024 before following him to West Virginia. He played just eight games for the Mountaineers this season before missing the rest of the campaign with an upper-body injury. The school is expected to apply for a medical redshirt, which would give him one more year of eligibility — potentially at Indiana.

One player who Indiana likely won’t have under Darian DeVries: Malik Reneau. The junior forward, who averaged a team-best 13.3 points per game this season, announced on social media that he was entering the transfer portal.