Darian DeVries needs a little time to build his first roster, and fans should be patient enough to allow that.
Take a deep breath.
That’s asking a lot from Indiana’s Basketball fanbase, but it is what’s required as IU’s new head coach tries to build Bloomington’s first significant winner in nearly a decade.
I know – it’s sad to refer to the 2016 Big 10 champ and Sweet 16 visitor as a “significant winner,” but it’s even sadder to have to harken back to 2002 as the last enjoyable season for the Hoosiers.
Darian DeVries is either going to swim or sink as the next great hope as a builder of this proud program. Filling the remaining 10 scholarship vacancies left by grads and petulant youngsters who bolted tomorrow or Monday is not going to determine whether IU improves upon the 10-10 Big 10 records in 2024 & 2025.
Getting the SS Hoosier squared away and steaming into into victorious waters might take a year – or it might take two. The portal makes a quick rebuild possible, but resetting the culture away from an NBA/NIL way station toward win-first, earn second is going to require some grinding.
People blame Indiana fans for the nine straight disappointing seasons, and I believe that is spurious and unfair. While fans have become cranky and quick to call for the ax for coaches and players after nine years of blah results, they haven’t been the coach who played absurd combinations of players together or players who missed inumerable defensive assignments. At the same time, fans sure haven’t helped IU succeed either.
[I’m not going to mention the wing-nut contingent on social media that hurl ugly racial epithets at players. They are beyond help and hopefully feel some measure of shame in their hate-filled hearts.]
The sane fans can be sure that DeVries will do what is needed to get competitive players who will fit together and play winning basketball. Players will come, and they will work hard to represent Indiana University, Bloomington, and the state of Indiana. That is DeVries goal, and we should expect that he will deliver.
There is no point in talking about the consequences for failure. They have been visited on the two coaches who preceded DeVries, and no one wants to see another four-year chunk of mediocre basketball leading to another reset
IU Basketball needs to lift itself into the upper-echelon of the Big 10, and it is DeVries job to get that done – as Pat Kelsey did in Louisville, Mark Pope did at Kentucky, and Michigan did under Dusty May. The portal and NIL make it possible, and there are other reasons this historic program can return there:
Alignment – There has rarely been alignment for Indiana University regarding the need for athletic success, but IU President Pamela Whitten and AD Scott Dolson appear to be rowing in rhythm and in the same direction. Former presidents Michael McRobbie and Adam Herbert appeared ambivalent at best regarding meaningful athletic success. University alignment is required for winning.
Hire not for headlines – There is a significant chunk of the IU student body and fanbase who had never heard of Darian DeVries prior to his hire, and even fewer who knew how to pronounce his first name (like Darren, the witch’s husband on Bewitched). This was a functional, not splashy hire – similar to Kelsey’s at Louisville (minus the pronunciation confusion).
Replate of roster – The last thing DeVries needed was a bunch of dead wood mediocres to infuse the new blood with instructions toward less work, more fun. The new players will look to coaches and the early commits to learn what being a Hoosier is, and even if fans disagree about everything else – you are with me that’s a good thing.
Focus on shooters – DeVries has not been successful in securing the services of every transfer prospect he has courted, but all were exceptional three-point shooters. IU’s heritage of using the longball to win games and championships dates back to Steve Alford, Jay Edwards, Calbert Cheaney, Kyle Hornsby, Jordan Hulls and many others. The recent abandonment of prioritizing the three has led to losses and frustration among fans.
One thing we know for sure is that having a hair trigger for impatient and angry criticism is not going to help DeVries attract the talent all IU fans believe should pledge Hoosiers.
Just as you did for football last year with Curt Cignetti – take a deep breath. There are seven months until the first IU season under DeVries. Let’s allow the guy a few months of grace before losing your mind and calling for another change.
Dolson got it right with Cignetti, and there is a chance he can win a hire for basketball in the same way.