Darian DeVries: The offense
A deep dive into the offensive philosophy and system of new Indiana coach Darian DeVries
Photo: Andrew Wevers/GettyImages
It’s been a while. Things always get crazy in March, but in the time I was gone, Indiana found its new coach in the 49-year-old Darian DeVries.
An interesting hire, one that wasn’t many’s (mine included) top choice, but as time has passed, the grumblings coming out of Assembly Hall echo that DeVries is who Indiana athletic director Scott Dolson wanted all along.
Since he’s been hired, the Aplington, Iowa, native has been growing on me, but there are still concerns regarding his lack of NCAA Tournament success and lack of high-major experience aside from this previous year at West Virginia. His 19 wins in his first season with the Mountaineers were the first time he had totaled less than 20 wins in his head coaching career, which dates back to 2018.
Still, from an Xs and Os standpoint and based on his current trajectory at under 50 years old, there’s a lot to like about DeVries.
Here we’ll look at DeVries’ offensive philosophies and staples and try to relate them to an Indiana basketball program that hopes to be kick-started in 2025-26.
DeVries comes from an excellent coaching tree. After playing at Northern Iowa, he joined the Creighton men’s basketball program as a graduate manager and then was named an assistant in 2001, where he stayed until 2018 when he was named the head coach at Drake. He coached under two of the brighter offensive minds with the Blue Jays: Dana Altman and Greg McDermott.
The 2024-25 season was unusual for DeVries as his offense lagged behind the defense. Likely due to the crucial absence of his son, Tucker (will be joining him in the cream and crimson), who only played in eight games but was a heavy focal point as a primary handler and shot creator. The 6-foot-7 sharpshooter only played in eight games, averaging 14.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 47.3 percent from distance.
Two years ago, Indiana was in the same bracket pod as Drake, and I got to watch DeVries’ bulldogs battle a tough Miami (FL) team that slammed IU in the second round en route to a final four. I watched that game next to Brian Walsh, who, at the time, was scouting for IU’s staff. Drake didn’t shoot the ball well that game, only scoring 56 points, and the Bulldogs only scored one point for the remaining 4:38 of the game when they had an eight-point lead. The point is that Tucker went 1-of-11 from 3 that game, but I remember coach Walsh saying over and over again how good he thought the looks Drake was getting were.
When you think of DeVries’ offense, a few things come to mind: wing movement, sharing the ball, and capitalizing on early offense opportunities.
DeVries’ offense uses a ton of slip/ghost screens. Here are two examples from that Miami (FL) game when he was at Drake.
His team’s spacing is so good. You see that in these clips as well. If you watch any game from last season at West Virginia or recently at Drake, you’ll see his teams use a ton of off-ball screens and cutting movements. All with the goal of creating advantage situations for the offense and moving the ball to the open man.
Something that jumps out is the meaningful movement. There’s intent behind every pass and every cut. These actions are forceful, not lazy. DeVries’ teams RUN the offense, they don’t walk it.
In five of DeVries’ seven seasons as a head coach, his teams have had an effective field goal percentage that’s top-100 in the country, and in his four last seasons at Drake, his teams were some of the best in the nation at taking care of the basketball, top-40 to be exact. In 2024 and 2021, they were 13th in offensive turnover percentage. Even this past season, in Big 12 play, the Mountaineers had the third-best offensive turnover percentage in the league. For teams with the amount of off-ball movement and passing as he does, this is extremely impressive.
If you look at the numbers, again, outside of this past year, which seems to be kind of an anomaly, his teams have shot the basketball extremely well. Contrary to popular belief, WVU’s personnel were not very talented last season, and they had poor depth. Getting a talented roster should not be a problem in Bloomington.
Those free-throw numbers are refreshing. Indiana has not shot better than 72 percent from the charity stripe since 2017, the last season of Tom Crean. And since Crean’s departure, there’s only been one season where Indiana has been in the top 200 in 3-point percentage — 2023 under Mike Woodson.
What’s also encouraging is that DeVries adjusts to his personnel. His teams that haven’t shot the ball well from deep don’t shoot a lot of 3s. His teams know how to take high-quality shots.
In every interview I’ve seen of DeVries, he’s said Hoosier fans can expect his teams to shoot and share the ball well, with it skipping around the perimeter, an occasional post-up and backdoor cut, and early/efficient offense.