(St. Louis, MO) – The ancient proverb, “the diligent hand will prosper…” has become true where Darian DeVries is concerned. He has landed his dream job. DeVries is the Drake University basketball coach. He had applied, applied and applied. The long-time Creighton assistant was all-in and now he is on staff!
When Niko Medved left Drake for Colorado State, DeVries immediately texted University President Marty Martin and said, “I’m still all-in!”
Martin and Director of Athletics, Brian Hardin wanted to interview DeVries first, so they could measure every other candidate by him. He was their first choice, because his desire wasn’t about becoming a head coach, but to become the Drake head coach.
Hardin told fans and assembled media that the 42-year-old coach’s characteristics meshed perfectly to their pre-arranged criteria.
DeVries, a native Iowan, played college basketball at the Missouri Valley’s Northern Iowa and has spent the last 20 years on the staff at Creighton. Thirteen of those years were while Creighton was in the MVC. His career spanned that of both former Valley Coach of the Year Dana Altman and current coach Greg McDermott.
Since the Drake job is the one that he has always wanted, DeVries arrives with great passion and excitement. Why Drake? Because he loves his home state and believes, the people of Iowa in general and of Des Moines, in particular are a special breed. Values, culture, commitment, loyalty are all things DeVries believes are special in Des Moines and what he wants for his family.
While coaching at Creighton, the Bluejays played postseason basketball 19 times, 12 of those appearances were in the NCAA Tournament. DeVries says that kind of success can happen at Drake. As a visiting player he experienced the intensity of the ‘Dog Pound’ and Knapp Center at a high level. DeVries believes that intense environment can happen on a consistent basis. Drawing on the recent success experienced by Loyola, DeVries says there can be significant success at Drake.
DeVries loved working at Creighton, and because of Bluejay success, he had opportunities to pursue head coaching in other places, but he had targeted Drake. The desire for a promotion was not more important to him than working in a place he knew would be good for his family and a good fit for him professionally. Because of those priorities, he targeted Drake.
He is hopeful that Medved’s recruits will stick around. He is honoring all the scholarship offers and yet giving those players that desire to be released, the freedom to do so. There will be numerous roster spots to fill and roster turnover is normal during coaching changes. DeVries says he is looking forward to getting to know the current players and future recruits in the coming weeks.
Admitting Creighton ‘stole players’ from the State of Iowa, DeVries says recruiting the ‘Hawkeye State’ is vital. Since Des Moines is the largest city in the State, he will start his recruiting there, but as he notes, Iowa is bordered by six other the states with some outstanding basketball talent.
DeVries says the prep coaches in Iowa are outstanding and high school graduates in the state are often ‘college ready’.
Building his staff is a high priority, but he wants to build wisely and build a coaching staff with great chemistry. Editor: One name that has surfaced over and over as someone joining the staff is that of Matt Woodley. The former Bulldog player, NBDL coach and recently a part of Kevin Stallings’ staff at Pittsburgh has great ties to the area as an Iowa native (Waukee High School) and was an outstanding Bulldog. He also worked with national Coach of the Year, Tony Bennett (at Washington State) and was the head coach at a Division 2 school, Truman State University.
DeVries has a massive job before him. Five seniors are graduating out of the program. Red-shirt junior Casey Schlatter is leaving and the status of the six recruits is up in the air.
If passion for the community and commitment to a particular place are good measuring sticks, then DeVries and Drake will be fine.
They seem to be ‘All In’.
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As we near the closing of the portal window, we've reached 1900. Some of them never to play college basketball again, earn a college degree and some to play at a much lower level than they did last season.
I guess we'll be seeing this in a @RacersHoops uniform this year. Glad AJ is staying in the @ValleyHoops.
