Are They the Favorites?
(St. Louis, MO) – Drake’s Darian DeVries is enjoying unparalleled success as Drake’s head coach. During his first four seasons the Bulldogs have won 95 games, one conference championship and he has accumulated two Valley Coach of the Year awards.
His roster is likely to be the league favorite and is filled with veterans. Drake returners have accumulated a lot of Missouri Valley Conference hardware. Guards Roman Penn, D.J. Wilkins and Garrett Sturtz are utilizing their ‘covid year’ to grow their Des Moines legacy and sophomore wing Tucker DeVries will likely be the league’s preseason ‘Player of the Year’.
Penn and Wilkins have battled injuries, but when healthy they have been highly productive. The 6’1 Penn has been named to all-league teams three times in three seasons, including being named to the Valley all-newcomer team in 2020. While Wilkins landed on the all-freshman team of 2019, last season he was named to the all-defensive team.
Sturtz is the picture of exceeding expectations. As a college walk-on he has been named to two, all-bench team honors and last season was a Valley second-team all-star. Oh, and he earned a scholarship.
The younger DeVries is poised to be a dominant type of Valley player. Last season he was the league’s outstanding freshman and was named to the MVC all-newcomer team and was second-team honoree.
Are they the favorites? DeVries pushes those notions away, but he likes his team.
Here is our entire conversation with Darian DeVries, Wilkins, Sturtz and Tucker DeVries.
The Bulldogs open the season with a home game against IUPUI.
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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.
