Of course, Dan has opinions about Indiana hiring Darian DeVries as its latest basketball coach. He likes the hire and says just get in there and get to it. "It's not about former player, or candy stripes. It's about leadership and winning."
Dan Dakich has opinions about the hiring of Darian DeVries as Indiana basketball coach
- Thread starter Jim Coyle
- Start date
I always want the IU coach to be a student of the game. That DeVries has learned from Altman and McDermott is a sign of that. I guess Knight made me look at that factor. He always sought out mentors as he climbed the ranks.
Idk if DeVries studies different ways to play the game (are there any these days?). I always liked how Knight would bring in Classic opponents who played differently than we were used to seeing. He would actually, on his weekly show, talk about how the fans would enjoy watching the way Pete Carril’s Princeton team plays.
Anyway, I think this new Coach will be fine. He has a coaching pedigree, respects the game, and has had good success.
Idk if DeVries studies different ways to play the game (are there any these days?). I always liked how Knight would bring in Classic opponents who played differently than we were used to seeing. He would actually, on his weekly show, talk about how the fans would enjoy watching the way Pete Carril’s Princeton team plays.
Anyway, I think this new Coach will be fine. He has a coaching pedigree, respects the game, and has had good success.
Nah....He's Archie Miller 2.0. The eyebrows are a dead giveaway.
I agree I think he'll do well here. Imo he's a Painter, Underwood level coach. Not great but good. He'll win a lot of games. At the very least we shouldn't be on the bubble every year.
Made it to about the 5 min mark and just couldn't finish it. Can't believe I used to religiously listen to him when he was on locally.
People forget that Knight first faced drastic opposition from IU alumni because he insisted on emphasizing defense (which slows down the game) and insisted on getting a "good shot" (which in the days before three-pointers meant either a seven-foot jump shot or layup).
Then. ... Knight's teams started winning with this new boring strategy. Fans eventually came around to it.
If Devries wins a bunch of games, no one will care what system he uses.
Can't do it, man. Mixing IU hoops and political opinions just kills it for me.
He had teams leading the conference in offense in many years and was scoring over 80 points per game in the 70s, which was fairly common but not inefficient.
Yes, he implemented a hard nosed defensive style that impacted every level of basketball, but that didn't mean the offense was boring or that it was inefficient or lackluster.
That's a stupid f*cking narrative.. seriously dumb AF. But that what fans do, say dumb shit. Slap yourself in the face for writing it ..
Indiana motion was a highly efficient offense and when it cooked it sure in the hell wasn't boring.
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He would take the air out though with the four corners with many minutes to go.
Remember the one against Kentucky, with Isaiah. Ran the slowdown for quite awhile then Thomas threw a back door alley oop. (Tolbert?) And the dunk was so thunderous it came out, lol. We lost. Reporter thought Coach would be upset with the shot selection after running the slowdown, and he said something like "can't ask for better than a 6 inch shot". Lol
Remember the one against Kentucky, with Isaiah. Ran the slowdown for quite awhile then Thomas threw a back door alley oop. (Tolbert?) And the dunk was so thunderous it came out, lol. We lost. Reporter thought Coach would be upset with the shot selection after running the slowdown, and he said something like "can't ask for better than a 6 inch shot". Lol
When Knight was hired our fanbase thought his "deliberate" offense meant slow, not running the offense until you had a good, high percentage shot. We learned.
I think we owe it to ourselves to connect Dakich up with all the WVU fans who claim DeVries and Dolson both decided to flush their respective seasons down the toilet back in 2024 and “conspire” to make this hire happen when both programs still had justifiable hopes of making the 2025 tournament. The mutual contempt between DD and Mountaineer fans would be quite the cage match.
But it wasn't the "Hurrying Hoosiers" style that many IU fans were used to, and they criticized him for it, until they noticed that he was winning.
I saw IU beat Iowa at Assembly Hall doing that in a very close game.
We got a five point lead with about 12 minutes to go, and Iowa was playing a very good 1-2-2 zone with 6-9 Ed Horton serving as the "1" way out at the top of the key. We couldn't do anything against it and even had trouble passing around the perimeter, because he was so tall and quick.
Knight had IU hold the ball continuously, barely even passing it from 12 minutes to go to five minutes to go -- no shots during that time. Imagine that -- 7 straight minutes of basically just standing there. Finally George Raveling had Iowa break out if the zone and we stretched out the lead and won.
Yep it was Ray Lee. He was so distraught himself Knight didn’t even yell at him.
Has he ever explained what happened with his two day head coaching experience there?
Devries is just a smart, good old farm boy who will insist on executing the fundamentals.
This will take some adjustment, particularly with the younger crowd, who prefer out-of-control play, double-digit turnovers, Tik-Tok dance routines, self promotion, seeing 2 big guys on the floor at the same time where one of them stands around and watches, continued 3 point shots by players who think they are channeling their inner Stef Curry and continue to brick shot after shot.
Many only know the last 8 years of IU basketball under the direction of the little guy and Bigfoot. So, this will be a bit of culture shock.
His son will be more curry than anyone we have had in the last 8 years. I don't think there is a single person on this board that doesn't remember the Crean years.
Honestly, this is the most positive thing I’ve heard from you about IU basketball. Good job.
The Hoosiers were ranked number 250 this season in free-throw percentage at just about 70%. Their field goal percentage was ranked 175. Regardless of what system Woody used his teams could not shoot the basketball. qualitatively they sucked. Hell, the Hoosiers had a starting guard who shot 60% from the free-throw line. They sucked.
Been brought up many times, but I think the IU/UNLV final four game in ‘87 is a supreme example of it cooking by beating a team everyone said you couldn’t run with, especially with a team of inferior athletic ability. IU 97 UNLV 93.
I don’t know about that….there are some who have really softened on Crean here and talk about him as being a very good coach. Dakich even said something to the effect that he shouldn’t have been fired.
People forget what a roller coaster things were from 2012-2017. Big Ten championships followed by shit seasons.
