New West Virginia men’s basketball head coach Darian DeVries was on the College Hoops Today Podcast with Jon Rothstein and spoke on building a roster and the challenges that came with it.
After a disappointing season in 2023-2024 under interim head coach Josh Eilert, the Mountaineers began a head coaching search. Eventually, they hired DeVries, who had a boatload of success at Drake after being an assistant under Greg McDermott at Creighton for several seasons. Many former WVU players entered the transfer portal after the season, leaving DeVries in a challenging spot to build a roster that could compete in the Big 12.
“I think the one advantage that you have now vs maybe five years ago, is you do have the luxury with the portal to go out and get a team put together pretty quickly,” DeVries said when asked what is was like putting together a power conference roster from ‘scratch’. “I think five years ago it takes a lot longer if you don’t have a lot of guys on the roster to kind of rebuild. I feel like the roster we have right now, I like them, I like the way they play, I like the way they fit together. Excited to watch them grow throughout this summer and fall.”
With Ofri Naveh and Aden Tagloa-Nelson being the only returning West Virginia players from last year, DeVries had to do a lot of work in the portal. He added eight transfers thus far, including his son Tucker DeVries, who was a two-time Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year at Drake.
“I think there are parts of it that are easier just knowing you got someone (Tucker) that understands your system and obviously he understands it as well as anybody,” DeVries said when asked if the adjustment period is easier knowing he had Tucker joining him in Morgantown. “Just having someone like that, that you can bring along with you is a great starting piece to the roster you’re putting together. Well, it is a nice luxury to have. Certainly excited for him and our opportunity together for his senior year.”
Along with building a roster, DeVries had to build a staff to help him build his roster as he continued to piece together the puzzle of taking over a program. However, he said that he likes the way it has been coming together and is eager to see what they can accomplish.
“I really like the way it’s coming together, took us a while to get going as we were putting a staff together and getting our roster started through the portal and things. I do really like it, I think we got great chemistry, I think the pieces all fit well together,” DeVries said about his team.”As I mentioned I think we do have an opportunity to have a very competitive team and a team I know is hungry and a lot of guys are looking forward to the challenges that we’re going to see every night.”
One addition to the staff that helped DeVries bring in two players was the hiring of Chester Frazier as associate head coach. Frazier previously was at Illinois and helped bring in Amani Hansberry and Sencire Harris, who he coached while with the Fighting Illini and recruited out of high school. Rothstein asked DeVries specifically about Hansberry, who was just a freshman last season and a highly-touted transfer.
“I really like him, first of all he’s a tremendous kid, he works unbelievably hard and we can play him at multiple positions,” DeVries said of Hansberry. “He’s had a great start to the summer and I think it’s only going to continue to get better as his confidence grows and he gets more comfortable playing out and on the perimeter and playing in space. I like his physicality and his motor on top of that. I think you’re right (Rothstein), I think he has a chance to have a breakout year for us and certainly looking forward to what he can do this upcoming winter.”
Besides individuals, as he also mentioned before, DeVries feels good about the roster he has right now. It’ll be a challenge to compete in the Big 12 and build team chemistry among players who haven’t played together before as well as players who haven’t played at the high major level before, but it is one DeVries, his staff and players feel right-minded about.
“I think we’ve had a good collection of them (players), without going through the whole roster, I think a lot of them have done some really nice things,” DeVries said when asked if any other players stood out to him. “Picking out one right now is probably too much. Everyone has a good day or bad day here and there, but certainly excited about the group in general.”
