West Virginia has DeVries in place, but now work begins
West Virginia has their new head coach in Darian DeVries.
Now, the next questions will turn to the construction of both his coaching staff and what the Mountaineers roster is going to look like this coming season.
As far as staffing, DeVries's three assistants at Drake were Marty Richter, Tom Ostrom and Brent Crews. It remains unclear if those three will construct the staff in Morgantown but it’s at least a starting point.
Richter is currently the interim coach at Drake with DeVries departing and has been with the program since 2018 after two successful seasons as the head coach at Florida SouthWestern State College going 56-10. The Drake website outlines that Richter has been a key component in the Bulldog’s success and his work with the post players has shown to be integral.
Ostrom joined the staff in 2022 after a four-year stint as the associate head coach at Indiana while Crews was hired in 2023 after three years at Arkansas State.
Coaches typically go with what they know, and the ties are there, but the pool won’t be limited to just those three as DeVries also will be able to look at options outside the Drake umbrella, too. This will play out over the next couple of weeks but will be a critical step as DeVries looks to build his program.
The roster is up next and currently, the Mountaineers have potentially 10 scholarship players on board for next season. Now, that does include forward Quinn Slazinski who would require a waiver and it’s unclear if he would return if he receives it and the lone recruit signed under Josh Eilert’s previous coaching staff in true freshman Carmelo Adkins.
The rest of the scholarship players that could return includes senior guard Kerr Kriisa, senior forward Patrick Suemnick, senior guard Noah Farrakhan, senior guard Kobe Johnson, senior guard Seth Wilson, junior forward Josiah Harris, sophomore forward Ofri Naveh and freshman guard Jeremiah Bembry.
It remains to be seen how the roster reconstruction goes but there are certainly some pieces there that could prove useful for DeVries in his first year in Morgantown. That process will likely play out once DeVries makes it to Morgantown and starts the process of meeting with players to sort out a plan.
It goes without saying that the roster at Drake also will be included as potential possibilities and a report has already indicated that the Mountaineers will be adding at least one major piece from there in DeVries son Tucker DeVries. The 6-foot-7 guard, forward is a major addition considering he is coming off back-to-back Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year selections.
DeVries averaged 21.6 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.6 assists for the Bulldogs this past season and 18.6 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game the year prior. He will have one year left.
Others that could possibly be at least on the radar, could include freshman Kevin Overton who averaged 11.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per game and junior guard Atin Wright who averaged 14.1 points and shot over 40-percent from three just to name a few after both entered the portal Monday.
West Virginia also will likely use the transfer portal for other targets outside that umbrella to fill major holes across the board and there is always the option to add late high school targets, too. DeVries has typically built his program and culture through high school recruiting but the step up to the Big 12 is going to likely force some adjustments at least in year one with the portal becoming more of a factor.
The first domino in this process has now fallen, but there’s a lot of work left to do.
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